jmhart-I stand corrected, the comparison made between the two substrates was a reviewer's comment quoted below:
BEST SUBSTRATE ON THE MARKET April 10, 2007Reviewer: donald e from grand island, NE United States This review is gonna be lenghty, but informative:
My son is a marine biologist (31 years) with tons of backround in freshwater fish & live plants. When I went to set up my 300 gallon aquarium, I asked for his help (again). Explaing to him I wanted the ultimate freshwater "planted" aquarium. Our first point of research was to get the BEST substrate available. Here's what we learned:
ECO-COMPLETE: Advertised as permanant, and nutrient complete. There in NO such substrate that is permanent, this is impossible. Also, it is "volcanic" meaning it has been baked to 1000's of degrees, sealing in any nutrients...so, the nutrients in it are not "available" to the plant roots.
SEACHEM FLOURITE: A somewhat natural clay based substrate that has not been processed or baked enough, so it turns to MUD. Also, advertised as permanent, but is not, 'cause as aforementioned, there is NO such substrate as permanent.
Two things:
First, that reviewer is wrong...well, mostly wrong. The baked clay substrates are practically permanent. Meaning, they last 20 years or more in an aquarium. I've got some Flourite down in my basement that I've had for 3 years, and I bought it used from a guy that'd had for 6 years. Still looks brand new.
Keep in mind here, I am not bashing SMS as a product. It's a great cheap alternative substrate(kind of a DIY substrate) to the expensive planted tank substrates. But, it's got one big downside, and that downside is that it is light and easily disturbed letting plants float up to the surface. That downside is acceptable when you pay $9 for 50 lbs. It is unacceptable when you pay $20 for a gallon.
And the second thing, that review looks fake. It's now a review, it's an advertisement that. It doesn't talk about AP's substrate, it just talks about other substrates. I believe 100% that the review you quoted is fake.
