Re: Newbie Design -- Problems with Flourite dust

[GramFran413 at aol_com]

I copied this from a web site (unfortunately, I didn't save the URL).  Please 
note that I have used this method MANY times and THE KEY IS TO ALLOW THE 
FLUORITE TO DRY BEFORE INTRODUCING IT TO THE AQUARIUM!

How to Wash FLUORITE
The Perfect Plant Substrate
You know, I wouldn't have thought there was an article in this subject, but I 
see so many questions about it on the boards I thought maybe it was something 
that needed to be addressed. We are talking about SeaChem's Fluorite, a 
fracted clay material that is just about the perfect substrate for growing 
plants--at least in my humble opinion. It's the right size, it's loaded with iron and 
other trace elements to feed the plants' roots, it won't affect the ph or 
hardness of your water, and it's even pretty! How can you beat that? The only 
complaint I ever hear about it, aside from the cost--and I hear it all the 
time--is how messy it is when you wash it and how badly it clouds your tank. Well, it 
doesn't have to be that way--it's not that way for me--and I thought I would 
share my methods in the hope it will help alleviate someone' else's 
frustration.
So why use Fluorite? What's wrong with plain old gravel? Well--nothing, 
really, except plain old gravel is just that; it's inert, and it offers nothing 
extra to help your plants grow. If you use plain old gravel, you'll find that you 
need to use substrate fertilizers to give your plants a boost. It's more than 
that, though--Fluorite is the best rooting medium for plants I've ever come 
across. It's the perfect size, and it's lighter in weight than regular gravel 
and doesn't compact as easily, and that together with the nutrients it provides 
encourages roots to grow like nothing else I've ever tried. Yes, it costs 
more than gravel does, but think of it as an investment in good plant growth--and 
a way to protect your investment in all those plants you're going to be 
buying! Keep in mind that Fluorite occupies more mass than an equal weight of 
gravel does, so you don't need quite as much; a 15 pound bag is more than enough 
for a 10 gallon tank, you'll have some left over. About one pound of Fluorite 
per gallon will give you plenty of substrate; you'll have to buy half again as 
many pounds of gravel. You can reduce the cost considerably by mixing it with 
small gravel, up to about 50-50. That's what I prefer to do, and I feel my 
results have been just as good with a mixture as they have been with a 100% 
Fluorite substrate. How much you want to use is for you to decide.
So, you've decided you want to use Fluorite to give your plants the best 
possible medium to grow in. Great! Now what? Without further ado, here's how you 
can get it from the bag to your tank with a minimum of effort for you and 
cloudiness for your tank.

STEP 1 
Note tomato plants. If you're going to wash Fluorite, you might as well do it 
someplace where all that nice water and Fluorite dust will do some good. I 
use the heavy duty disposable aluminum pans and split a bag between two of them, 
and then place them in my garden or anyplace else that needs a good soaking. 
Grab your hose (preferably one with a high pressure nozzle) and prepare to 
blast away. Turn on the water, and spray with the hose until the pan overflows; 
keep spraying as the yucky stuff floats out of the pan--a minute or two is 
plenty.

STEP 2 
Here's what it looks like after the initial rinsing. Huh? What Fluorite? All 
I see is a pan of mud! Now, now, be patient--we're not finished! Pour off as 
much of the muddy water as you can without dumping out the Fluorite along with 
it.

STEP 3 
Now rinse again with the hose until the pan overflows, another minute or two. 
At right is the pan after the second rinse. Surprise, you can see the 
Fluorite! If you're really compulsive, you can do it a few more times until the water 
is clearer, but if you can see the Fluorite in the pan through the water, 
you're pretty much done. Keep in mind that the more you wash it, the more you 
abrade it, and the more stuff it will let go of. This is counterproductive. Not 
only won't it EVER be completely clear, you're eating away at that expensive 
substrate you just bought. You want it to leach out that stuff in your tank, not 
in the aluminum pan in the garden!

STEP 4 
I guess it would have made more sense if I had taken a picture of the 
Fluorite IN the colander, but hopefully you'll get the idea. Anyway--pour as much of 
the water off the Fluorite as you can without dumping the Fluorite (I keep 
mentioning that because if you DO dump it, there's your expensive substrate 
either in the garden or the lawn. Go ahead, try and pick it up. Now try and pick it 
up without picking up a whole handful of crud you don't want in your tank.) 
Pour the Fluorite into the colander. Any colander will do. I have no objection 
to doing Fluorite one day and pasta the next (you CAN wash the thing out, you 
know), but if you're pickier than I am, you can either get a colander strictly 
for aquarium use or just use an old one. Grab your trusty hose, and blast 
away (don't fill the colander TOO full, or you're back to trying to pick the 
Fluorite out of the lawn again) for a minute or so. If you've gotten this far and 
have spent more than ten minutes doing it, you've spent WAY too much time 
rinsing.

STEP 5- YO!!! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART! 
If you skip this step, you might as well forget all the other ones, and I 
wash my hands of you AND your Fluorite. Shake as much water as you can out of the 
Fluorite while it's in the colander, spread a garage towel (come on, 
EVERYBODY has garage towels) on a nice sunny spot, and then spread the Fluorite out on 
the towel. LET DRY!!! If you want to speed the process along, once it's dry 
on top, grab another garage towel and spread it out; then pick up the Fluorite 
in the towel. Just use the edges to slide it to the middle, grab all four 
corners and lift; you won't lose a piece, I promise. then spread it out on the dry 
towel, and it will be dry in no time. I usually leave it out there for half 
an hour or so and go do something else in the meantime. Once it's dry, pick it 
up in the towel again and put towel and all in a five gallon bucket, and then 
just carefully remove the towel. VOILA!! It's ready to go in the tank.

STEP 6 
Once the Fluorite is in your tank, the way you add the water will make a big 
difference too. Find a good sized bowl that's not too deep, and weigh down 
your hose so the water flows into the bowl; turn on the water and fill slowly. 
Just let the water overflow the bowl to fill the tank. Once the bowl is under a 
few inches of water, you can just let the water flow in, but keep the hose 
nozzle under the surface. The tank at right is a 120 gallon which is still 
filling; looks pretty clear, doesn't it? I promise you that if you add your fluorite 
(or ANY substrate, for that matter) to the tank dry, you will have virtually 
no cloudiness at all from the substrate material.

Obviously this method works a lot better if you choose to do it on a sunny 
day with the air temperature somewhere above freezing. I'll grant you that if 
you happen to be setting up your tank in Manitoba in January, you may have to 
improvise, but it is entirely possible to do this whole thing inside in the 
bathtub if you have to--in fact, it will keep those annoying little pieces of 
gravel from winding up down the drain as long as you don't get carried away with 
the hose. Just be sure to keep the dog out of whatever room you've spread the 
fluorite out to dry in. 
The payoff is a nice clear tank right from the get-go (do people still say 
that? Lately I've had the feeling that I'm losing touch with pop culture). This 
is the 120 gallon, three days after setup and first planting:
It's not crystal clear yet, but that's not the fault of the Fluorite. No 
planted tank is going to be crystal clear in three days, biological stuff has to 
happen first--but it doesn't have to be cloudy either. This is what the tank 
looked like after six weeks:

Told you the Fluorite was good stuff.


Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional.


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