Finally bought florite...had a minor disaster!

[willisrad]

Well,
I finally broke down and bought florite for my aquarium and got rid of the pebbles that you get from petsmart.

I probably did the dumbest thing ever and added the florite while my fish were still in the tank. AND I didn't rinse it because the bag said that it was pre-rinsed and you might just get "a little" cloudiness.

My tank looked like a disaster area!!!!!!

I took out all of my plants and all of my rocks.

I did a 50% water change, and went out and bought another filter.

I was running a total of 3 filter cartridges most of yesterday and lastnight, but now my tank looks beatiful!

I thought for sure that I was going to lose all of my babies, but everyone seems to be doing great!

I have a couple of bluish lyretail guppies, and they lost all of their blue tint for a little while during everything, but everyone seems good.

This definitely is on my top 10 dumbest things ever.

I will post a picture of the tank from last night and from this morning later.

At least it gave me an excuse to run 2 filters!

[Lady Hobbs]

We learn from past mistakes so guess you have learned yours. LOL Glad it's cleared up nicely for you.

[cocoa_pleco]

lol, i learnt to wash sand and fluorite too like you did

[gm72]

Always rinse everything. Twice!:ezpi_wink1:

[Incredulous_Ed]

Live and learn, i guess.

[kimmers318]

When I had flourite in my large tank (stupidly thinking I could have live plants) I rinsed it over and over and it still clouded the tank. Plus every time I did a larger water change and stirred the gravel too much it clouded it back up. I couldn't wait to get it out of there!

[willisrad]

Hahahah.
Wonderful!
My tank has definitely cleared up.
When it gets stirred up, it definitely clouds a little, but if my plants are super happy, I'll learn to live with it.

[gm72]

Great point. If it has benefit, it is sometimes better to just deal with it!

[willisrad]

Well, I am pretty sure that I have got a pretty decent bacteria bloom now.

I kind of expected it.

Between a 50% water change, changing my filter cartridges and adding a new one, and changing out most of my substrate, I expected it.

As soon as this goes away, I'll be a happy camper.

[Drumachine09]

Glad everything is working out for you?

[willisrad]

Well.........the bacteria bloom is better then losing my entire cycle........

And I've heard some frustrating things about trying to cycle with live plants, so I am more or less happy.

I know that my girlfriend will be annoyed when she see's the cloudy water of the tank...........especially since she doesn't know very much at all about aquariums.

But it's all good. If it's not gone in a day or 2, then I may panic a bit!

[Rexx]

Don't worry about the looks of your tank too much. You had to see my 300 liter outdood goldfish pond when I put 6 koi of at least 9 in. each in, which I resqued from a fried's pond which started leakingthumbs2:

[gm72]

Well if your girlfriend doesn't know much about aquariums, tell her that the cloudy water is a direct result of your applying your immense wisdom to the care of your fish.

Seriously though, I have found that keeping the lights off helps clear cloudy water like yours. I would think your plants would be fine with a day of darkness.

[A340]

Did your flourite disaster look anything like my recent episode?

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[gm72]

Good lord, Aliz, what happened there? It looks like you used it as a toilet!

[Lady Hobbs]

I think the best solution with fluorite is planting heavily the entire tank then not messing with it again. It seems whenever you try to add another plant, or move a plant, you get that dust settling on everything in the tank once again. My tank was nice and clear until a plant come to the top and had to be replanted and here come that dust to settle on everything again.

My plants are all in a waste basket, half full of water, sitting outside in the sun. It gets plenty darned cold at night and 80 during the day so if they make it I'll be surprised or if there is no root rot.

[A340]

Good lord, Aliz, what happened there? It looks like you used it as a toilet!
LOL!

Just followed the instructions on the bag, No need to rinse before hand. Simply pour in tank, add water. A slight cloudiness will appear but disipate after you turn on your filter.

Yeah, and this is what happens to your filter ...
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[gm72]

Wow. Just...wow. So has it actually cleared by now? Wow.

[A340]

Wow. Just...wow. So has it actually cleared by now? Wow.
Yeah, after I took everything out of the tank, cleaned everything and spent a day rinsing the darn flourite. Here's the link to the thread I wrote about it ..

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You should get a good laugh out of it .... :hmm3grin2orange:

(sorry, link doesn't seem to be working, anyway, it's in the Tank Setup forum.)

[gm72]

Just glad it cleared up. I have a panic attack any time I have an issue with one of my tanks. I probably would have had a freaking coronary if I had that issue!

[willisrad]

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE!

After a few hours of filtering and a 50% water change, you could see some light peeking through the top of the water.

You'd see fish come to the glass here and there.

And there was a poor pond snail getting swirled all around because the currents were so strong with nothing else in the tank.

But it cleared up overnight for the mostpart.

My bacteria bloom is finally calming down. It was almost just as bad as the fluorite water!


Did your flourite disaster look anything like my recent episode?

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[Chrona]

Get rid of the pond snails while you can still see/find them. They will often eat even healthy plants if not well-fed.

[willisrad]

Oh yeah, I know.
Pond snails are definitely on the evil side.

[cocoa_pleco]

lol, you mean the dark side.

[Jahosacat]

I don't have a planted tank - yet. I'm planning to start changing one of my tanks to planted in the Fall. Your coronaries are not in vain - I'm learning!