Flourite Or Eco-complete?

[jonnyf84]

Hi, just looking for opinions on with is the best nutrient substrate, i will be having a heavily planted tank with T5 lighting but no co2.

So which do you think is best? Caribsea EcoComplete or Seachem Flourite?

 

[Brette]

Hi, just looking for opinions on with is the best nutrient substrate, i will be having a heavily planted tank with T5 lighting but no co2.

So which do you think is best? Caribsea EcoComplete or Seachem Flourite?

I had the black fluorite, it was very nice (plants liked it) and not anywhere near as dusty as the red fluorite (which can be very dirty). It looked dark grey in the aquarium even though it was very black looking in the bag. Apparently the eco complete looks dark brown when added to the tank. And despite what the bag says, rinse, rinse, and rinse before adding any of them to your tank or you'll have dust. I rinsed my fluorite 10 times and it was well worth it considering the headaches i've heard from some people regarding dusty water. Also, if you have corys, the eco complete might be the way to do as the garnules are rounded. The fluorite is more jagged and might hurt the cory's barbels.

The one drawback i found with most of those substrates for plants is that they are porous. When I had an columnaris outbreak in the tank i had to ditch the fluorite (whis was not cheap). When you have gravel, you can boil it or really wash it well with something and you can be reasonably sure it is bacteria free. Not so with porous material.

 

[jonnyf84]

And despite what the bag says, rinse, rinse, and rinse before adding any of them to your tank or you'll have dust.

I thought the bags came with some sort of liquid in them which is packed with nutrients?

 

[Brette]

And despite what the bag says, rinse, rinse, and rinse before adding any of them to your tank or you'll have dust.

I thought the bags came with some sort of liquid in them which is packed with nutrients?

It's probably just run off from the substrate. Google "fluorite and dusty water" and you'll get a bunch of hits. Apparently its a complete pain once it is in your tank if you haven't rinsed REALLY well beforehand.

 

[fish.com1]

And despite what the bag says, rinse, rinse, and rinse before adding any of them to your tank or you'll have dust.

I thought the bags came with some sort of liquid in them which is packed with nutrients?

My eco-complete came with some liquid in the bag, and i just poured it in the tank, after a day or so there was no cloudiness. It is a charcoal grey colour when in the tank.

 

[Amunet]

I use eco complete and just love it. It's actually almost black once in the tank and looks super. We didn't bother washing it and never had a problem with it making the water "dusty" or whatever. I am a very messy cleaner whenever I do gravel vacs and water changes, and never had a problem with it clouding up the water or anything like that. You will suck up some of it when doing gravel vacs but not enough to worry about.
The only real problem I've had w/ it though is keeping some plants in the substrate. Usually ones that have their roots compacted together b/c they were in a pot. The substrate is kinda light, so there wouldn't be any kind of weight from the eco complete to keep them in the gravel. Ssame with trying to keep some stem plants in place. Not enough weight in the substrate to keep them in place very well.

But that's only what I've experienced with it, I'm sure others probably didn't have any kind of problem

 

[Mikaila31]

I have both flourite and eco-complete in different tanks. Both grow plants very well. I would suggest rinsing flourite. I rinsed the flourite I put in my 20 gal, but not the flourite I put in my 15gal. If you pull the plants up or disturb the substrate in the 15gal it does get quite dusty. I wouldn't call it a complete pain. The tank stays clear on its own, it gets pretty cloudy after water changes, but it goes away after a few hours.

You don't rinse eco-complete, just pour it into the tank. The tank will go very murky. My mom was concerned I was going to kill the fish when I poured 60lbs of eco-complete into one of my tanks . You could only see about 2-3" into the water. I put the whole plastic eco-complete bag in the tank when adding it and didn't have any problems. I cut of the top then, submerged the whole bag and let it sit on the bottom of the tank then gently poured it out. This really helps with reducing the cloudiness. Throw a bunch of extra filter floss into the filter and clean it every day for a few days. Once the tank starts to clear, start gently stirring the substrate with you hand. This will make it cloudy again, but it helps it naturally settle, all the small silt-like particles go to the bottom and the larger ones go to the top.

 

[jonnyf84]

thanks for all the replies. I think i'm going to go for the eco complete although ADA Aquasoil interests me but i think it has a high CEC and the fish i am putting in there are quite particular so its out the question unfortunately.