My Eco-Complete Thread

Well I have been using it for a week. Previously I used soil under playsand. Soil under playsand was great for every reason but one. Plants thrived in it. My blood worms would leave themselves exposed to be eaten sticking their heads out of the sand. Plants stayed rooted. Only complaint was it was a mess. If I had to prune plants and they upset the substrate it was a mess. It muddied up my filter material. Took forever to settle. If it wasn't such a mess to work with I would of opted to use it again when I moved.

So I looked for the next best option and on paper it would appear to be Eco-Complete. I have to say not impressed. Plants won't stay rooted. I am constantly having to replant my (non-native) Swords, and ludwiga. Plants don't seem to be thriving yet but it has only been a week so I won't pass judgement yet.

Worms do not expose themselves in the eco-complete. I thought they were all eaten until I stirred up the eco-complete and they are pretty abundant. Just seem to hide more in it.

Pro's are pretty good though. My darters and sucker have exhibited colors I have never seen before. They are gorgeous. It is very natural looking. It gives a great contrast against the fish and rocks. It is not messy at all.

Will update when I can better judge how my plants are doing in it. The plants had to float for a week with no substrate and have some recovering to do.

Edited by lozgod, 27 January 2010 - 09:11 PM.

Thanks for the review.

I used Eco-complete on my 30 gallon. It worked well for plants. I used it as a base layer and added regular gravel on top of it to give it a more natural look.

I used Eco-complete on my 30 gallon. It worked well for plants. I used it as a base layer and added regular gravel on top of it to give it a more natural look.

I personally like the appearance of it. I have a few patches of like stone gravel but like I said in the first post. The fish seem to have deepened their colors against the eco. It isn't an illusion or appearance due to the contrast. They literally changed colors. Really really cool.

A week?
Eco-complete will settle out and compact over time (a few months). I've used it by itself and as a cap, CO2 and el natural. I like it. I like it a lot better than, say, gray/black turface, which is really too lightweight (but does grow plants quite well). Old (at least a year) Eco-complete over mineralized soil is one of the better plant growing substrates. Among the dark plant friendly substrates, I like black flourite sand too. I set up a non-CO2 metaframe pico (2.5g) with black flourite sand over mineralized soil (and a sprinkle of peat) a few months ago. It's just starting to get rolling.

How do your plants get uprooted during pruning?
Maybe try some loooooong scissors and loooong hemos...

http://www.bluelakep...rs_aquarist.htm

I've got a couple sets of these, and also the hemos. Best price I've found for deep tank tools. They are great for relatively dry-hands pruning and planting, with minimal substrate disturbance.

Rick

Week 2. I have to say my opinion is making a 360. I removed the amazon swords for starters. To amazonian for a native tank IMO. Replaced with elodea/anacharis. Vals have shown signs of rejuvination. After floating with no substrate for about a week and a half it took its toll on them but now not only are they recovering but sprouting more vals on runners.

Eco-complete is winning me over.

Anyone have any idea how long it is before I have to worry about fertilizing it? Correct me if I am wrong but it comes fertilized, correct?

Edited by lozgod, 04 February 2010 - 10:44 PM.

Anyone have any idea how long it is before I have to worry about fertilizing it? Correct me if I am wrong but it comes fertilized, correct?

In a non-CO2 tank, heavily planted, with no or very light fish load, EC by itself should last around a year before it becomes depleted. Half that in a heavily planted, high light, CO2 tank.
With a lot of fish, the bioload will supplement the EC and it should last longer.
A couple inches of old EC capping an inch and a half of dirt, over a dusting of peat, with some osmocote sprinkled in, will last several years in a non CO2 tank.

Rick

OK. Still having problems with plants staying rooted so I bought some lead plant weights. Problem isn't the Eco it is the sucker. He sifts through it for blackworms and ends up uprooting plants. No biggie. The plants are now thriving in it. Not as good as the soil but not too shabby either.

I think the advantage the soil had was the bacteria in the soil creating more CO2 and better converting fish mulm and leftover food in to nutrients for the plants.

So it is winning me over. Not as good as soil in regards to plant growth but almost makes up for it with less messiness.