Elaine T wrote:
I saw this fab 2 gal planted tank at LFS and it inspired me to yank the
UGF from Squishy's 2 gallon hex and put on a Red Sea nanofilter and
Fluorite substrate. Lighting is a 14 watt 5500K spiral compact
flourescent that seems plenty bright over a tank this tiny.

But OMG - I rinsed and rinsed my fluorite and it never did rinse clear.
I finally gave up and set up the tank and the water is STILL cloudy an
hour later. Will this mess actually filter out? I put a second pad in
the filter, but it only seems to be getting a little bit better. Squishy
is annoyed and I don't blame him.

Also, is this cloud going to reappear every time I move a plant or
replant stem plants? If so, I'm returning the bag of flourite I bought
for the 15 gallon that I have on order and using only Eco Complete.
Fluorite is beautiful, but only when you can see it!


I set up a new tank with a Fluorite base and thick top layer of sand.
Hopefully, plant roots will dig down into the Fluorite.

I didn't rinse the Fluorite before I placed it into the new tank because
I wanted to try rinsing it in situ. I filled the tank from a hose. But
did it look like a Martian dust storm! The 3 watts per gallon of
lighting couldn't penetrate more than 1 inch of water! A simple wash was
not going to help so I attached another hose with a power head to empty
the tank while another was filling to clear out the dust. 3 hours later
of constant washing and the dust had reduced by 2/3. At that point I
placed a thick layer of sand on top to lock in the dust.

But, OMG!

Nikki