flourish substrate or eco complete or sand? ++

[Musket]

Which is better for a low-med light 25g tank with goldfish and plants?

the stores around here only carry the black and red flourish for planted tanks. Where do you get eco complete?

Can you put stones on top of any of these substrates?

How do you gravel vac it? Wouldn't it come up with the dirt? Do you just hover? How do you get a good deep clean that way?

Can you create your own good non-floating substrate with perhaps top soil, peat moss and sand? Or something similar?

 

[kaz]

eco-complete, what ever you throw at it, it will grow

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Definitely Eco Complete. I wouldn't have anything else.

 

[Musket]

okay then.. eco complete. Where do you get it? How do you clean it? Is it small gravel like, sandy, loamy? I have never seen it... Color? Can you add stones over it or is that not recommended?

 

[Jchillin]

You don't need to clean or rinse, put it in the tank and let it settle on it's own. The only source I've ever seen is online but here it is.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

You don't need to clean it, but if planted, you might get some plant stuff of dead algae sitting under the plants, which you can just suck up with a gravel vac. No need to run the gravel vac into the Eco, just above it to get rid of whatever you want to clean off the surface.

As for the use of Eco, it can be used alone, or with gravel or rock on top. Your choice. I use mine alone, no gravel or rock. Looks more natural that way. It's just a personal preference as to however you want to do it.

Big Al's Online also carries it.

 

[newfound77951]

I'm with everyone else on this....Eco is awesome. i think my rocks and driftwood might be growing roots in this stuff, too . Plus it looks really nice.

As far as locating it, it's pretty pricey. Look around a lot online, you might find a place that's doing a cheap or free shipping promo, otherwise the price that you pay online plus shipping may come close to what you can get at your LFS. I would go to your LFS and ask how much it would be per bag if they ordered you some and then compare to online. Be patient, it's worth the wait!

 

[hashbaz]

Ecocomplete has particles of many different sizes, ranging from dust to pebbles. If you merely hover the vac over the ecocomplete, only the very smallest dust particles will get sucked up. If you vac deeper then some of the smaller sand sized particles may get sucked up. After a while the sand and dust particles will work there way to the bottom of the substrate and you will not have to worry any longer.

Ecocomplete is pretty dense, so trash does not sink very far into it - so it is not neccessary to do "deep" vacs. Many people with planted tanks don't do any gravel vacs (including I). But I would suggest only skipping the gravel vacs if you have a nice ground cover to hide the gunk. Gunk may be great fertilizer for the plants, but can get a little ugly.

$22 per bag. Free shipping. http://aquariumplant.com/cgi-bin/cart/SS695.html

 

[newfound77951]

There you go...hashbaz did the work for you. Good luck!

 

[cbk.o4]

yeah i got my 5 bags for my 55g from aquariumplant.com too. im actually thinking of gettin another bag.

 

[Musket]

so if you don't have to vacuum... would you need to stir it on occasion or have MTsnails or ramshorns or something to turnover the substrate?

Also.. I thought it was the poop and excess food *if any* that mucks up the water. Yet you are telling me that I do not need to vacuum it up with this eco-complete. Or am I misunderstanding?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Depending on how it's planted, if it's lightly planted, you may want to get some MTS. But if heavily planted with a lot of heavy root plants, shouldn't need any. I have some in mine, even though it's heavily planted. Just for assurance. I don't think ramshorns will work, only Malaysian Trumpet Snails go under the substrate.

As for the poo, it will murk up the water if it's not planted. But in a planted tank, the plants will take in the nitrates given off by the poo as food. The poo is plant food.

 

[Musket]

thanks everyone
I found one store that has eco-complete. And another that told me to check back on Wednesday afternoon after the shipment comes in. Said they used to have it. This 2nd store is $5 less on the flourite so maybe with a little luck it will be less on the eco-complete too. (if they get it in again)