the soil make water turbid in new set up tank

[oldstone]

HI ,
i just set up a 2 feet tank with the GEX soil and some plant. when i fill in the water, the little particles in the soil all float up and make the water very turbid. it takes about 24 hours to let the little particles all settle down. but once any disturbance in the water, they come up again and make the water turbid again. i am now using a filter to circulate the water. but it seems even the circulation is bringing up the particles and the water cannot be clear so far. wonder whether this is the correct way to set up a plant tank?

[beetlejuice403]

Bro, don't worry, the stuffs floating are just some small pieces of wood (I think so lah...) or those soil with some air packets in it... You can simply remove these floating particles with your hands or a net...

As for the settling, it should take less than 24hours for the water to clear (based on my own experience of using Gex soil also..)... Try not to disturb the soil once you'd poured water into the tank [Hence, you need to plan how you put in your stones/driftwoods & plants into the tank before you add water...] as this will cause the cloudiness again... but it should clear away in no time with your filter running... Don't worry bro, enjoy!!!

[oldstone]

thanks a lot!

[gemo82]

I had the same experience when setting up my tank for the first time too. I was using Gex Dark green and Light green packaging soil together. Water was so clouded I could not do my scaping. I was frustrated and went to sleep with the filter on. Next morning it was clear.

You need to have your filter to be running while waiting for it to settle down, so that the fine particles that cloud your water will be removed by your filter instead of just settle to the bottom to be stirred up again the next time you do any scaping. In my opinion, I would purposely stir up a mess and let my filter clear it up when setting up my tank with no fauna in it of course. Thereafter, if I am adding soil to any part of my tank, I use a small container with soil and rinse it a few times (although instructions are not to rinse it), fill it with tank water and slowly lower it to where I want it and pour slowly.

My opinion on Gex soil is that the light green package is the "cleanest" to use, but planting on them is not easy, plants keep floating up. Dark green is the finest and planting on time is easy, but they tend to cloud the water easily. Red packaging is in between the two extremes, and I am currently using it to top up soil in my tank on places I need.

[oldstone]

hi
thanks a lot. your experience is exactly what i am having now. i am also very frustrated when looking at the cloudy water which is far away from what is showing at the fish shop. your instruction is very useful and let me feel more condifent going on. i will try it.