Does fluorite "lose" it's iron

[miufg]

Or laterite too after a period of say 10 years?

[Ozdude]

"miufg" > wrote in message
...
> Or laterite too after a period of say 10 years?

I'd say so. It's leaching it's compounds, and 10 years is a long time ;)

Oz
>
>

[Margolis]

yes it does, and much quicker than 10 years

--

Margolis
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[red_foreman]

Ok, then just for kicks, how many years WOULD it take? I've had
flourite in a 30g for 3 years, and it's breaking up into smaller
particles and smaller... Every year, I kinda break it down a bit and
suck the compacted 'dust' off the bottom, and I've always added a
couple handfulls of flourite back into it, just in case... but I'd like
to know how long it's effective, myself... Should one totally(more or
less) break a tank down and replenish it?? ( why not? other than simple
cost and effort/time??)

ok brainstorming done...

red_foreman

[Margolis]

how long I don't know. I just now that the nutrients to be used have to
removed from the substance. A heavily planted tank with lots of root
feeders would probably deplete it a lot faster than one stocked with mostly
stem plants. One to test might be with an iron test kit. Get a new sample
and crush it and mix it with some ro/di water and test the iron. then get a
sample of the old stuff and crush it and mix the same amounts of that and
ro/di water as you did with the other batch and test that. I don't know if
that will actually tell you anything about the usable iron or not, but it is
the only way I can think of to find out.

I would think all you need to do is start supplementing with iron if you
notice a deficiency. I don't think a complete teardown and startover is
needed. But hey, what the heck, sometimes it fun to do just that anyway.

--

Margolis
http://web.archive.org/web/20030215212142/http://www.agqx.org/faqs/AGQ2FAQ.htm
http://www.unrealtower.org/faq