Eco-Complete - best cleaning procedures

[pwrflpills]

A couple months ago I switched my substrate to eco-complete from medium sized gravel. Now with eco-complete my 3 black mollies make the floor of my lightly planted tank look more like a septic tank after just a few days - compared to barely noticing anything with the gravel after 4 weeks. I'm getting used to trying to do weekly vacuuming and PWCs, but I wonder if I'm making too much of it or if I should do something else, like trade in the mollies, which I've been considering for a while now.

For those of you that have successful tanks with eco-complete, what are your usual cleaning/vacuuming routines? Any experience with it and mollies?

Also, the substrate seems to be very sandy. More so than I was anticipating when I purchased it. Is this normal? It seems to contribute to my problem of the mollie waste accumulating on the surface of the substrate.

 

[jrp1588]

I just run the vac about 1/2" from the substrate and it sucks up almost all the poo. If it's stubborn, just swish the vacuum a bit to suck it up

 

[ringfinger]

Totally agree with jrp.

A weekly vac with PWC should be standard practice anyway.

Mine stays pretty sandy on the surface in one of my tanks, but I like it that way. I think the sand is supposed to eventually work its way to the bottom.

Tank looks really good!

 

[CGGorman]

My solution?

More plants to cover and use the "free fertilizer"...

 

[Kilgore]

You could try adding some white sand (usually can be purchased in bulk at the LFS) to achieve a speckled appearance on the gravel that would help to disguise the poo. That's the what I do in my guppy tank and it works great. Looks nice, too. Adding some carpeting-type plants like Glosso or micro-swords or something would help, too.

 

[jrp1588]

Glosso only works in very high light doesn't it?

 

[Kilgore]

Glosso only works in very high light doesn't it?

Good point. Guess a low-light carpet plant would be better. I've heard "moss balls" spread - are they low light like Java Moss? Anyway, my point was to find a low-growing plant that will help cover some of the gravel and disguise the issue, while also utilizing the nutrients.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

There is a type of clover that would work, and looks pretty good.

 

[jrp1588]

Yeah, but I've never seen anything that looks as good as the glosso and ricca available in high light

 

[gfink]

I'm trying to get my hands on some of this.

http://www.floridadriftwood.com/product.asp?3=850