Rinsing Adventures w/ Black Flourite

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Rokuzachi

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Feb 9, 2011
Messages
625
Location
Texas
Ungh. How long did it take you guys to clean this stuff?

Since I couldn't find the sand version, I picked up three 20lb bags of the gravel. I've been rinsing it for days now. Not entire days of course, but 1-2 hours a day for the last five days. At least I didn't get any super sharp stuff.

Starts out super muddy looking and eventually the water passing through it is a hazy grey. No matter how much I agitate, rinse, or blast it with water, there's always a hefty amount of silt that settles to the bottom of the container. I end up throwing out about 10% of each buckets worth because of that. I've been splitting each bag into quarters and washing the smaller amounts at a time but it's still taking to get to a 'mostly clean' state.

Any secrets to cleaning this stuff, or do I just need a lot of patience?
 
The method in the video isn't bad. I've washed my substrates that way, but I usually agitate the sand with my hands to get more silt out quicker. I've also heard that a cheap pillowcase makes a good strainer. Put 5lb of the gravel in the pillowcase and run water through it.

You're making me glad I cheaped out and went with the blasting compound. No washing needed really. I just had to skim some floaters and a tiny bit of silt off the top of the water in the tank.
 
Thanks for the tips guys.

I wish I would have tried the pillow case thing. I had some semi-fine screen and spare wood lying about too, maybe making a frame with screen on it would have worked since the silt in the fluorite gravel seems to clump and settle to the bottom quickly.
 
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