I like Eco complete for various reasons.
1) Dark almost black appearance. If you want that look this is the substrate for you. It wont fade like the painted gravel.
2) CECbasically it absorbs nutrients and your plants take the nutrients from the rocks (in a nutshell)
3) no cleaning of the rocksopen the bag, pour it in your tank, no rinsing, no mess....plug and play
4) fish safeI am a cory cat fish nut, and I hear people say it will cut their barbels... that is an urban legend. this is my 3rd tank I am using this on, all of my cories have long nice healthy barbels.
5) Easy to plant, grab my tongs/tweezers and push plant into place.
6) Cheapcheaper than Aqua soil or fluval or whatever. 20 pounds of clown puke (colored gravel) is the same price.
7) I can push my plant tabs in the substrate with ease. I do the home made osmocote plus (which I bought from amazon)
8)Stableit won't break down like aquasoil will, wont raise ph, ammonia etc....
With the money I save I can buy some plants or some fish.
I use Eco-Complete in my 10 gallon freshwater tank. I have java ferns, wisteria, foxtail, anubias nana, and dwarf baby tears who have all taken off since being planted in this substrate. The dark color makes your tropical fish's colors really stand out. Would recommend this substrate to anyone who wants to start a planted tank. 20 pounds is enough for a 10 gallon. The fact that you don't have to wash this substrate is good too.
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I purchased this substrate from Amazon because I had heard good reviews about it from the YouTube fish tank community. I set it up in my 55 gallon aquarium with a DIY black background, and boy do the plants look stunning! The black really brings out the color in my fish and the green/red in my plants. It has a large amount of nutrients in it, and I suppose you could use the substrate alone without fertilizers or CO2. I just use a $9.00 250m bottle of Flourish, an aquatic plant fertilizer that I bought at Petsmart. It lasts for 2 years for the size of my aquarium, so it's a worthy investment.
My only complaint about this product is that it is kind of misleading when it says that it has beneficial bacteria in it to cycle your tank. Please don't take it like it will instantly cycle your tank. It comes packed in water which is cycled, and smells very foul when you cut open the bag. ALSO, make sure that when you open the bag that you open it up over your aquarium or over a tub/outside, as it is almost like vacuumed sealed and it will splash. I made that mistake and it spilled all over my floor. No big deal, though. Anyway, you need to let your aquarium cycle completely just like you would with any other aquarium.
The substrate itself consists of very small sand particles and small sized granules. The package says that the small particles sift down to the bottom of the tank naturally to allow for optimum root growth and CO2/Nutrient supply, which is mostly true. Some of the particles still are on the top layer of the substrate, but overall the statement is true.
The bag also says that you do not need to wash this substrate before filling your aquarium up. I have found this to be completely true. Because it comes packed in water, there is really no residual dust on the granules. You may have a little cloudiness for 2 hours to a day depending on the amount of filtration/size of the tank, but it's again no big deal. Only 3 days after setting up my tank the water was crystal clear.
Overall I would give this substrate a 4/5. Would buy again, but not at the normal price it is listed for (30 bucks). I'd buy it from my LFS which sells it for 17 per 20 lbs.
Read Best Reviews of CaribSea Eco-Complete 20-Pound Planted Aquarium, Black Here
Eco-Complete is one of my favorite substrates for freshwater aquariums. It is extremely easy to work with: no rinsing required! I just lay it down in an empty tank, and slowly add water. The faint cloudiness will dissipate within a matter of hours. Compared to similar substrates that you need to rinse first, this saves a tremendous amount of time and water.
This substrate does not have any appreciable amounts of nutrients "built in" to it but that is not a bad thing! Eventually, all the nutrients from those substrates that include it will be depleted what really counts is the "CEC" (cation exchange coefficient). In a nutshell, this refers to the ability of the substrate to grab on to nutrients in the water and hold them until the plants remove it. Eco-complete has a rather high CEC and is very effective at containing the nutrients found in the water column so the plants can make the most of it.
This substrate is fine enough for very delicate roots to work their way through, but coarse enough to hold them in place. However, it is a touch on the light side so one must be careful when rearranging plants/decor so as not to stir it up too much.
All in all, I have great results growing freshwater plants in this substrate, both with no fertilizers at all and also with dosing the Estimative Index for nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium and micro nutrients.
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I really enjoy using eco-complete in my tank. No rinsing needed! Just dump it in and in a few minutes the water is clear and ready to go. It is easy to plant in and nothing uproots and floats away. The dark color really helps to show off the plants and fish. Will be using this in all future tanks.
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I bought this scrubber to clean my glass and acrylic aquariums, it works fine on the glass surface, but when i tried to clean the acrylic I immediately noticed a large amount of scratches all over it. I don't know why they sell it for both glass and acrylic, because of my experience i only recommend it to use on glass aquariums.
