12 hours after Fluorite addition

[Lady Hobbs]

This is my 29 gallon. I only used one bag of Fluorite due to the cost and the fact that I have about 100 pounds of this bloody blue gravel. I didn't buy the red fluorite so thought it would be darker in color so this combination isn't too purdy. I want plants to cover the entire bottom so am really not too concerned with this color.

I have about 3/4 fluorite to 1/4 gravel.

I sat a big dry box in my tub and dumped the Fluorite in it and rinsed it out once. Saved all the pour-offs in 2 liter coke bottles for my house plants. I rinsed the Fluorite one more time, put it in a strainer and ran it under the shower head for another 15 seconds or so.

First shot is about half an hour after adding it to the tank and second shot is of the tank this morning. I don't know if you're supposed to let it sit for awhile or not but I just turned my pumps on right away.

[Chrona]

This is my 29 gallon. I only used one bag of Fluorite due to the cost and the fact that I have about 100 pounds of this bloody blue gravel. I didn't buy the red fluorite so thought it would be darker in color so this combination isn't too purdy. I want plants to cover the entire bottom so am really not too concerned with this color.

I have about 3/4 fluorite to 1/4 gravel.

I sat a big dry box in my tub and dumped the Fluorite in it and rinsed it out once. Saved all the pour-offs in 2 liter coke bottles for my house plants. I rinsed the Fluorite one more time, put it in a strainer and ran it under the shower head for another 15 seconds or so.

First shot is about half an hour after adding it to the tank and second shot is of the tank this morning. I don't know if you're supposed to let it sit for awhile or not but I just turned my pumps on right away.

Perfect! Now just make sure to get all the Flourite dust out of your filter media or you will have the brown algae infestation from hell like I did.

[Lady Hobbs]

I actually put in new floss last night to catch all I could of this stuff and this morning put the nasty old stuff back in to keep the bio-load going. I am also worried about algae and it says you should add algae eaters right away when you plant. I have no algae eaters! I have my Featherfins but I have never seen them cleaning the glass or doing anything but cleaning the bottom. If they clean glass at night I have no idea but do you think one of those will work?

And now to add something that is totally off track.. filter floss. I got some great floss at PetSmart that comes in sheets. You cut off squares of what you want and so much better than the really spun stuff that always seems to get in the tank and wrapped around your bio-wheel. The stuff I have now can be washed too without falling apart.

NOW if I could only plant this tank. (still no word and totally discusted at this point)

When I do the USPS tracking, I had one message that says labels printed on the 6th. Now it says Accepted on the 13th. I assume that means mailed? I also requested emails to check progress and have received none and my last email to this place was returned. Two weeks today which is a far cry from 3-7 days.

My plan for this tank was to return my ornery angelfish back to it but he has gotten nicer being in the larger tank but not too nuts about the juvies so instead, it will be them going in.

If nothing else, getting Mr Ornery to be more social was worth every minute of all this crap with this tank. I felt so sorry for him always being alone and now he is pretty happy with the other large angel and not being such a jerk. I think they lose their ability to be social when always alone. (Like me) LOL

[Chrona]

What fish you are gonna keep in the tank? Oto's or SAE would be cool for algae.

[SouthernGal0682]

I recently started up my tank with flourite too...so,
1. I need to change the filter floss? I looked at it yesterday and its just a TINY bit brown at the very top.

2. Put in algae eaters right away? In my other tanks I always wound up losing my alqae eaters if I put them in too soon cause there was no algae (I'm assuming). I was thinking about trying shrimp instead.

Side note: I've been following your ebay plant soap opera Hobbs, I think I've decided not to order from there simply because I am too impatient to wait 2 weeks for plants if something like that was to happen...uughhhh i would be "ticked" to say the least.

[Chrona]

I recently started up my tank with flourite too...so,
1. I need to change the filter floss? I looked at it yesterday and its just a TINY bit brown at the very top.

2. Put in algae eaters right away? In my other tanks I always wound up losing my alqae eaters if I put them in too soon cause there was no algae (I'm assuming). I was thinking about trying shrimp instead.

Side note: I've been following your ebay plant soap opera Hobbs, I think I've decided not to order from there simply because I am too impatient to wait 2 weeks for plants if something like that was to happen...uughhhh i would be "ticked" to say the least.

1) Yes, change the filter floss. You washed the Flourite very well, so there isn't that much, but the fine powder seems to leech silicates or something into the water, which leads to brown algae.

2) You can wait a few days as you are right about there not being much food. When you do add them, make sure you don't feed them anything at all for a few days until all the algae is gone. Hungry fish make for good algae cleaners. Shrimp will for the most part, limit your fish choices to smaller fish, as even peaceful omnivorous fish will eat something if they can fit in their mouths. You could try Amano shrimp, however. They tend to be bigger than, say cherry or ghost shrimp. Once your carpet is well established, you could probably try smaller shrimp, as they would have a much easier time hiding.

Side note: Sheesh, all you impatient people :P

[Lady Hobbs]

I recently started up my tank with flourite too...so,
1. I need to change the filter floss? I looked at it yesterday and its just a TINY bit brown at the very top.

2. Put in algae eaters right away? In my other tanks I always wound up losing my alqae eaters if I put them in too soon cause there was no algae (I'm assuming). I was thinking about trying shrimp instead.

Side note: I've been following your ebay plant soap opera Hobbs, I think I've decided not to order from there simply because I am too impatient to wait 2 weeks for plants if something like that was to happen...uughhhh i would be "ticked" to say the least.

As far as I can see, most everyone is getting their plants in a timely fashion. I had a large order so perhaps some or more were not in stock but to hold up the whole order (expecially with free shipping) would have been silly seems to me. The hard part is this was not a new tank so fish had to be moved and put in rather crowded conditions while I still tried to keep the bio-load going in this empty tank. If my fish were fighting all this time it would have been the pits but fortunately they decided to get along reasonably well.

If these are nice plants it will be worth the hassle in the end but my patience just wore thin when I couldn't get a response from them. Anything would have been good! I am a bit concerned now as I see 43 negative reports from them in the last 6 weeks. They may be having supplier problems, who knows? But what I find to be of the most interest is the first email I sent to them come back with a response. The second email to them asking for a refund was returned to me. How odd is that!

[Chrona]

As far as I can see, most everyone is getting their plants in a timely fashion. I had a large order so perhaps some or more were not in stock but to hold up the whole order (expecially with free shipping) would have been silly seems to me. The hard part is this was not a new tank so fish had to be moved and put in rather crowded conditions while I still tried to keep the bio-load going in this empty tank. If my fish were fighting all this time it would have been the pits but fortunately they decided to get along reasonably well.

If these are nice plants it will be worth the hassle in the end but my patience just wore thin when I couldn't get a response from them. Anything would have been good! I am a bit concerned now as I see 43 negative reports from them in the last 6 weeks. They may be having supplier problems, who knows? But what I find to be of the most interest is the first email I sent to them come back with a response. The second email to them asking for a refund was returned to me. How odd is that!

Like I've said before, you get what you pay for (Chinese labor). The guy probably gets like 200 emails a day from people like me and you (I sent him about 7 emails, half of which were returned) lol. It doesn't justify his actions (or lack thereof) but it certainly is a reason.

I think for a large amount of plants, and if you know what you want to get, buying from a member of a forum is a good deal. Once my plants start to grow out, I'll probably offer the clippings to anyone who wants to pay for the shipping.