# Using Tropica Aquarium Soil Powder



## Andy Lees (26 Jul 2017)

Hello all. Looking for some advice.
I have a Fluval spec V at min with Eco Complete as substrate. Not had a good time with eco to be honest mainly with plants not wanting to root into it etc.
My main question is as i have an established filter and a small shoal of Ember Tetras would it be safe to (obviously with fish removed temporary to a spare tank) swap out the eco and replace with The Tropica,replant, refill with maybe 50% old water and introduce the fish back in the same day. Id be doin more frequent water changes as tropica recommend. I understand you dont get the high Ammonia spike with Tropica as you do with say ADA. Any thoughts or advice welcome.


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## Matty123 (26 Jul 2017)

Andy Lees said:


> Hello all. Looking for some advice.
> I have a Fluval spec V at min with Eco Complete as substrate. Not had a good time with eco to be honest mainly with plants not wanting to root into it etc.
> My main question is as i have an established filter and a small shoal of Ember Tetras would it be safe to (obviously with fish removed temporary to a spare tank) swap out the eco and replace with The Tropica,replant, refill with maybe 50% old water and introduce the fish back in the same day. Id be doin more frequent water changes as tropica recommend. I understand you dont get the high Ammonia spike with Tropica as you do with say ADA. Any thoughts or advice welcome.



I recently went from Eco Complete (awful stuff) to a more plant friendly substates. However when I redid my tank I did leave a thin layer of the EC for old times sake, well more to do with retaining some of the beneficial bacteria... all went well but I'd advise you don't use Ammo Lock in case your tank recycles itself due to the change, I'd strongly advise you use Seachem Prime instead as AL gives a false reading of Ammonia. I also did what you suggested by using 50% of my old tank water and ensured my filter media was well aerated whilst I redid my tank. You might get a spike to some degree but with every other day water changes for a couple of weeks you ought to be ok. You'll be safe by about 5 weeks. Keep lights low and good levels of co2 and flow and dose ferts from the start will also do good especially for when diatoms attempt to raise their ugly heads! With patience, planning and time and lots of towels and water containers I'm sure you'll be fine. Good luck! 


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## Andy Lees (26 Jul 2017)

Cheers m8, yeah got loads of prime lol. I bought Eco and have regretted it ever since. I had a good dwarf sag in some nasty black cheap gravel, but couldn't grow it or get it to root in Eco. 

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## Matty123 (26 Jul 2017)

Andy Lees said:


> Cheers m8, yeah got loads of prime lol. I bought Eco and have regretted it ever since. I had a good dwarf sag in some nasty black cheap gravel, but couldn't grow it or get it to root in Eco.
> 
> Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk



No probs dude. Don't get me started on Eco Complete, my rants about the stuff is quite legendary on this forum! 


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## Andy Lees (26 Jul 2017)

Matty123 said:


> No probs dude. Don't get me started on Eco Complete, my rants about the stuff is quite legendary on this forum!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yeah I've seen a few lol. I agree, I reckon mines sort of toxic or gone bad. Stem plants won't throw done roots, and some crypt Parva which I'm growing in my 3ft tank in normal gravel well the roots are just disintegrating on. 

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## Andy Lees (27 Jul 2017)

Ok so this afternoon I decided to rescape the Spec V. Started by trimming off cutting etc to use in new substrate, . Emptied out half the water, and put it, the fish,heater and filter media in a bucket with air stone. Got out rest of water, plants and out came the horrid eco complete. Very few roots on plants I noted. Once out and cleaned up a little I started to add Tropica Soil. 3 litres seemed to go really far giving me a decent depth . Once leveled I added few cms of water, planted some new dwarf sag, and my existing crypt,limnophila and rotala. So easy to plant in, didn't have one plant work loose, a far cry from battling with eco complete and trying to get things to stay down. I refilled, half tank water, hand new. Ran it for couple hours then put fish back ,filter etc. I'll b keeping eye on parameters but so far so good. Glad I made the switch . 




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## Matty123 (27 Jul 2017)

Andy Lees said:


> Ok so this afternoon I decided to rescape the Spec V. Started by trimming off cutting etc to use in new substrate, . Emptied out half the water, and put it, the fish,heater and filter media in a bucket with air stone. Got out rest of water, plants and out came the horrid eco complete. Very few roots on plants I noted. Once out and cleaned up a little I started to add Tropica Soil. 3 litres seemed to go really far giving me a decent depth . Once leveled I added few cms of water, planted some new dwarf sag, and my existing crypt,limnophila and rotala. So easy to plant in, didn't have one plant work loose, a far cry from battling with eco complete and trying to get things to stay down. I refilled, half tank water, hand new. Ran it for couple hours then put fish back ,filter etc. I'll b keeping eye on parameters but so far so good. Glad I made the switch .
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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