Hello All,

I've been lurking around this newsgroup for sometime and have finally
decided to create my own planted tank. After several weeks of prep
work i've amassed all my equipment and have started my own 55 gallon
planted tank. I'd fairly methodical about most things so before I even
started my planning i checked out what kind of water comes out of my
tap. My tap water output is basically perfect. I get a ph reading of
7.0 ( aquarium pharmaceutical), a GH of 2dh and a KH of 2dh.

I've had my tap water double checked and the readings are correct.
Lucky me i can keep all sorts of sof****er creatures (discus!!)
without having to buy a ro unit or a deionizer.

I set up my tank with co2, a fluval 404, a nice piece of driftwood and
several types of plants. Here begins the downfall (i think). I bought
1 bag of flourite from seachem and 2 bags of flourite red. I
understood from my LFS that I would mix the three bags and put a layer
of gravel above it. I bought a used tank so it came with gravel and i
used that after rising it. So after two days with everything planted
and humming i take my water readings. My ph has gone down to 6.8 (yay
CO2) while my KH has gone up to 3dh (yay CO2) but my GH has shot
through the roof to a whopping 10dh. There goes my soft water!

I sit down and realize - holy crap - that crappy gravel i put on top
of that beautiful flourite might not be inert. Then I call the
previous tank owner and asked him what kind of fish he kept. Turns out
he kept cichlids! I've come to the conclusion that the only way to get
my sof****er back is to remove that gravel. After reading several post
i have come to realize that flourite can be used as the only substrate
(and probably should be it's so great looking). So the question is -
Do I have to remove all the flourite and by new flourite because it
might have soaked in the minerals from the stupid gravel or can I get
away with just taking the gravel out and doing a complete water
change?

Everything was going so well....