Got the Fluorite today

[Plant Man]

I'm sorry I forgot to answer you!

My tap water untreated when I tested it has right at 1ppm-1.5ppm ammonia and it has (not quite) 5ppm nitrates,too (fortunately,no nitrites!). I use Start Right conditioner and it brings the ammonia to 0ppm. My pH is around 7.8,don't have a test kit for the other part of the hardness aspect,but my water is liquid limestone. Get a glass of water from the tap,drink it,and you can see the hard water stains. It's gross. We can't keep shiny faucets here for more than a day. lol

The Start Right neutralizes the ammonia showing up immediately (retested water again as I type all of this) thank goodness.

This is why I don't want german blue rams. I have crappy tap water,I need hardy healthy robust fish. GBRs love soft water,I really don't want to mess with the chemistry of the water to make it comfy for them. I want fish who will adapt and evolve.

I'm really proud of my strong little fishes that have adapted to my tap water. Neons never make it,though. Never!

I’m really sorry to hear that! You may have issues growing in that.

You want to know something; I never treat my water when I put it into my tanks. It is similar to your numbers but I need the Nitrate for the plants the other harmful chemicals get diluted to harmless levels at the 15% changes that I do. You saw my Cardinal tank right? I never treated that tap water either! Never. In my experience that unless your doing massive 50% water changes it’s just not necessary to add more chemicals of “any” kind.

[korith]

(Can't have an open tank,my kitties insist that tap water isn't suitable for cat consumption-must be fish tank water. The little one fell IN the 50g tank one day
when I was cleaning and was quite an ordeal as she couldn't get footing to pull herself back out. Lids are a MUST in this house.)

Should have gotten a picture of that afterward.

[HeatherH]

Should have seen all the long white kitty hairs I was scooping out of the tank for a few days after that. Stuck in the filters,on the plants...ugh.

[Dacotah7]

Rinse it a couple times, lay a trash bag over it in the tank and fill the tank slowly. The bag helps hold the dust down and it should be clear for you by morning. I wouldn't rinse it to death or you're rinsing out the nutrients.

Did I mess up with my 2 bags of Florite Black Sand for my new 20g planted setup. I rinsed and rinsed rinsed and wondered when to stop rinising. How do you know when to quit rinsing? If I rinsed out the good stuff, can I fix it? If so how? Do I need to buy more Flourite Black Sand? I have about 2" but would like a thicker layer of substrate.

[Plant Man]

Did I mess up with my 2 bags of Florite Black Sand for my new 20g planted setup. I rinsed and rinsed rinsed and wondered when to stop rinising. How do you know when to quit rinsing? If I rinsed out the good stuff, can I fix it? If so how? Do I need to buy more Flourite Black Sand? I have about 2" but would like a thicker layer of substrate.

I would help but I only use the regular Flourite red. I rinsed mine until is ran mostly clear. The tank still clouded for about a week. I have about 2 1/2 inches.