"Tom Hale" wrote in message
om...
"RedForeman ©®" wrote in message
You're not the first person who has come here with that complaint,
and to my
recollection, they were all linked back to the use of Laterite...

Suggestion: regular gravel and flourite, you'll have cloudiness for a
few
days, but nothing like you're talking about... it's the kind that
won't come
back unless you turn the gravel/flourite over once a day....


Ok, Stupid question time.

#1: How much flourite per gallon if I wanna use it with gravel? (Tank
is a 55g tall)

They would like you to use 100% flourite, but many people do a 50/50
split. Why not just use gravel?

#2: Is there an easy way to remove the Laterite from the current
gravel?

It would depend on your gravel size. In my younger days when I had less
money and more patience, I'd sieve different size substrates apart (sunny
day, sitting in the driveway with a cold beer). The closer they are in
size, the more impossible it becomes to seperate them.

You might find that blasting it with water, the laterite is lighter and
pours over the edge (tank outside on your driveway).

#3: Could it be the amount of water movement/filtration I have? A
friend of mine has never had this problem, and he is the one who
recommended Laterite to me, he uses it without problem.

Nope. In my case, I had very little water movement in either of my
affected tanks.

#4: Does anyone else use Laterite without this problem?

I hope so, it's been around for ages. Maybe it's related to the amount
of bio-film you can accumulate around the laterite grains, so low
fish-load tanks would take longer than higher fish load tanks to
stabilze? (I'm just guessing).

r.a.f.p. should be the best place for experienced advice on this stuff.

NetMax

Thanks for all the help.

T.