Chino1130
Aquarium Advice Activist
I started my first live tank yesterday. The lady at the pet store recommended me a good substrate. I guess it had a bunch of stuff in it that promotes good plant growth, I think it was called Super Naturals Premium Substrate.
This was the stuff:
On my artificial tanks, I would take the gravel and put it in a 5 gallon bucket. I'd run a cold hose to it and swirl it around. You could see all the crap come off as the water turned dirty. I'd let it over flow and occasionally dump it and refill it until the water was relatively clear. I did this process with this new substrate yesterday, and it was way dirtier, and took much longer to get clean than any of the other gravel I used in the past. It didn't occur to me until after I got the tank set up that I may have over done it. Was all that cloudy stuff the stuff that helps the plants grow? Did I clean it too much?
This was the stuff:
On my artificial tanks, I would take the gravel and put it in a 5 gallon bucket. I'd run a cold hose to it and swirl it around. You could see all the crap come off as the water turned dirty. I'd let it over flow and occasionally dump it and refill it until the water was relatively clear. I did this process with this new substrate yesterday, and it was way dirtier, and took much longer to get clean than any of the other gravel I used in the past. It didn't occur to me until after I got the tank set up that I may have over done it. Was all that cloudy stuff the stuff that helps the plants grow? Did I clean it too much?