Flourish red

[Fishytales]

I am restarting our 70 gallon FW tank after our move to NC. Since it worked and looked so well before, I have put in the same 4-5 inches of flourish red (7 bags) on top of 1/2 inch of peat moss. After fixing a big mess with the external plumbing, I now have a full 70 gallon tank with flourish red and peat moss and nothing else.

I am running the pump and filtration (Fluval 305) for just mechanical filtration at this time. The water is clearing up pretty nicely.

My question: Should I be stirring up the flourish red a bit now to get rid of any dust in the upper layers? With the previuos set up, whenever I replanted or moved plants even after a couple of years, the particles from the flourish would come out. Or when I gravel vac'd too deep.

I did not see anything in the sunken garden forum about this when I did a few searches.

Thanks for your assistance,

Howard

I am

[Tech Support GL]

You definitely could do that to reduce the amount of the finer particles that have settled on top. To some degree there may be finer particles that come up when you do replanting or a good vacuuming but it should settle without issue.

[Fishytales]

Thank you for the very quick reply!

Best regards,

Howard

[Tech Support GL]

You are welcome.

[Jimbo205]

Fishytales, do a search on CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity).
Cation is any element with a postive charge (+).

Some people say that finer particles have a higher CEC which has its benefits.
Others think finer particles are messier.

Basically it is to each their own. Some just live with it (the dust particles), others rinse them over and over and over again.

Some will add their substrate and 1 inch of water over the substrate and give it time for everything to settle out. This is the hardest part because it takes such patience.

There are many different approaches to planted aquariums.
I highly recommend Diana Walstad's book - Ecology of the Planted Aquarium. You can get for a bargain at www.amazon.com

Let us know what worked best for you and your aquarium.

[Tech Support LK]

These are very good suggestions. Thanks again for the replies Jimbo.

[Fishytales]

I tried first without the extra washing of the fluorite and had everything in place waiting for plants. The night before the plants were to arrive I modified my "aquascape" plan and the particles were just too much. I emptied the tank, removed the flourite in about 15 pound increments and washed it thoroughly. After washing I refilled the tank without disturbing the substrate.

I decided that I would do the planting with the tank (70 Gallon) 1/2 full. That would allow the taller plants to pretty well stand up vertically. When I started arranging the plants that arrived, the particle density in the water became so dense I could not see what I was doing. I did get the stem plants in place and did the potted plants the next day. Everything is showing new growth and I will start fixing things once I find that the root structure is beginning.

In summary, if I had it to do again, and I probably will, I would rinse and rinse the substrate as much as possible.

[Tech Support GL]

Thank you for the follow up. Rinsing does help quite a bit.