[dennis]

Boy, what a pain in the butt to wash. I was setting up a 5.5 gallon and wanted to do low light wiht crypts so I decided to use flourite. I is a pain to was but I found a trick that I thought I would share. This was my first experience so first I rinsed it some and then gave up becuase it would not come clean and was making one heck of a mess in my tank. I didi tis with half the bag. But it in the tank, let it sit and filter overnight and stil cloudy and messy. What did settle, just stirred back up wiht any disturbance of the gravel.

Next try, I took the other half of the bag and put it in a 2 gallon bucket. Put bucket under faucet in tub and used a paint stirrer in my drill to stir it gently. Took about 10 minutes of stirring, letting the water run for a minute and then dumping water and starting again. Be carefule not to turn on the drill to high or you will suspend the flourite and cause a big mess in the tube. Signifigant others get very upset when this happens. So, to make a long story short, you can get rid of pretty much all of the dust if you use a paint stirrer and running water. !0 minutes or so and there is absolutely no cloudiness from the new gravel.

Hopefully this will save some others needless pain and suffering.

 

[EDGE]

An even easier way is to get a shallow plastic container with large surface area (rubbermaid). Place a thin layer of flourite in it and blast with a garden hose. Stir gently and pour the water out once it is really murky. It takes around 5-10 min to do a whole bag.

 

[dennis]

That sounds good too. I thought originally of doing it outside but the 25 degree temps and chance of freezing pipes made me think again When it warms up I'll try yours. Thanks

 

[litesky]

I thought rinsing a the flourite a bit was fine. Although it made a mess in my tank when I first used it, the cloud and murkiness went away after a day and a half.

I read somewhere in Amano's book in nature aquarium world that he even waits awhile for the cloud to go away. I was afraid of completely rinsing it because I felt I might have wasted somethign that might be beneficial for a tank.

 

[jerseyjay]

And I will make your life even easier now :wink:

Wash it just a bit and then let it completely dry. You will get very minimal cloudiness if any.

 

[dennis]

Yeah, I had read that reciently from a few people but I did not want to wait for it to dry. I still have half the bag leftover so I guess that will get a chance to dry. I myself wondered the same a litesky about washing off some good stuff, but hte way I figured it, the best part of florite is the iron content and its CEC ability. Two things that wont really wash away. Letting the cloud settle did not seem like it would do much since it was almost like mud and it just settled on everything. If you disturbed anything it was right back in the water column. Thanks.

 

[Sir_BlackhOle]

I washed mine on and off for three days in a bucket blasting it with the garden hose. It never got clear so I just put it in the tank and filled it very carefully. The initial cloudiness was gone the next morning.

 

[Daemonfly]

I wash mine in small portions, makes it a lot easier. Another trick I've read about is to just rinse it off in paint filter cloths.

 

[gpodio]

I rinse mine in small portions using a pasta strainer. But I learned quickly that the cloudiness is not as bad as loosing all that GOOD "dust" that would otherwise find it's way to the bottom of the substrate. A quick rinse is all I give it now. Just fill your tank up slowly, slow down your filter rate until everything settles. A little patience and it'll all clear up.

Giancarlo Podio

 

[wicked_good_guppies]

I was just wondering where is the best/cheapest place to get florite?

 

[Sir_BlackhOle]

Try looking online.....i know there are cheaper places but im sure drsfostersmith.com has it.

 

[hubbahubbahehe]

hey you guys, i don't even rinse my flourite... i put it in and true it gets cloudy after you add water, but after a couple days the cloudiness is gone as the dust settles... i've had no problems ...

 

[dennis]

True it settles, but if I did any planting or rescaping, which I tend to do, possible a bit more often than I should, then it would stir it all back up. nOt pleasent to me. Maybe it was just because it was such a small aquarium. Oh well.

 

[Gomer]

I was having dusty crud problems with my flourite and I too came up with a nifty way to solve the problem...I got eco complete

 

[Corigan]

I was just wondering where is the best/cheapest place to get florite?

BigAl's has had it advertised for $10.99 USD a bag. Some people were printing out the ads and taking it to different petsmarts till one of them price matched them.

Matt

 

[Sir_BlackhOle]

An article on how to wash flourite: http://www.wheelpost.com/fluorite.html

 

[AV8TOR]

Funny reading this post. I just came in (my hands are numb from the cold) and what a chore it is. I have been using the large flat pan method. What about a fine colander and spray through. Anyone try that?

 

[hubbahubbahehe]

fine colander can work too, but I find that you could have a bigger pan, and then you can just dump all of the flourite in there whereas with a colander, you would need to do it in several portions. But if you can find one big enough, then go for it. My vote is for the huge pan method.

 

[dennis]

I'm tellin' ya, $3 5 gallon bucket, hose adn a paint stirrer in a corless drill. Works great

 

[gnome]

I have to reiterate Jay Luto's suggestion. In fact, you don't even need to rinse it. Just wait for a warm, sunny day, lay down a sheet of tarp under direct sunlight, spread out the Flourite in a thin layer, wait a few hours 'til it's all bone-dry, and dump it in the tank. Fill with water and you'll see - at worst, you'll get a slight haze that will get filtered out in a few hours. Just watch that stray cats don't wander by during the drying process and do their business in your Flourite. Then again, it might make for good fertilizer .

-Naomi