Flourite appication procedure

1238 Views 15 Replies 11 Participants Last post by kevmo911, Oct 20, 2010

nirjhar pan

Discussion Starter · Oct 17, 2010

Is it necessary that flourite to be washed with water? how many times it should be washed?what is more suitable with flourite SAND or GRAVELS?please diiscuss the quality,colour,size of grain etc of sand.is it necessary for vacuming the substrate periodically.how the uneaten food and fishes poo to be managed?

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Darkblade48

· #2 · Oct 17, 2010

Definitely, you will want to rinse the Flourite many times with water before putting it into your aquarium. Otherwise, the dust it generates will make your aquarium very cloudy. Even with extensive rinsing, it will still make your aquarium look very murky for several days.

It should be washed until the water is nearly clear.

I think Flourite alone is the best substrate, but you can mix it with either sand of gravel.

For vacuuming the substrate, for most planted aquariums, people will simply hover a siphon over the surface of the substrate to collect any excess mulm. Similarly, uneaten food and waste can be vacuumed as above.

nirjhar pan

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 18, 2010

thanks to Darkblade48.sand grain-coarse,fine which is more suitable above flourite for substrate .

Dave-H

· #4 · Oct 18, 2010

I put half a bag into a 5 gallon bucket and filled about 3/4 full with a garden hose. Then I swirled it vigorously for minute or so. Then pour the excess water carefully so most of the water drains - you can't get it all without pouring out the Flourite but you can get most. Repeat this 3 times for each bucket/half-bag.

You want the water to be close to clear so sometimes you have to rinse 4 or 5 times.

Then use a small vessel like a coffee cup to gently scoop wet Flourite into the tank, taking care to slowly move it to the bottom and pour it out with as little agitation as possible. It's not easy, but if you were to pour the Flourite right on the top of this it will massively cloud your tank. Many people say to do it dry, but that was much more cloudy for me.

You'll still be cloudy for days, but the above technique seemed easy and being cloudy for a few days is no big deal. If you don't rinse it well, it could be cloudy for weeks or more, I'm sure!

lauraleellbp

· #5 · Oct 18, 2010

nirjhar pan said:
thanks to Darkblade48.sand grain-coarse,fine which is more suitable above flourite for substrate .

Whichever has the smallest grain size will eventually end up on the bottom.

james0816

· #6 · Oct 18, 2010

Definately can't stress enough the value of rinsing Flourite. When you think you have it done...do it again. I don't know about the sand, but if using the small gravel type, be prepared to pack your filter with extra poly-fil.

efface

· #7 · Oct 18, 2010

i gave mine a quick rinse and then I placed a plate in my tank and bounced my water off it. water was almost clear once my tank was filled.

HouseofZoo

· #8 · Oct 18, 2010

Per the suggestion of Hilde, I followed the instructions here for preparing the flourite. Each bag was rinsed separately in a storage tote and drained after some swishing. I did this 3-4 times per bag and then rinsed a large colander full at a time. I then spread it all out thin on garbage bags in my basement with a dehumidifier next to it, blowing it's exhaust on it also. The weather has been cool and unpredictable here, so I didn't want to risk setting it outside and having rain wash it away or cats using it as a litter box.

Once it was dry I put it in the tank and filled slowly using a bowl and saucer. No clouding at all aside from the usual fresh water/ammonia spike clouding. I haven't had any trouble with planting either.

I'm really glad Hilde gave me the link! Not sure how this would work with sand as I used Flourite Dark.

Hope this helps.

nirjhar pan

Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 18, 2010

I extend my thanks to all members who shared their experiances of using flourite.

blackandyellow

· #10 · Oct 20, 2010

Fluorite is extremely dirty, you have to rinse it A LOT unless you want to live with a murky tank for over a month before it settles down. The package says it´s pre-washed but it´s not...

james0816

· #11 · Oct 20, 2010

blackandyellow said:
The package says it´s pre-washed but it´s not...

lol...I thought the same thing when I rinsed it the first time. Pre-washed??? yeah...right. lol

They probably just give it a good washing and then baking before packaging. But definately can't just be placed right in the tank.

syzygy9

· #12 · Oct 20, 2010

I'm surprised at how little rinsing some of you did. I put 3 bags of flourite into a largish storage bin (i'd estimate 10 gallons) and took it out into my front yard. I filled the bin with water, swished everything around good, and dumped off as much water as i could without also losing any flourite, and then dragged it over about 4 feet and repeated. I did this maybe 30 times over the course of 2 hours. Net effect was a good watering for the yard, but I only saw a slight improvement in water clarity. Then I took a large 24oz cup worth of the "rinsed" flourite and put it in a 1/2 gallon pitcher and rinsed each of those 3 more times before adding to the tank.

When I started filling the tank (gently) I quickly saw that it was still going to be a cloudy nightmare. I stopped filling the tank with the water level about 3 inches above the flourite and let everything settle...took about 2 hours. Once it was clear I put a dinner plate onto the flourite and filled the tank the rest of the way using the plate as a diffuser and that allowed me to get it filled without being cloudy.

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Dave-H

· #13 · Oct 20, 2010

My guess is that after a certain point the rinsing doesn't do all that much. I did a bag very quickly and hardly rinsed it at all, after deciding that I wanted to add more substrate 2 weeks after the initial batch.

I gave it about 2 or 3 very quick rinses in the bucket, and it seems like most of the dust comes out in the first 2 rinses but there's always enough to cloud up the water regardless. A lot of the cloudiness seems to ride on how gently you can pour into the tank.

james0816

· #14 · Oct 20, 2010

Poly-Fil is your friend. Buy in bulk from Wally World. <hint><hint>

Captivate05

· #15 · Oct 20, 2010

I noticed Flourite Dark is waaaaaaaaaay dirtier than Flourite Black. I dump a whole bag in a five gallon bucket, take a hose and swirl it - with the hose - until full, dump, repeat. Black took about three goes, Dark about seven. Water is crystal clear in my tanks from the get-go. Yeah, "pre-washed" my big toe...

Also noticed Black is finer and more uniform in size than Dark.

kevmo911

· #16 · Oct 20, 2010

A couple months ago i switched out my clown puke gravel with Flourite without emptying the tank. Even though I spent a good deal of time rinsing the Flourite, it was a good 24 hours before i could see the back of the tank at all, and i had to rinse the filter at least twice.

A few days ago, I added maybe half a bag of Flourite to the existing substrate to increase the depth. This time, I used a 6" wire mesh colander, half-filling it with Flourite and spending probably 60 seconds per scoop rinsing it (with running water). I scooped and dumped near the substrate with a medium-sized cup. Not a lot of cloudiness, and it completely cleared up within a few hours.

This was the original (red) type, by the way.

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