I don't think eco complete has any nutrients in it from what I have read. It is basically inert just like sand although it has a better cation exchange and hold more bacteria, looks good, is easy to clean and plant in.
Nice post Bert. We do tend to abuse lighting to a certain degree. My qualms with lighting are the numbers. To me they don't really mean anything. The plants will decide whether there is enough and the algae will decide whether there is too much.
Where's the like button on cation exchange I have a few kilograms of a planted tank volcanic pellet substrate in the tank on one side mainly. Not much of it but beautifully easy to put plants into. The other side is more seachem fluorite and seems to lock together a bit. Harder to get plants into although they do ok.
I know with lighting I thought I could start high and reduce down. Took a while to learn to start low and work up.
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