Eco Complete vs. Floramax Substrate

[TotallyCoral]

Hey fellow AA members, I've been on this site for a while now and I would just like to ask one quick question. Is the Floramax substrate essentially the same as Eco Complete without all the liquid beneficial material added to it? If so, which substrate do you guys think would work best under some pool filter sand? (If that is even an option.) Also, how much of each layer of substrate should I use? Oh I almost forgot, my tank is a 46 gallon bow front that will most likely be a low light aquarium. I'm in the process of drawing up an Amazon themed tank or something that resembles it. However, I'm currently stumped on the substrate... Thank you in advance!

 

[mfdrookie516]

I wouldn't cover it up with PFS... I have a mix of floramax and flourite in my 40 breeder, I had PFS but opted for the darker look. From my understanding, it is the same stuff as eco, without the bacteria. And, its cheaper. I paid $15 a bag (20lbs) for the floramax, which is 2-3 times more substrate the the same 20lb bag of eco because of all the water.

 

[jetajockey]

Floramax seems to be a bit bigger grained than Eco. I wouldn't worry about the 'bacteria' stuff in eco anyway, it's not anything that doesn't naturally occur in the tank, and it won't stop you from getting new tank syndrome, let the plants do that.

 

[TotallyCoral]

Thank you guys all so much! After reading the responses I think I'll just go with Floramax because of the price. However, is there any other kind of sand substrate other than PFS that I can lay on top? Or should I just leave it as is? I'm planning on moving one of my Cory Cats to the tank but I'm not sure about the hard substrate... I very much appreciate it!

 

[jetajockey]

I have panda and pygmy cories on floramax mixed with colorquartz sand. The floramax pretty much sits on top though.

 

[mfdrookie516]

My cories are fine with it. The flourite is about the same texture, and its all just mixed together.

 

[TotallyCoral]

Thanks guys I really appreciate it! I found some Floramax sold for around $17 a bag so I'll most likely end up getting those. Thanks again!

 

[jaydoubledub]

I just bought some too. I mixed in some black pebbles (5lb bag) I had leftover from my main tank. This [10g] tank is going to replace my 2.5g nurse tank. I will make it lightly planted as well. I am wondering if there's any benefit to adding my current pebbles from my nurse tank to the bottom? I want to keep as much of the bio-filter media as possible.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Coursair]

I am using Tahitian Moon Sand over black Flourite. So I understand the liking for dark color. I've also heard of folks using black blasting (?) sand.

 

[FishN00b83]

FWIW I just bought 4 bags of Eco-Complete for 88 bucks with free shipping from petsolutions.com.

 

[jaydoubledub]

So, I just did the upgrade and transfer. Yeaaaaahhh, it's pretty cloudy!

The original pebbles/stones are blue. I put them in a central strip at the bottom. After that I added the Floramax and black pebble combo over top of it. I really rinsed the Floramax, but, it was still cloudy. . Then I transferred my filter media to my old 20g filter. The filter media is from my 2.5g nurse tank so it sits freely in the filter. I planted a crypt, added fixtures, and waited an hour or so. I don't think it'll be a problem though, for now.

After that I transferred my two "maintenance" guppies to the tank. Hopefully they survive. I filled half the tank from my main 40g tank and the other half with conditioned tap water.