[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [APD] Cloudy Water



Ah yes. The Warhol sindrome -- the tomato soup seems to
jsut go on and on.


Time will do much to help. The smaller particles tend to
work their way inbetween the crevices of the larger
particles, so the fines tend to go to the bottom. Only the
very smallest dust particles can remain waterborne for
hours or days. So you will want to filter those out with a
filter medium capable of extremely fine capture -- standard
floss won't cut it.

And water changes won't help a lot if you put water back in
a fast as you can take it out -- you'll just keep stirring
up more stuff as you go.

If Jonathon Dooley is lurking he might have more to add.

You can try using a diatom filter or other filter designed
to capture very fine particles, but I would first -- if at
all possible -- drain the tank down to the substrate and
then refill very slowly into a small plate or bowl set on
the substrate. Let it take an hour or two or more to fill
-- don't be impatient. Even better would be to take out
about a 1/2" of Flourite or get some more Flourite and
rinse that two or three times and then lay this rinsed
material down over the rest, then fill slowly.

I think the best way to start a tank with Flourite is to
put it in unrinsed and dry or barely rinsed and only
slightly damp and then put about 1/2" of rinsed flourite on
top, then fill the aquarium slowly. That way you can get a
clean tank from the start without spending hours rinsing
and without the Warhol syndrome.

Hope there's some help in that for you,
Scott H.

--- Saturnbabi <saturnbabi at comcast_net> wrote:

> Ok, so I was horribly lazy the other day and decided that
> instead of
> carefully washing my fluorite gravel like I know I should
> I would just put
> it in my new tank and use my python to clean it.  So I
> added water, cleaned
> the gravel (I can't believe how muddy and dirty it
> actually was) and
> repeated this several times.  When I thought I had done a
> decent job washing
> it I filled the tank.  It was slightly muddy looking, but
> I thought it would
> be OK once I turned on the filter (fluval with carbon,
> peat and biomax).
> The filter has now been running for 24 hours and it is so
> cloudy that I can
> barely see the back of the tank (12 inches!).  I also
> noticed while planting
> some plants that every time I disturb the gravel I get a
> nice cloud in the
> water.  Any suggestions?  Will time fix this or did my
> laziness curse me to
> have to empty and reclean this gravel?  I suppose someday
> I will learn....
> 
> LeeAnn
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Aquatic-Plants mailing list
> Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
> http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo/aquatic-plants
> 

_______________________________________________
Aquatic-Plants mailing list
Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo/aquatic-plants