# Brand new Netlea soil clouding water



## bluberrymuffin (May 7, 2011)

Hello,

Last year I bought some Netlea soil and was told I could gravel vacc it as if it were gravel, but a few months in my water turned completely cloudy and would no clear up no matter what I tried...I found out this was due to repeated gravel vaccuming into the substrate breaking it up and I was misinformed. As soon as I changed substrates the water cleared up.

Now I bought another new bag of Netlea for my mom's tank and the water has been cloudy since day 1. It has been 3 weeks now at least. No chemicals, purigen or water changes can change the same murky hazy brown water despite never touching the substrate with the vaccum this time. Does anyone know what could be the cause of this? Someone told me I may have gotten a fake bag...I didn't even think this was possible? :S


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## Yann (Feb 16, 2013)

*Fake Bag*

Netlea is coming from China (unless I'm gravely mistaken) and though I suppose it is possible to have a 'fake' bag, my guess would be more along the lines of the bag you got being from a bad batch.

That being said, I had similar problems with the cloudiness my h2o for 3 weeks after set up. I was using one of the HOB canister filters by 'up-aquatic' which i had purchased at the same time as the Netlea soil from AI. I had to pull the thing apart twice in the first month because the impeller kept on stopping even though there was nothing clogging it (also, only a very small surface area in the filter had any indication of filtering). I put that piece of garbage in the trash and got myself an Eheim, seeded it with the other filters bio media and had crystal clear h2o a matter of hours...

Hope this helps in some way, cheers.


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## default (May 28, 2011)

Did you get yours at AI or from another person/shop?
I believe AI is the only one that carries it, and if you got yours from somewhere/someone else, then that would be the cause.

If you did get it through them, there could be a bunch of other causes.
I've had netlea for a couple of years now, perhaps 12-16 bags in total, I've used the brown and Lambo for multiple tanks.
Personally I've never seen any problems with any of them, I think the only problem with any aqua soil is the fact they always fall apart no matter what, and they are horrible to "rework". Perhaps you just disturbed your substrate too much, but seriously - why do you vacuum aqua soil?


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## bluberrymuffin (May 7, 2011)

Yes, both times were from AI...I have emailed them the problem with a picture so hopefully they may be able to shed some light.

The substrate in question was just put into the tank about a month ago and has never been disturbed save for some light planting. Unfortunately the first time around I was misinformed, and now the tank is only "vacuumed" in the sense that you would vacuum sand, so less actual vacuuming, more siphoning water for water changes. This is necessary because there are a good number of fish in the tank and the plant load is not heavy enough yet.



default said:


> Did you get yours at AI or from another person/shop?
> I believe AI is the only one that carries it, and if you got yours from somewhere/someone else, then that would be the cause.
> 
> If you did get it through them, there could be a bunch of other causes.
> ...


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## default (May 28, 2011)

bluberrymuffin said:


> Yes, both times were from AI...I have emailed them the problem with a picture so hopefully they may be able to shed some light.
> 
> The substrate in question was just put into the tank about a month ago and has never been disturbed save for some light planting. Unfortunately the first time around I was misinformed, and now the tank is only "vacuumed" in the sense that you would vacuum sand, so less actual vacuuming, more siphoning water for water changes. This is necessary because there are a good number of fish in the tank and the plant load is not heavy enough yet.


Ahh I see.
Although even then I wouldn't even vacuum lightly, you're still disturbing something that likes to break down and crumble. Just fill it up with plants now.
I assumed it was user error that would be causing this cloudiness, usually stuffing a tank with fish before you plant is always a bad thing.
I've seen people try to scape a tank with existing fish and its both hard to do and looks horrible in the fishes perspective - so much easier to scape when the tank only has an inch or two of water.
Every time I work on my tanks, even if its under a year old, I usually replace the netlea.. Costs a fortune, but that stuff is not moveable.. It crumbles and sometimes even the roots hold on too hard and it breaks apart taking out plants.
Might have to go back to fluorites..


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## bluberrymuffin (May 7, 2011)

*Mystery Solved*

Called up Aquainspiration today, apparently Netlea cannot be used in soft water, will completely dissolve. We weren't told when we purchased it and it says so on the bag on a little sticker in chinese though, which I cannot read unfortunately.

We have a water softener that softens all our internal water sources so it looks like we'll have to change substrates completely


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## default (May 28, 2011)

bluberrymuffin said:


> Called up Aquainspiration today, apparently Netlea cannot be used in soft water, will completely dissolve. We weren't told when we purchased it and it says so on the bag on a little sticker in chinese though, which I cannot read unfortunately.
> 
> We have a water softener that softens all our internal water sources so it looks like we'll have to change substrates completely


Oh boy.. That sucks.
Last thing I would of thought of is that it's dissolving due to soft water.


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