Flourite vs eco-complete vs sand

[brennae]

anyone have any opinions on which is better, Flourite, Eco-Complete or regular sand? I've decided not to do a Walstad method tank like originally planned and now I am not sure which substrate to go with. I'm good about adding root tabs but bad about doing liquid ferts.

 

[Lardeelion]

anyone have any opinions on which is better, Flourite, Eco-Complete or regular sand? I've decided not to do a Walstad method tank like originally planned and now I am not sure which substrate to go with. I'm good about adding root tabs but bad about doing liquid ferts.

I have all three (multiple tank syndrome). I'd say it depends on what you're looking for. My favorite, aesthetically, is the eco-complete. I didn't think I'd like black as much as I do. And in that tank my plants have started off with a bang. It was nice not to have to rinse it the way I did the flourite. For months in the flourite tank, every time I vacuumed, the dust would fly up.

That being said, the plants in my flourite tank have grown really well too. My only complaint, after at least 5 years with it, is that I'm tired of looking at the reddish color, but that could happen with any substrate.

In my betta tanks I have sand, and I like the look, but since it's a light sand it shows any algae and crud that may end up on the surface. Sand is fine for easy plants like wisteria and java fern and anubias; I don't think my red wendtii is exploding with growth though, even with a root tab. It's perfectly fine, but it's not growing like a weed.

I don't think I'd do plain old sand again. Eco-complete has been my overall favorite for looks and function.

 

[Icd1227]

I agree with Lardeelion, I had a tank with sand. Which was move at first but got very dirty and it was not pleasent to look at at all. When I took the tank down it smelled awful from all the stuff trapped in the sand, and you can't vacuum it to clean it because then it gets sucked up too.

Just yesterday I set up a tank with black flourite substrate, I spent a good 3-4 hours rinsing 30 pounds, it was a huge pain but the black won't show any crud, and I have no dust problems.

Can't speak for eco complete, and not long term for the flourite, but I can tell you definitely don't go sand.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I've used Eco Complete and Floramax... they're essentially the same substrate. I have no complaints and recommend either.

 

[phishfriend]

I'll third the Eco-complete. The stuff is great IMO. No rinsing just put it in the tank, plant and enjoy. Doesn't breakdown or have to be replaced. And it looks good. This is also my first mid to high light planted tank. So as I'm stumbling trying to get things right like dry fertz, excel, lighting times etc. all my plants are doing well.

 

[Rivercats]

I've got Eco or dirt with Eco cap in all my tanks and it's always worked well for me.

 

[Autumnsky]

Hey following this, as I am looking at a similar problem deciding!

Is Eco too scratchy for Cories?

Can you mix some sand with the Eco?

 

[Rivercats]

I have 25 cories in the 220 with Eco and they do fine. If you add sand to Eco the sand will work itself down into the Eco and mix since sand grains are smaller than the Eco grains.

 

[Lardeelion]

Hey following this, as I am looking at a similar problem deciding!

Is Eco too scratchy for Cories?

Can you mix some sand with the Eco?

Cories seem to do fine with Eco. If you were to mix it with sand it would separate and you'd have two layers. I took Rivecats' advice and capped soil with Eco. Loving it.

Edit: Yeah, what she said. I didn't describe it very well.

 

[Cichlid Kid]

Not tryin to hijack here but Ive been considering mixing eco comp. with the black Tahitian moon sand I currently have. I'd only be mixing it in the back half of my 20 long where my swords and c. wendtii are. The front has a carpet of dhg and I really couldn't justify tearing it up to either mix or redo substrates.
Any thoughts or ideas? There's only about 1 1/2" of sand in it. The swords and crypts rooted nicely and are growing well. I just thought maybe they'd do even better w/eco. comp. ??

 

[Lardeelion]

Not tryin to hijack here but Ive been considering mixing eco comp. with the black Tahitian moon sand I currently have. I'd only be mixing it in the back half of my 20 long where my swords and c. wendtii are. The front has a carpet of dhg and I really couldn't justify tearing it up to either mix or redo substrates.
Any thoughts or ideas? There's only about 1 1/2" of sand in it. The swords and crypts rooted nicely and are growing well. I just thought maybe they'd do even better w/eco. comp. ??

Maybe an Eco-complete cap on top of the sand? I think Rivercats is the one to ask. My Eco cap over soil works well but soil isn't as compact as sand.

 

[tiger terror]

Not tryin to hijack here but Ive been considering mixing eco comp. with the black Tahitian moon sand I currently have. I'd only be mixing it in the back half of my 20 long where my swords and c. wendtii are. The front has a carpet of dhg and I really couldn't justify tearing it up to either mix or redo substrates.
Any thoughts or ideas? There's only about 1 1/2" of sand in it. The swords and crypts rooted nicely and are growing well. I just thought maybe they'd do even better w/eco. comp. ??

I did a 50/50 mix of those in my 10g planted&it has worked well..

 

[Lardeelion]

I'm going to chime in again. This morning I put a few extra cups of flourite in my tank. I rinsed those two cups 20 times in a bucket and the 20th rinse was almost as dirty as the first. Enough to make me certain I'll use Eco in the future.

 

[Rivercats]

Honestly if your getting good growth and using root tabs I'm not sure I'd mess with the substrate. Depending on how heavily planted the tank is you are going to make a real mess. If you do decide to do it then I'd get a cup, scoop out a cup of Eco and slowly pour it out onto the sand. After you get as much Eco in as you want then I'd find something that you could very slowly and gently work the Eco somewhat down and into the sand. The only good thing is Eco's water has a clairifier in it so you shouldn't have a cloudy tank too long. I also think depending on how much crud you stir up mixing the two you might need to do a heafty WC.

 

[phishfriend]

Cichlid, I was going to do the same thing. It just seemed from what I read the Eco was going to end up on top. So just did Eco.

Terror, you said you did it and like it. Does it look good? My wife just started a planted 10g shrimp/fry tank last night and did the cheapo sand. Which I'm afraid we are going to regret. So I may have to add Eco to it.

 

[tiger terror]

Honestly it blends so well together that by looking at my 10g all you pretty much see is the eco...what happens is the sand eventually settles at bottom&yes I'm happy with how it turned out...couple pics of the tank...

 

[bevoholic]

I use EC in both my 2.5g and my 20g. IMO it really makes the green plants color pop under the light.

 

[Scottyhorse]

My eco complete looks very nice in my tank. It actually ended up being cheaper than plain old gravel too, and I got more! Go figure

 

[jetajockey]

One other thing to throw out there, I just got a 40lb bag of saf-t-sorb at tractor supply for $4.50. It's a type of fired clay substrate. A little more complicated to work with than ecocomplete but it works just as well once its settled in.

 

[Autumnsky]

Also not trying to hijack...but is with topic...

I am buying Garnet sand (sand blasting sand) Wednesday, and you can buy it in different grit sizes from super fine to chunky like 16, 32 grit size I think which one of them are around 1- 1.4 mm size which are like big sand or very small gravel.

They have pretty colors like purple amethyst colors and or sunset colors like golden and red Garnet color with blacks and amber colors. So I was going for the sunset colors but not sure yet which size is which color. I was going for the chunkier almost gravel like size for the color. $18.95 for 50 lbs. and a 72 gal tank.

Wanted to mix that with the Eco 2-3 bags, do you think it would still separate or blend since it is a little chunky?

Flourite was on clearance at our Petsmart stores but after reading everything about how long it takes to rinse decided to skip it for Eco-Complete so no rinsing needed. It is snowy here and less playing in freezing water the better!