Red flourite substrate dust EVERYWHERE! HELP!

[Aquatic.Predator.Keeper]

About 3 weeks to a month ago, I switched one of my tanks to all red flourite substrate. Beforehand I rinsed it and rinsed it over and over. With the aerator and filters going the dust was so bad, and settling on top of EVERYTHING in the tank, including my poor fish! Lol.

So I came back in and added a decently thick cap of red eco-complete planted substrate (I have a planted 20 gallon with just eco-complete and there is no sign of dust whatsoever!)

It helped. A little. But the dust is still there. Still settling and the tank is still foggy.

What is the secret here?! How can I eliminate the settling dust and have my water back to crystal clear, again?!

 

[kno4te]

Have the same substrate. Will eventually clear up with water changes and add filter floss to ur filter. Takes a long time.

 

[Hendre]

Flourite is a pain to clean. I rinse my substrate in a large tote with a hose, stirring it and letting the dirt flow out. It should settle eventually

 

[Fat Homer]

Maybe try adding some filter floss and Purigen to your filter???

That should help clear up a lot of the smaller particles as long as it goes through your filter...

 

[Aquatic.Predator.Keeper]

Takes a long time.

Thank you! But... how long are we talking?! Lol. Ive stuffed my filters with floss and added another filter with just floss in an effort to speed up this process! Lol.

 

[Aquatic.Predator.Keeper]

Flourite is a pain to clean. I rinse my substrate in a large tote with a hose, stirring it and letting the dirt flow out. It should settle eventually

I usually poke a zillion pin holes in the bag, all along the sides and bottom, and then run the shower head inside the bag until the water turns clear, but the moment I move the bag at all, the red dust storm erupts again! Grrr... this stuff is so frustrating! Lol.

 

[Hendre]

I usually poke a zillion pin holes in the bag, all along the sides and bottom, and then run the shower head inside the bag until the water turns clear, but the moment I move the bag at all, the red dust storm erupts again! Grrr... this stuff is so frustrating! Lol.

Hence the pour and stir, gets the most out

 

[Fat Homer]

I usually poke a zillion pin holes in the bag, all along the sides and bottom, and then run the shower head inside the bag until the water turns clear, but the moment I move the bag at all, the red dust storm erupts again! Grrr... this stuff is so frustrating! Lol.

Might be a bit late now but if you dont mind creating more of a storm in your tank, you could try and purposely stir or agitate the sands surface just before a water change to try and remove as much of the free floating particles as possible...

Then you could add some purigen and new filter floss to your existing filters to hopefully remove any thats left afterwards before it settles again, or you could even add a few extra hob filters during this time (stuffed with just filter floss and purigen) to try and speed up the process...

The tricky part is it will most likely take a while to be completely clean and clear depending on how much dust is trapped in the substrate, which honestly could be quite a lot of time as it can settle rather quickly in between every nook and cranny of the tank...

 

[Eclipse390]

I feel your pain. My tank was DARK brown from all the dust I stirred up