5g shrimp/ Het tank

[curtisonrad19]

Alright, so this is what i have so far.
I have the:
-style 5 marina kit
-Flourite black small gravel
- some mini swords for mid ground ( thinking around the driftwood that i plan on getting soon)
-Small amount of Baby tears (foreground) the pet store gave me a little bit for free I was quite happy
- Coralife Colormax bulb
-Slim S10 filter (not as strong as i had hoped, but will be adding a small sponge filter soon)
-Moss Ball

So far I put in the substrate, filled with water and started the filter. Going to wait till the water clears up a bit... that flourite sure can make a tank look messy... :P I rinsed it out and everything first!

Things still to come:
-Few peices of drift wood
-pellia
-Flame moss
-Some kind of taller plant for the back (to cover the filter and incoming sponge filter)
-Sponge filter

Critters still to come:
-Green Shrimp
-Cherry Shrimp
-Hets ( tiny fish)

As a side note.... I had bought WAY to much flourite... about twice as much as i needed.. I took out about half of it, and still have about 2inches on the bottom. Is this a good amount to have? Should I take out a bit more?

I will update as much as i can! and will add pictures soon as well!

[Diztrbd1]

2" should be fine, I bought too much also when I got it for my 50 gal lol

[Mferko]

2" should be fine, I bought too much also when I got it for my 50 gal lol

same for my 10, and it isnt fun rinsing that stuff lol

[curtisonrad19]

Not fun rinsing it at all...
I had to use my friends small pot to rinse it... Took about an hour to do it all, and didnt even end up using it all! heh..

[Diztrbd1]

lol no it isn't fun , I used a colander/strainer to rinse mine , worked out pretty well but definitely alot of residual stuff to rinse out

[Mferko]

i had to do it in a flowerpot in the bathtub hehe

[Tarobot]

the first time i got red flourite i didnt rinse... red cloud of death followed everytime i moved something or my corydoras moved.

[Mferko]

lol, was the red cloud actually harmful or just ugly?

[curtisonrad19]

Soo... its been about 3-4 hours since I put the water in, and it is still pretty cloudy... should i maybe change some of the water now?

Also, I was worried when i was washing it that i was gonna wash away the nutrients, which seems sorta silly... but it was expensive :P and didnt wanna waste any.. lol

[Diztrbd1]

no worries about washing away any nutrients, the flourite is made of clay and the cloudiness is caused by the residual dust, so there are still plenty of whatever nutrients is in it ...there. You can change some of the water if you want, but you will still probably have residue that will keep it cloudy for a 12-24 hours....pre-washing it thoroughly is the key to little or no cloudiness. You might just let it filter out or settle down and do a gravel vac afterwards to remove whats left