clean eco complete

My last water change I tried just skimming over it, shifting it around with the vac, and doing deep cleaning with it. Skimming it seemed to work best. I picked up some poop and who knows what else while not aggravating the tiny particles. Shifting the substrate around was ok. Couldn't tell if it was any better. You just had to touch up the surface after. Deep cleaning just made a mess, plus it sucked up some of the finer substrate particles...no bueno. I didn't realize this stuff was so light and fine till I tried refilling my tank the first time and didn't notice that the water from my bucket was sending the eco complete everywhere.

What have you found for the most effective means of keeping this substrate clean? I know it's supposed to have bacteria that eats debrI but I don't trust that (esp from reviews). I have bottom feeders and scavengers, and some mts in there. I just want the cleanest, healthiest tank I can. I have also got much better with water changes. Now I do about 1/3 every week. Hopefully I will still be doing this when I am fully stocked as I don't want to stress the fish out too much with low water levels and everyone cramming together for a few minutes.

 

You could put gravel over top to weigh it down

 

I just don't like the aesthetics of that and I want the smoother softer bottom for some species

 

sand?

 

I never had any issues with cleaning my eco complete. I would just skI'm the surface because the tank was heavily planted but I would do a deep clean in the open areas where I could see the debris laying.