dougbraz
Member
30 gallon planted tank (60X50X40cm) with two 9litre bags of ADA Amazonia soil as substrate - Dragon stone and wood all placed on top. I was told that it did not need to be rinsed before use) It's about 2" deep at the front at maybe 4" at the back. I filled it up with water to the level of the soil before planting (probably mistake nr 1) and then after planting, topped it off - and had essentially a brown fog in my tank for a few days. No, I didn't wash the dragon stone before, either (mistake nr 2). Did a few daily 50% changes and it improved, added activated charcoal to clear the tannin for a bit, then proceeded to use Purigen. I have an Eheim Ecco 2232 canister which is supposedly enough for filtration ('just", I think).
To cut a long story short, it is fairly heavily planted (stems at the back and an assortment mid-front) yet still it looks a bit 'dusty'. To be honest, every time I touch the bottom to pick up a dead leaf, or plant something, there is a little dust storm that eventually dissipates, but not fully. The tank is 3 months old, I do partial water changes of about 25 litres every 5-7 days yet the tops of the leaves (like anubias) are still dusty and of course, when you brush it off, back into the water it goes to settle down somewhere else!
My question basically is: how long before most of the dust settles down completely or is removed by water changes? I am not seeing crystal clear water in my immediate future.
To cut a long story short, it is fairly heavily planted (stems at the back and an assortment mid-front) yet still it looks a bit 'dusty'. To be honest, every time I touch the bottom to pick up a dead leaf, or plant something, there is a little dust storm that eventually dissipates, but not fully. The tank is 3 months old, I do partial water changes of about 25 litres every 5-7 days yet the tops of the leaves (like anubias) are still dusty and of course, when you brush it off, back into the water it goes to settle down somewhere else!
My question basically is: how long before most of the dust settles down completely or is removed by water changes? I am not seeing crystal clear water in my immediate future.