[APD] Adding flourite to an old tank and refreshing an oldsubstrate.

["Pete" <peteal at sympatico_ca>]

Hello, I was thinking of adding some flourite into a 4 year old 90gal tank
at the same time as refreshing the gravel.  Tank is heavily planted, CO2
350Watt MH lighting,  med fish load, no substrate heating.

Toying with the idea as the substrate at present is regular gravel 2-3mm
grain size with peat at the bottom that may or may not still be their after
all the times I'v pulled plants out and gotten a chuck of peat with it ;).
It's also old and while I haven't hard any real root problems sometimes I
plant comes out with some black roots mixed with the good.

So I'm thinking of somehow refreshing the gravel without tearing down the
tank.  My basic idea was just to remove all plants/driftwood, stir
up/vacuume the gravel deeply.and replant (fireup the diatom filter for water
cleanup ;) ). I thought while I was doing this I could also remove some
gravel and mix in some flourite. So questions.

1. Any suggestions about refreshing the old gravel?
2. Is it worth putting a couple of bags of flourite mixed in with regular
gravel? Freeking expensive stuff (seachem. CDN $24.99 for a 15lb bag)
3. I'v seen old posts saying this stuff is light. Won't it then slowly shift
UP through the gravel and be the top layer which is basically useless for
plant roots?
4. Any other idea ;)

Many thanks
Pete.

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