Hi All,

[george29]

Hello,

Newbie to the forum, which was not in existence last time I had a planted tank, so will let you work out how long ago that must have been ! 🙂

Kept trops and planted tanks for about 7 years before moving on to marines which I gave up about 5 years ago.

Due to some other folk starting on planted tanks its got me itching to do the same again.

While most of the hardware is in the attic, its the current products that are causing a bit of confusion so can I ask here about substrate and have searched and seen some comment in the forum but they do not clear things up.

Seems Caribsea Eco Complete is popular and as good as any, yet in an earlier post a member says it does not contain any nutrients, yet on Caribseas site it say it does ?
Has the product been changed a lot in the last few years ?

Also when looking to buy some online you see the product in 3 different packs, are some selling old stock - pics below.

thanks

 

[Siege]

Check out the probibio soil. Lots of Europe’s aquascaper use it, doesn’t leach ammonia and good results with it.

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

Ecocomplete does contain some micro nutrients, not much to my knowledge. What you want in a aquasiil is a high DEC (cation exchange capacity) ie able to absorb nutrients f4om the water and provide them to the roots. Eco complete has a reasonable CEC which is why it is popular.

You may which to consider a planting substrate (under the ecocomplete) as a nutrient rich base layer. Tropical do one that gets good reviews I believe (and they do a 'soil for above it too...) the confusing terminology around this doesnt help!

I believe there are different colours of ecocompelte... that night explain the packaging?

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Hi, If you haven't bought eco complete already then save your cash. Eco complete has little if any nutrient benefit, low CEC by comparison to soils, it's total rubbish to plant in and in my opinion looks fake as it's s little shiney. Lots of good soils out there now for reasonable prices.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[sparkyweasel]

Welcome! 🙂

 

[george29]

Hi,

Thanks all, seems I still need to do a lot of reading / updating on this Soil point and the whole planted subject.

eg when I last had a planted tank a low wattage heating cable in the substrate was the order of the day, but little signs of them now .

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

Yep I'm sorry to say that heating cables went out of use years ago! It is amazing how our knowledge of the science of plant and fishkeeping has progressed. I got a 1970s fishkeeping book from a charity shop recently... made for a very interesting read! Not least because some of the fishkeeping theory I didn't recognise at all!