Can I Crush Eco-complete?

[penguinpimp1990]

I want to plant a 25 gallon tank and move one of my wimple piranha's into it. Black subtrate look awesome with the piranha, so I was wondering If i could whack the eco-complete with a hammer or something to make it finer because the piranha likes fine subtrates and I already bought 2 twenty poun bags of it and i dont want to buy another bag of gravel.........


oh yeah does anyone have a pic of eco complete in their tank? it will look good against plants and fish but i dont know how it will look against drift wood

 

[zig]

Its as fine as sand allready, its flourite thats similar to gravel.

So no need.

 

[penguinpimp1990]

ooooo i ordered it off the internet so i didnt get a look at it so i just assumed that is was coarse. thanks zig

 

[piper]

I know what you mean Penguin, the picture on the net makes Eco-com look ready coarse. I'm worried about ordering it over the net too. A picture would really assure me, £75 is alot of money to spend with out seeing it.

 

[rdd1952]

Its as fine as sand allready, its flourite thats similar to gravel.

So no need.

It's definitely not fine. Some of the pieces are as big as 1/2" in diameter. If you want black substrate, try Tahitian Moon Sand. It's a very fine-grained black sand and only takes a few minutes to wash (washed a full bag in about 5 minutes). I now have it in every tank except the one that has Eco Complete in it. That one atually has the TMS in it. It was on top of the EC but has not filtered down so that the EC is on top.

 

[piper]

I assume Penguin was using EC for a good plant substrate (same as me) so using just sand aint really an option.

 

[AndyTaylor]

TetraPlant Complete is quite fine and you could always chuck a layer of sand over it?

Sorry. Dumb. you already have EC... )

 

[zig]

The newer batches of Eco complete are apperantly much finer than older batches <batches newer than 6 months should be finer, ever since they had problems some months back production methods have changed resulting in a finer lighter mix.

Onyx sand is another alternative but this has a slight buffering capacity on your water, it raises the ph slightly, onyx sand works well for planted tanks its black also.

 

[rdd1952]

TetraPlant Complete is quite fine and you could always chuck a layer of sand over it?

If you put sand over gravel, it will filter down through the gravel and you will eventually have gravel on top. I put the Tahitian Moon Sand over Eco Complete when I set my tank up in March and it has cmpletely filtered down now so that my top layer is the EC.

 

[penguinpimp1990]

hmmmmmmm if it coarse can i still crush it up a bit though?

 

[Aqua Essentials]

hmmmmmmm if it coarse can i still crush it up a bit though?

Yes you can

 

[hunterm8]

i got some eco about 6 weeks ago and it is fine possibly a tad couser than sand no much though

 

[rdd1952]

i got some eco about 6 weeks ago and it is fine possibly a tad couser than sand no much though

They must have changed it since I got mine back in March (no telling how long they had it on the shelf before I bought it either). I wish mine were finer. I'm afraid that since the sand I had on top of it has filtered down, I'm going to have to take my corys out as the bottom is now too coarse for them. I may try to set up a portion of the tank for them and fill that section with the TMS.