Gravel Vac And Eco Complete

[jonnyf84]

ok one of my tanks has eco complete for its substrate, its heavily planted, at the mo it just has 8 amano shrimp in it but i will be adding 10 nezzies tonight, i know plants will use the biodegraded poo but if there is too much of it then i will need to vac, this creates a problem as eco complete has a very fine dust like element to it as well as the larger grains (which are very lite) and in my one attempt at doing a vac i must of sucked up half a bag! Is there any way around this?

 

[fatheadminnow]

ok one of my tanks has eco complete for its substrate, its heavily planted, at the mo it just has 8 amano shrimp in it but i will be adding 10 nezzies tonight, i know plants will use the biodegraded poo but if there is too much of it then i will need to vac, this creates a problem as eco complete has a very fine dust like element to it as well as the larger grains (which are very lite) and in my one attempt at doing a vac i must of sucked up half a bag! Is there any way around this?

I have the same problem with my substrate.

Try to stay about a CM above the substrate and you should be fine, just far away enough to get the poo up.

It takes practice, but you will eventually get the hand of it.

-FHM

 

[saz326]

I found this too - but the vacuum actually did me a favour.

Over time, you will see the big bits of the substrate come to the top, it separates so that the finest stuff it at the bottom - achieving nothing.

When you vac, you stir it all up again. This means the fine stuff is then spread throughout meaning that new roots arent only pushing through boulders.