Layering vs Mixing substrates

I would put whichever flourite you choose to use on the bottom. Flourite is a clay and will cause cloudiness when disturbed. So you want that under everything where it is least likely to be stirred up. The gravel and/or eco complete will be good as a top layer. I personally would use the gravel over eco complete but, that is up to you of course.
Hope this helps
Dan

I have Flourite on top of sand. It is my substrate and it does not cloud if washed beforehand. Its like fired brick so once it is clean and settles it will be fine.

Really it is your choice on what you want where. But I would put the Flourite and the ecocomplete under your gravel. you want the nutrients to be in the soil not just laying on top.

Neither Flourite nor EC provide enough nutrients for the plants to worry about whether they are on top or on the bottom. Put the one you like to look at on top, but be aware that small particles of any substrate will gradually settle to the bottom, and large particles migrate up to the surface.

Hoppy said:

Neither Flourite nor EC provide enough nutrients for the plants to worry about whether they are on top or on the bottom. Put the one you like to look at on top, but be aware that small particles of any substrate will gradually settle to the bottom, and large particles migrate up to the surface.

Click to expand...

Right, I was hoping to save some $ on the foreground by layering 1/2" of black sand on top of gravel (since most covering plants don't root much deeper) but I'm afraid the sand will disappear through the gravel in no time.

I've used flourite before, in my experience rinsing it (a lot) prevents most of the cloudiness, at worse it takes less than a day to clear out with the proper filter media.

Thanks for the advice !

You just have to really wash flourite well, after which it won't cloud water. I use a wire screen pasta strainer and rinse it very well, about a cup at a time. This is very labor intensive, but you really want to get all the clay dust off.

Yeah, I'm quite familiar with the flourite, different people use different approach but the popular one calls for a rinsing madness.

One of the local guys here suggests to *not* rinse it because a) you pay for a lot of that dust that is very rich and b) if it's put down with an empty tank, you can fill up very gently (e.g. using a plate), leave the filters off until the particles sink a bit, then run the filters and it will clear up within days.

My question was more about which of gravel, flourite and EC should be at the bottom and which should be at the top.

Heck, I just went and bought 4 more bags of flourite. I will go without the gravel.

Thanks !

Personally I'd mix it up all from the getgo just so you don't have to worry about it getting mixed up unevenly over time (as it most likely will every time you move something around...)

or....

you could do like my dumb self did, fill the tank up with water and dump bags of florite in! haha, i basically put a hose in the window, and a hose out, and just kept the water running into the tank and out of it, till i cleared the cloud! ouch that was a lot of work!!!