The thing with Flourite is that the more you bang it around (stir, shake,
etc) while "rinsing," the more you are going to scrape the pieces together
and cause more dust to flake off. Give it a decent rinse, in a strainer or
colander or on a screen- till the water coming off is somewhat cleaner, then
put it in the tank. Anything that ends up in the water settles out really
fast- I've never even had it take more than a day. And you want to keep as
much of the stuff in the tank as you can- no sense rinsing some useful bits
down the drain!


I agree. People have had good results with just sifting the dry Flourite in a
screen sieve -- outdoors! No water required.

Once it's in the tank, expect the tank to be cloudy for the first day or so.
When I added Flourite to my tank, I packed my filter with cheap polyester
floss, so I could toss it after one day. (It was full of brown silt.) After
that, it was fine.

So don't worry too much about washing Flourite. It settles fast. You just
have to rinse your filter media frequently the first few days. And fear not,
after a couple of weeks, you'll be able to stir up the substrate without
causing more than very temporary cloudiness.



Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/