KyWildFish

I've been debating for a while getting a better substrate in place for planting my community. I have done all the research on ligthing and have starting shopping around to retrofit all that. The big issue now is getting the proper substrate in the tank.

Here's the question. What are the best steps to get the Eco-complete under the existing gravel I have without making a complete mess of things? I am open to any suggestions and I am not doing it this weekend or anything.

The tank is 29gal and has decorations like large rocks and a piece of driftwood, as well as plastic plants that I hope to phase out with the real thing. I will take as many suggestions as possible and likely post a thread that stories the whole process with photographs and everything I learn/do. I want to get as much opinions as possible before I start dropping money on the project.

Emory

Definitely take your fish out first. I learned that the hard way.

You can use a large fish net to scoop out your gravel. Pour the Eco-complete in, add your gravel back.

agabr123

i'd remove the fish and then shove as much gravel over to one half of the tank as you can, lay down some eco-complete, cover with some gravel, make an empty space by pushing over more gravel, etc. hopefully that makes sense

KyWildFish

How long does the eco-complete take to settle?

I think I will just do half a tank at a time, that is unless I can just move the gravel over, then put in the eco-complete, move it over that, fill the other half and then level the gravel. All in all how long do you think this will take, I can put the fish in a bucket and heat and filter the bucket, but I dont want them in there for long as I have some aggressive tank members.

KyWildFish

Bump

Je55*e

Bumping this thread as well. I am seriously considering purchasing eco-complete for my planted tank. Right now there is aquarium sand in it, which I'd want to siphon out and exchange for the eco-complete.
I have 5 Hatchets, 3 Kuhlis, 3 Oto's, and 6 Ghost Shrimp. I only have a 6 gallon for a QT tank. I don't think they'd all be comfortable in there for any extended period of time, so how long do you think the eco-complete would take to settle? I don't want to harm anyone by leaving them in there during the exchange.

Je55*e

Bump-ity bump. ^

Je55*e

=/

pepetj

Sorry I missed this thread.
I began using natural river sand and aquarium gravel in the first tank I cycled, that was May 2008. I use real plants since day 1 of fishless cycle in all my tanks, except if delicate species.

Upgrading my inert substrate with Eco-Complete (and other alike substrates) have been one of the major boosts I have experienced in planted tanks, side by side with improved lighting and CO2 injection.

There are different ways to work with it.

My first experience was tearing down a whole tank (29gal bow tall, footprint of 20gal long), placing fish and plants in a bucket, as I removed most inert aquarium gravel and left some natural river sand which I mixed with recently collected sand in another bucket.

I placed barely 10 lbs of Eco-Complete in the bottom of the empty tank, making a thicker layer towards the rear wall of the aquarium. I added the natural river sand on top, ending with a 1:3 mixture (one part Eco-Complete as bottom substrate; three parts of sand as top substrate). This meant my first successful attempt at keeping Sword plants (although they barely made it until I improved lighting). It took me like one hour to perform this.

My second experience with Eco-Complete meant tearing down another tank (40gal long), placing all fishies in a bucket, removing all plants and as much sand as I could (almost negligible amounts of sand remained here and there). I still keep this tank with Eco-Complete as the sole substrate (I "refurbished" it almost one year after set-up as I introduced 30lbs more on top of the first one in a major upgrade). This time it took me almost two hours.

Eco-Complete is a rare to find product in Santo Domingo. I have it in almost all my tanks (exception made of the Hospital/Quarantine bare bottom tanks, the river sand only FW White Crayfish tank, and of course my Nano SW). I mostly use mixture of natural river sand with these type of substrate. I also tried and like the quality of Activ-Flora (Floracor Black). I ordered three 12lbs bags of Azoo Plant Grower Bed (those are coming by sea) but haven't tried it yet.

Thing is: It's up to you to either replace the whole substrate, mix some of it with existing substrate, or mix with new gravel or sand. Some fishkeepers with light-to-moderately planted tanks use a bunch of enriched substrate at the spots where they expect to place their rooted plants.

It is possible that transient elevations in pH and KH occur in a tank fully upgraded from inert substrate to Eco-Complete (or alikes). Although it doesn't necessarily happens each time. One of my tanks took almost 4 weeks to go back to where I wanted it; most of my other tanks, the change was quite insignificant.


Pepetj
Santo Domingo

Je55*e

Thank you so very much, Pepe! =) You think all my fish will be okay in the 6g until the switch is done?

pepetj

Since you have sensitive fish there (e.g. otos) I guess it would be better to leave them in the tank and replace your substrate stepwise. You don't want to stress them with sudden changes in water parameters.

I used this approach in my Rainbowfish tanks. In three weeks I completed the work. I lower the water level to say 2/3 of the usual, carefully removed some plants and decor, kept the filter running most of the time and turned it off only when working with the substrate itself. Don't worry about it getting cloudy, it will clear quite quickly if you are careful. A week before doing this I rinsed the sponge media carefully so it was unclogged by the time I started working.

Pepetj
Santo Domingo

Je55*e

That sounds like a good idea. I think I'm going to do gradual steps; going to siphon the sand out bit by bit and add the eco-complete every couple of days (djbrist actually suggested that to me a few moments ago via pm). Thank you so much for the help! I still have to wait until I can afford the eco-complete, but wish me luck when I do!
Do you think 20 pounds is enough for a 20g?