Comments about substrates

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Xzap

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jun 29, 2005
Messages
587
Location
Triad, North Carolina
I've used gravel, flourite and Eco complete.

By far, I prefer Eco for planting, especially stem plants. It also stays where you put it i.e it doesn't settle and move around. If you create a mound or shape with it, it stays there :)

Thx,

Dave
 
I just set up using flourite. Boy, what a bunch of muck when you rinse it. I gave up and put it in the tank, and had a lot of cloudiness for a day or so. For the first two days, lots of brown muck clouded the tank when you disturbed it. Now, If I disturb it much less much is thrown into the water, so I think the silt has settled to the bottom and Is much harder to disturb. After a few days of settling in I have no more complaints.
 
Well, if you can't get/find eco-complete, Estes is probably the second best choice for the planted tank. It holds stem plants firmly (especially if you bore the hole deep enough).

xzap said:
It's basically dirt that's been fired.

I had visions of several large bags of Eco-Complete standing on the employment line...sorry for the diversion. :)
 
I've used both Seachem's Flourite and Caribsea's Eco-Complete for planted tanks and, while both work well for growing plants, I think EC just looks better and is easier to plant in. I've also got quite a bit of Caribsea's Cichlid Sand in my substrate mix and really like way it works for planting, although it is very high in calcium and may burn the roots of some plants. This makes me want to try Seachem's Onyx Sand because it appears to be quite similar in grain structure to Cichlid Sand, but designed for plants. Has anyone used it and, if so, what did you think? I've heard mention that it may buffer the water, but in an ARLC tank like mine that's only gravy :wink:
 
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