Fluorite...sooo messy

[Visionist]

After having my tank set up for a bit and finally getting my t5 light I decided to add some plants. I'm now finding out that if I so much as blink at my red fluorite gravel it creates a storm. The tank walls are red, the driftwood has red, the plants have red powder on them. if I leave the substrate be the tank is clear but it is quite difficult to aquascape when I have to wait hours for the water to clear every time I move a plant. I'm really starting to regret getting the flourite. Does anyone have any ideas to make this better?

 

[Old Scales]

You need to treat Flourite like it was the dirt in a dirted tank. Put about a 2" cap of sand or fine gravel or Eco-like plant substrate on top of it to seal it off from the water. OS.

 

[Visionist]

You need to treat Flourite like it was the dirt in a dirted tank. Put about a 2" cap of sand or fine gravel or Eco-like plant substrate on top of it to seal it off from the water. OS.

It's my understanding that the fluorite will just surface over the cap eventually anyways?

 

[Old Scales]

Really? I wouldn't think it is lighter than potting soil. OS.

 

[Khuligirl93]

Are you sure one of you isn't talking about laterite?

 

[Visionist]

Im talking about fluorite. Nobody really caps it from what I understand

Sent from my LG G2 using Aquarium Advice mobile app.

 

[Khuligirl93]

Did you rinse it before you put it in the tank? It should settle down and clear up with water changes.

 

[Visionist]

I did rinse it, its been in the tank for a month or so now.

Sent from my LG G2 using Aquarium Advice mobile app.

 

[Old Scales]

OK I was thinking laterite, sorry. OS.

 

[misterc007]

I have red Flourite capped with plain gravel, about a 1.5 inch cap and it works fine. Lots of people cap Flourite either for cost savings or for issue's you have mentioned. Mine has been running for over 2 years, the gravel is still on top and I don't have any issues with it stirring up any mess when I move things around other then what you would normally expect. A gravel cap also allows you to lightly vacum that layer if you chose with out disturbing ferts or tabs you might have in the Flourite.

 

[CatoeSc]

I'm using brown fluorite. It will get better in time. In the meantime, get you some planting tweezers to minimize how much you move the substrate when you plant.

 

[Grumble69]

If you've got a storm of dust, you didn't wash it enough. The trick is to use a two stage approach.

Stage 1. Set-up a colander with a bucket underneath while working in small batches. You can wash about 80% of your fluorite pretty quickly this way (couple minutes per batch). I just let the water overflow in the bucket. The dirty water just has the fine particles you don't want anyway.

Stage 2. After the big pieces have been washed, I focus on the remaining 20% and give it a thorough washing using a finer mesh strainer. This is where all the stuff is that is messing up your water.

I've seen some sites that say to dry your washed fluorite in an oven. I didn't do that. When I put mine back into the tank, there was a slight milky haze in the water that eventually cleared. It definitely didn't look like a river bottom though. It was a lot of trouble, but I didn't want to have to deal with this every time something needed a little adjustment in my tank.

 

[CatoeSc]

I washed mine well, but not that well. I wish I'd read that before I set up. I got a lot of mine out with water changes.

 

[ArtistGardener]

I washed the hell out of mine then capped it with a 1 1/2" layer of small red flint gravel. It was still cloudy for weeks, but eventually cleared; that tank is crystal clear now. I added the gravel, which looks similar in color, because Flourite seems too sharp for the barbels of corys, but I'm sure capping it helped immensely to keep the mess down.

I used Eco-Complete in the other tank and it is SO much better than Flourite in many ways. I wouldn't use Flourite in another tank.

 

[misterc007]

I think that washing (really really) well or capping it would have made your life easier but I also agree that with a little time under your belt the problem will resolve itself. I looked at mine last night pretty close and I noticed that underneath the tank all you could see was the super fine partical's. Based on that i would conclude that over time all the super fine particles make there way down to the bottom where eventually they wont be disturbed and cloud the water. So I think you'll be fine after a while.