Advice switching to Eco-Complete

[mandoborg]

Hey folks, another silly question here. I have everything i need to switch my 29 gallon aquarium over and get started on some live plants. I have the aquarium already set up and it's been doing great for 6-8 months. Everything looks and measures fine and i have some very happy fish ! I am planning on taking out 20 gallons of water into buckets used only for my aquarium work,, put my fish in those, and getting rid of the rest and cleaning the aquarium before adding the eco-complete. My question is, after adding back the 20 gallons of water, still using the filter that's already working great, ( looks like s**t), but doing it's job, can i put my fish right back in ?? I have no other tank to put them in for any amount of time, but does the eco-complete jam up the water for a few days ?? any advice would be great......

Sorry to be so long winded on such a simple question, i just want to make sure i don't do something that puts my little buddies at risk !!!

Jim

 

[AquaShark]

I have a 29 gallon that I switched to eco-complete fine grade. I took fish out into a 10 gallon aquarium, with some of the tanks driftwood and an extra filter. Then put rest of driftwood and plants into bucket along with the filters media. Then drained all the water in the main tank and emptied it out and cleaned real well, replanted my plants and driftwood, filled up with new clean water. Then put filter back on and put fish back in. I also used the water that was packed in with the eco complete. Just make sure to monitor the water well after and do any water changes that are needed.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I did something similar with Floramax, which is very similar to Eco Complete. I put my fish in a bucket with tank water and an airstone. I waited 24 hours to return the fish only because Floramax left my tank fairly cloudy. However, Floramax needs a pre-rinse whereas EC doesn't. EC might setup more cleanly and not have the cloudiness due to it being packaged with liquid. I'd say, the fish can be returned sooner than my experience, but if you see cloudy water, just wait a bit.. but shouldn't take more than 24hrs.

 

[mandoborg]

Wow, nice to sign on and see some info !! Thank You both for your answers/advice !!

Appreciate it, i got a weekend project to do !!!

Jim

 

[Rivercats]

I switched a gravel tank to Eco a few months back and after I was done I let the tank sit about an hour and re-added the fish with no problems.