favorite plant substrate

may I ask you guys why you like eco-complete so much more than flourite?

flourite is $5 cheaper per bag... looks JUST as natural, and I have had just as good of luck with it and plants
 
I found echo-complete to be a bit cleaner than flourite.
It took the tank a few days to clear up using the flourite. The echo-complete was packed in water, no rinsing needed, tank cleared up within the hour after adding it.
My plants do well in both the flourite and the echo-.
 
Not having to rinse is the big plus with ecocomplete. And I like the look. It's my first choice if you want to spend big bucks on substrate.
 
SMS. I get the best results with this. I am comparing this to other tanks that have gravel, sand and flourite. Surprisingly....my flourite tank isn't producing very good results.
 
I have a small 6G tank with Eco-complete, and it was my first planted tank. I like it b/c it was an easy setup that gave you fairly decent results. I since have switched over to mineralized soil substrate on a 55G which I mix soil with 3M Colorquartz S grade and top off with an inch of T grade. If anyone's interested, you can head over to gwapa.org and read the article by Aaron Talbot. I pretty much followed the instructions in the article with some slight changes. I haven't dosed fertz since I had the tank up in October 08. Plants are growing well. I have an Aponogeton ulvaceus that's been flowering continuously for over 1.5 months. My Kleiner Bar sword is also getting larger. The soil substrate really is great with rooted plants.
 
ADA Aquasoil is my favorite, it's the only substrate that really is loaded with nutrients. It's not much more expensive than Eco-Complete and the results are better, no need for the substrate to age and no need to dose for the first month couple of months.

For larger tanks Turface/SMS would be my choice. Requires nutrients to be added but if you treat it the old fashioned way (light dusting of peat and/or laterite) and dose on a regular basis you'll likely get better results than with Eco or Flourite. Much cheaper than the other plant substrates.

I've been playing around with zeolite sand and the results so far are good. Again no nutrients present but it acts as a crazy nutrient sponge.
 
phanmc said:
ADA Aquasoil is my favorite, it's the only substrate that really is loaded with nutrients. It's not much more expensive than Eco-Complete and the results are better, no need for the substrate to age and no need to dose for the first month couple of months.

For larger tanks Turface/SMS would be my choice. Requires nutrients to be added but if you treat it the old fashioned way (light dusting of peat and/or laterite) and dose on a regular basis you'll likely get better results than with Eco or Flourite. Much cheaper than the other plant substrates.

I've been playing around with zeolite sand and the results so far are good. Again no nutrients present but it acts as a crazy nutrient sponge.
Click to expand...


Yeah man, Aqua Soil hands down, but it certainly is expensive.

I also use Flourite and SMS, and I'm happy with both, but definitely aqua soil for the win.


I felt like nobody was staing the obvious.
 
ADA Aquasoil Amazonia II. It worked well for me without cloudiness, I got a heaven patch
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom