Thank you so much for this video. I thought I was the only person with issues with Eco Complete. My plants do not stay rooted. Even with the plant weights. My planted tank is over a year and half old and i have minimal plant growth. even using Seachem root tabs and Flourish. You are the first person to make a video on this. I now have plans to tear my tank down and redo it. Many, many thanks. You have made my day!
Something was telling me that there should be a layer above the substrate, now I know to also get something else to cap the eco complete. Very helpful video.
Wait so when you do a water change like when you clean the gravel will the sand sink or will it not, or do I not clean the gravel, should I just clean to top of the gravel or none
Thanks for this video. I also find it maddening that it is so tough to plant in eco complete. I am thinking about redoing my 20 gallon and like the idea of the sand cap
Thank you so much for your honest review and advice. I'm in the process of upgrading my 10 g tank to a 20 g. I got a good deal on a 2nd hand tank & the guy included 2 big bags of black sand with the complete unit (all for only $70). I bought a nice big piece of Malaysian driftwood that required many rinses & and soakings to get out the excessive tannins, that turned the water red-brown. Next, I found some live plants I want to buy but I heard about the benefits of CaribSea Eco-Complete. Oh man! I'm so glad I watched your video or I would have gone about it all wrong. I am going to try the same setup you went with on your second setup redo and hopefully I am as successful as you. I wasn't considering the fertilizer tabs... Like you said, I need to keep reading up and getting more advice. Thanks again for sharing your experience and a really well done video that gets right to the point. Kudos!
I had the same issue with ecocomplete. Exact same problem. Then I capped the substrate with sand but eventually it all fell through the eco gravel and mixed in. So my advice to those looking for ecocomplete like gravel is try the seachem flourite. Its a smaller less sharp size so the plants stay and I've been seeing great root growth. Just know you will have to fertilize it yourself since it doesn't come with fertilizers in the mix. Right now I have 2 tanks one is a walstad method capped with sand and the other is the seachem black. Excited to see what the differences and results will be. So far I am seeing great growth from both so I guess time will tell. Wish I had found this video before I wasted my money on Ecocomplete
Thank you for your video… I just purchased 2 bags of the ECO. I watched another video that said the ECO needs to be rinsed because it fogged the tank for months. I will combine both tips the black sand and to rinse. Thanks again
Thanks for the honest info man. I've been going back and forth on Eco since I made the commitment to do a planted tank. I really like the look of black blasting sand and I don't like the idea of having to replace the enriched soils. I might go the layered route with the sand over the Eco
I've been mulling over exactly these issues and before I found your video I was intuitively contemplating doing exactly the same thing that you did only with white sand. I like the dark look of the substrate, but my wife and daughter prefer my previously used light colored river pebbles which I might use on top of the white sand. Thanks for your video!
I found the issue with courseness had a lot to do with not raking it well enough. When I started my 10 gallon I couldnt get anything to stay in the substrate. I decided to rake an area very well and it immediately grabbed hold. I felt so foolish
Did you have any issues with the gravel ending up on top of the sand? I bought some Eco Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate and some fine black sand and plan on basically doing what you did; a layer of Eco Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate on the bottom of the aquarium and then a layer of the fine black sand on top. I am just worried the gravel will end up working its way up above the fine sand since on the packaging of the Eco Complete it says it is Bi Modal (which means the fine particles go to the bottom and the larger coarse particles go to the top.) Hopefully the gravel stays under!
You'll be fine. My setup is three years old. and the only time a bit of gravel comes to the surface is when I uproot a plant, which is a rare occurrence. If I'm careful, even that is minimal.
Thanks for the video - very informative, setting up my second planted aquarium, and wanted to avoid the issue of plants that would at times float away, so will use a finer substrate this time around. What plant did you use for your carpet?
@@jaymiller3238 Don't get me wrong, your approach on the second tank is not bad. The sand is keeping the plants in place and the eco-complete is getting enriched with nutrients from the root tabs. However, eco-complete would do a better job at absorbing nutrients from detritus on the first layer, and the sand would be a better surface to form an anoxic layer and grow nitrifying bacteria at the bottom. Keep in mind that eco-complete (or eco-planted now that it's rebranded) is an inert substrate. It just have no nutrients of its own out of the bag. Instead, it acts like a porous sponge that adsorbs excess nutrients from the aquarium ecosystem and releases them back slowly when needed. The way to go about it is to put at the bottom a layer of something with nutrients, like soil, and especially something compact that can create anoxic media for nitrifying bacteria. Without the root tabs you would have been dead in the water in both tanks. If you are concerned about plants staying in place, the plants would have taken hold on the sand wether it was on top or at the bottom as long as the eco-complete layer was not extremely thick. For example, my tank is Fluval Roma 240L, with a first layer of 10L of potting soil for ponds but in 4 net bags. Then, 20Kg of cheap inert aquarium sand, natural looking, but somewhat bright coloured. This keeps the potting soil capped, although I want to thicken it with 5Kg more, becasue I touch the dirt bags every time I try to plant on the sand. Then, on the back half, a 10Kg bag of eco-planted for the heavy root plants. I had no problem getting all plants to hold, even a huge Echinodorus Bleheri that I moved from a previous tank. The aquarium had been cycling without plants for three weeks and then I added eco-complete right before planting. The plants have been in the tank for five days, and so far everything looks healthy. Ammonia 0 ppm, Nitrites 0ppm, Nitrates 5-to-10 ppm, pH 7.4. The Ludwigia Palustris is showing new leafs already and they are coming red. The Rotala Rotundifolia that was struggling in an old, poorly litted, semi-abandoned tank is also getting new compact leafs at the top. I'm personally quite happy with eco-complete, but it needs to be used for what it is: a pretty and inert sponge; or a premium version of fluorite substrate. For an all-in-one substrate, ADA Amazon costs about the same and is probably better for low pH aquariums.
How deep of a sand layer did you cap with? I've got 40lbs of eco-complete in my 20 gallon long, but the plants just don't seem to be taking. I just started up diy CO2 to see if that helps, but I'm not opposed to ~1in/20lb bag sand cap if that's enough. I'd rather not go the route of removing some of what I already have.
Sorry, I don't remember the brand of sand, but I'm guessing it was CaribSea. I purchased it at my LFS and it came in rather small bags. The plants were purchased at the same store.
I have been using seachem fluorite black sand in my 15g. But now I want to set up my 75g. My question is could I put 2 inches of eco complete then cap with 2 more inches of seachem black sand? The plants I'm going for are mostly carpeting plants
Also have had similar issues with Fluval Shrimp and Planted Substrate...its so light...nothing stays rooted... I’ve heard eco complete raises pH...have you had issues with this?
Sorry but it's been 3-4 years since I made that purchase. My guess would be CaribSea fine black sand but I wouldn't swear to it. If I get a chance I'll look back through my stored receipts and let you know.
Sorry, it was five years ago and I don't remember the brand of sand, but I'm guessing it was CaribSea. I purchased it at my LFS and it came in rather small bags.
I have used Eco complete many times in the past and never had much success honestly. I have had more success using just plain, inert sad. I use mostly low tech plants, but still. Rotala Indica and Crypt Balansae grow like weeds for me without even doing anything for them, including no root tabs.
I don't think so. While I'm not sure what "active substrate with fertilizer" entails, Eco Complete claims to include a biological component and an ability to capture, hold and release nutrients from the water column.
From what I've researched about this I think it's best to put root tabs evenly throughout the substrate and dose with liquid fertilizers. And also using a sand cap like said in this video. (just use an active soil or a dirted tank if you want easy plant growth)
Eco-complete is just completely inert lava rock which has a high CEC value. Liquid fertilizers and root tabs should be used with Eco-complete. Think of Eco-complete like a car battery, it needs to be recharged with the use of fertilizers once the plants use up all the stored nutrients
Here's how I do it when I need to replenish the sand in specific spots. Turn off the pumps and lower the water level. Put a small amount of rinsed sand in a small glass topped off with tank water. Keeping the glass upright, slowly submerge and lower it to the bottom of the aquarium then carefully pour the sand onto the substrate. Take your time and do small amounts. I also tried using a funnel with a length of plastic hose extending to the bottom but the sand tended to clog in the hose and I needed six hands to make it work.
@Classace I wonder what you're agreeing to. He didn't say 'echo' (sic) sucks, the final outcome was that once he covered it with sand it worked exceedingly well. SMH
