Eco-Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate

[justinakabob]

Has anyone tried Eco-Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate? I’m thinking about purchasing it for my new-planted fish tank. Does it work, is it worth it, any good places to buy online for a reasonable price?

info at http://www.carib-sea.com/eco%20fresh.jpg

[plantbrain]

Bimodal? All substrates are this way naturally. The big stuff floats on top and the finer stuff sinks down lower.

You can vacuum out the old tank's gravel and add that the bottom layer instead of the "Heterotrophic bacteria". The organic material and the live thriving bacterial culture from your tank is good stuff.
Add some ground peat and top with Flourite.
Might be cheaper for you.

The product should work well you mention , but I don't know the cost.
Profile is also good and very cheap but is lightweight and makes planting/rooting difficult. There's trade off and cost differences for each.
These are two others that are popular and have been around for many years to compare on.

The same process of using the dirt/Detritus/Mulm and peat will work well for any tank using any of these products.

Few folks have used this and no long term reports have come back from what I've heard. Judging a substrate is no easy task either. Was it due to something else the aquarist did for it doing "good" or "poor"?
That's been causing issues with planted tanks for years.

Regards,
Tom Barr