That’s what I wanna know, what remineralizer should I use and if you don’t think the eco complete will work than what would you reccomend. What I’m doing is slowly buying everything I need for this setup and making sure I get the right stuff that’s good quality cause I don’t like being cheap with this stuff. So you guys tell me
Eco-Complete is inert, very low CEC (ability to store and exchange nutrients), it raises kH when new (plants prefer low kH), it has irregular granule size, it's hard to plant delicate plants into, it traps immense amount of organics (too much organic decomposition will promote algae), it's very hard to clean, it offers a perfect home for nasty black beard algae, and it's way too expensive, I would rather you spend money on quality lighting or CO2 instead of all that money on an inert substrate.
But, if you want to keep it no problem, it will still grow plants just as well as any other inert substrate we use in planted tanks.
If you want to save some money, you can use pool filter sand, K & E Industrial sand, or plain, non-buffering aquarium gravel / sand in your preferred colour. You can also find inert quartz sand from many hardware stores. Play sand can work, but it's messy and the grain size is a little too small to be ideal in our tanks.
Go onto amazon, and buy CaSO4 for Calcium (gH) and KHCO3 (for kH):
https://www.amazon.ca/Baker-and-Cro...f=sr_1_4?keywords=CaSO4&qid=1581129626&sr=8-4
https://www.amazon.ca/Home-Brew-Ohi...s=potassium+bicarbonate&qid=1581129744&sr=8-1
Then go to a drug store and buy plain, no additives, non-scented magnesium sulphate (Epsum Salt) MgSO4. I personally use Life brand from Shoppers Drug Mart. This is for Magnesium (gH)
For every 1 gallon of 100% RO water, dose:
488 mg CaSO4 = 30ppm Ca
384 mg MgSO4 = 10ppm Mg
This = roughly 6-7 degrees of gH
Also dose:
135 mg KHCO3 = 1.0 degrees of kH
This = a pH of roughly 7.1 - 7.2
That is the simplest, cheapest way to remineralize RO water. Buy a 50 gram scale with accuracy to 0.001 grams off amazon for $10-$20. 500 grams of each product will last you years.
Store bought gH boosters are loaded with extra potassium and iron that you don't really want.
Also I’m thinking of the finnex planted 24/7 for a light
I didn't know we could buy Finnex lights in Canada?
I would personally stay away from Finnex.... Poor warranty, and mediocre light output.
Fluval 3.0 is probably a better option, or go with T5-HO. 2-3 bulbs over a 40 will be medium light.
The problem with a single LED strip light is front - back coverage is not good, even on a tank 12" deep, the coverage is just not there... Which is where bulbs come out ahead. You can use 2 lesser powered LED strip lights to avoid dark areas... but that's where added cost's start to rise.