Laterite question (please help)

[Amicus]

Last night I was setting the substrate up for my planted tank and had put in two 55 oz boxes (72g tank) of API laterite. The directions on the box said to rinse, so I did and the first round the water was like blood. I rinsed until I could see the laterite at the bottom of the bucket. This morning a friend said that I should not have rinsed it at all. The box said rinse, I took that to mean rinsing like sand or gravel. Did I mess up? :0

 

[mfdrookie516]

My flourite did the same. It will settle and you can use a gravel vac to get it clean after a week or so

 

[roydooms]

Heres a link from this forum about laterite. They said you should cap it with something and not use as a sole substrate. I'm not sure about this but I'll share it anyway...

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/red-cloudy-water-101579.html

 

[Amicus]

The laterite looked like red clay out of the box and that is what I pit in the bucket to rinse. When I put it in the tank the granules did not look like clay but like iron rusted gravel with no, what turned out to be red silt on them. Should I not have rinsed the laterite?

 

[Robert H]

Laterite is a type of soil made from rock that is stripped of all organic material and all minerals except iron and aluminum oxide. You can rinse it or not rinse it, it doesn't really matter, but it MUST be buried under gravel or sand or it will forever cloud your water. It is a substrate ADDITIVE not a stand alone substrate. You put it on the bottom of the tank underneath your substrate.

 

[Amicus]

Laterite is a type of soil made from rock that is stripped of all organic material and all minerals except iron and aluminum oxide. You can rinse it or not rinse it, it doesn't really matter, but it MUST be buried under gravel or sand or it will forever cloud your water. It is a substrate ADDITIVE not a stand alone substrate. You put it on the bottom of the tank underneath your substrate.

Robot H. Thank you. I was worried that I washed away the main components and I thought I was going to have to redo my substrate all over again. Wheeeeeew!