Please help

I purchased fluval stratum to help with my plants and I just really liked the look of it. I moved my 4 black skirt tetras and pleco to a 10 gallon and threw on a 40g filter. I was only planning on keeping them there for a couple hours or a day and moving them back… but it is looking like they are going to be in there for a long time. I read that after washing, the substrate turned the water slightly brown for a couple weeks which I could live with, it did more than turn the water slightly brown. Will the fish be ok in the smaller tank for a while, and how can I help this. I have a fluval 207 on the tank, which im assuming is going to get clogged and iM going to need to clean it right when this is cleared up.

Tl52505 said:

I purchased fluval stratum to help with my plants and I just really liked the look of it. I moved my 4 black skirt tetras and pleco to a 10 gallon and threw on a 40g filter. I was only planning on keeping them there for a couple hours or a day and moving them back… but it is looking like they are going to be in there for a long time. I read that after washing, the substrate turned the water slightly brown for a couple weeks which I could live with, it did more than turn the water slightly brown. Will the fish be ok in the smaller tank for a while, and how can I help this. I have a fluval 207 on the tank, which im assuming is going to get clogged and iM going to need to clean it right when this is cleared up.

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How well did you rinse that stuff!? That is insane!
I would do daily water changes of over 50% if possible until it clears...

@Essjay
@emeraldking @Fishmanic @WhistlingBadger
Can one of you mods combine this with the other identical threat to prevent confusion

JuiceBox52 said:

threat

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*Thread
She meant thread not threat... Hopefully...

i deleted duplicate thread

I did the same sort of thing a couple of times changing to soil, once even with the fish still in the tank as I had nowhere else I could put them.
Fish only take the oxygen from the water; they don't eat it.
As the water is new in the tank then there's really no reason not to change it out in as large a volume as possible. Just leave enough for the fish.
I find that preparing a large tub of water, properly treated and heated then SLOWLY fed into the tank on top of some hardscape or something else that will prevent it from stirring up the bottom again, is the best way to refill.

That apart though, is the problems that seem to come as a result of doing a soil based addition.
My first aquascaped tank, in this months TOTM competition - (have you cast you vote yet), looked amazing at the time of setup but suffered a huge amount of slime from biofilm. The contruction of the tank is on here: and the live-stream link of it is on my signature.
Anyway, the biofilm was problem number 1. After that was the amount of hair algae that sprouted up all over the place. I have it sort of under control now but still have to scissor it off daily and let the shrimp and otos eat what's left.

The addition of the soil has done wonders though and worth every penny but to promote even healthier plant growth go for a CO2 setup.

Don't know if it would matter in this case but I would think the dark brown water would be do to contaminates. Don't actually know if it helps anything but I tend to boil to sanitize gravel substrate then run through a fine strainer.

Thus recently happened when I changed substrate. I just did a 25% water change and let my filters clear it. I’m filtering roughly 10 x my tank volume so it cleared up pretty quick

Rocky998 said:

How well did you rinse that stuff!? That is insane!
I would do daily water changes of over 50% if possible until it clears...

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I thought I rinsed it well, I kept mixing it around with water in a bucket and then putting it in a strainer and repeating that for like an hour and a half

jaylach said:

Don't know if it would matter in this case but I would think the dark brown water would be do to contaminates. Don't actually know if it helps anything but I tend to boil to sanitize gravel substrate then run through a fine strainer.

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I saw people say that it turned water brown because it is a dark brown substrate from volcanic rock but I guess I need to find a better way to wash it next time

It's a soil subtrate material that naturally releases colour. A good filter should take care of it

Lynnzer said:

It's a soil subtrate material that naturally releases colour. A good filter should take care of it

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HAVE YOU VOTED YET​

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It is starting to clear up, I can see inside the tank now but when I went in to flatten out the ground, it Stirred up more brown stuff, is this bad or is it ok if it just settles on the bottom