Capping With Eco Complete

Hi! I am wanting to redo my established aquarium and add more live plants (hopefully some carpetting). I currently have gravel in the bottom with a bit of tropica soil that I bought from petland on top (and slowly mixing down into the gravel). I am considering buying some Eco Complete soil for my substrate and I was wondering if you all would recommend capping my current substrate with it, mixing it into my current substrate, or removing my current substrate and starting fresh with only the Eco Complete. OR, would you even recommend eco complete at all? Thanks!

 

Substrate will settle with the largest pieces on top. So your gravel (which is no good for growing plants) will always end up on top eventually.
You would be better to simply pull all the gravel out, you can leave the tropical soil, and then put in ecocomplete.
That's if you wanted to go with ecocomplete. I've tried it in a couple tanks. For the cost? Eh I'd just as soon throw down a layer of BDBS - black diamond blasting sand, and put in some root tabs and pocket all the extra money I saved.
.... Eh who am I kidding. I spend that extra money on plants and fish. But you get my point. Ecocomplete isn't that amazing for the cost. I can achieve the same results cheaper with BDBS and root tabs. I can get better results by dirting a tank and capping it with BDBS.

 

Okay. Would the BDBS discolor my water at all? I haven't read anything about it. Is it something you purchase from a pet store? Also do I need to dirt the tank and cap it with the BDBS for it to be effective or would only using the BDBS and root tabs work fine?

And how often do you have to add root tabs?

 

Substrate will settle with the largest pieces on top. So your gravel (which is no good for growing plants) will always end up on top eventually.
You would be better to simply pull all the gravel out, you can leave the tropical soil, and then put in ecocomplete.
That's if you wanted to go with ecocomplete. I've tried it in a couple tanks. For the cost? Eh I'd just as soon throw down a layer of BDBS - black diamond blasting sand, and put in some root tabs and pocket all the extra money I saved.
.... Eh who am I kidding. I spend that extra money on plants and fish. But you get my point. Ecocomplete isn't that amazing for the cost. I can achieve the same results cheaper with BDBS and root tabs. I can get better results by dirting a tank and capping it with BDBS.

this is what I am going to do with all of my tanks when I move, Eco complete let me down in one of my tanks and its pretty bad right now and I have pool filter sand and it just looks dreadful. I am to lazy to redo a tank right now though

And how often do you have to add root tabs?

You don't need root tabs for every single plant but it helps, From using mine and having snails that are sensitive to it I don't use very many and sometimes I cut them in half to save on cost. The Black diamond blasting sand can be found at tractor supply or online

 

BDBS is actually purchased from Tractor Supply, not a pet store. You'll find it over in the welding section. About 8 bucks for a 50 pound bag.

It may make the water cloudy at first when added. This will settle in a day or two. It can also be greatly reduced by rinsing it first. Thr cloudiness of BDBS does not affect fish. I added fish in one tank only an hour after putting in BDBS and while I had a hard time seeing them for a day until it settled they were all fine.

You do not need to dirt a tank to have BDBS if you are using root tabs. Those are just two options of how to go about growing plants in BDBS.
In all actuality you can put BDBS down as a substrate, add nothing, and you can grow plants in it. Albeit much much more slowly. I have a 29 I'm doing this in right now and it is supporting basic plants like anacharis, a two swords, jungle Val, subulata and rotala in. Now eventually with that plant load in there I will either need to start adding root tabs or removing plants, but it's probably got another six months before that's an issue.



How often to use root tabs? Different people have different preferences. I do once every two or three months, one under each heavy root feeders - plants like Amazon swords, jungle Val etc. I've let it go as long as every six months without issue. Some people do two or three per plant every month, I personally find that to be overkill but again, do what works best for you.

 

BDBS is actually purchased from Tractor Supply, not a pet store. You'll find it over in the welding section. About 8 bucks for a 50 pound bag.

It may make the water cloudy at first when added. This will settle in a day or two. It can also be greatly reduced by rinsing it first. Thr cloudiness of BDBS does not affect fish. I added fish in one tank only an hour after putting in BDBS and while I had a hard time seeing them for a day until it settled they were all fine.

You do not need to dirt a tank to have BDBS if you are using root tabs. Those are just two options of how to go about growing plants in BDBS.
In all actuality you can put BDBS down as a substrate, add nothing, and you can grow plants in it. Albeit much much more slowly. I have a 29 I'm doing this in right now and it is supporting basic plants like anacharis, a two swords, jungle Val, subulata and rotala in. Now eventually with that plant load in there I will either need to start adding root tabs or removing plants, but it's probably got another six months before that's an issue.
View attachment 392408

How often to use root tabs? Different people have different preferences. I do once every two or three months, one under each heavy root feeders - plants like Amazon swords, jungle Val etc. I've let it go as long as every six months without issue. Some people do two or three per plant every month, I personally find that to be overkill but again, do what works best for you.

Awesome! thanks so much for all of your help. I think I will go ahead and go with this option. I was willing to spend the extra cash if necessary, but a cheaper option is always better for me.