Best Plant Soil?

[Jennifer V]

On 1/19/2022 at 5:33 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

I would, more money and no benefit. The whole purpose of eco-complete is to collect nutrients and return them to plants. It doesn’t break down quickly like aquasoils so I’d spend the money you’d spend on gravel on more plants!

Fabulous! As if I needed any incentive to buy plants, but this is certainly a great point I can pass on to my wife when she doesn't like the look of the eco complete. 😊

[Torrey]

On 1/19/2022 at 5:47 PM, Jennifer V said:

Fabulous! As if I needed any incentive to buy plants, but this is certainly a great point I can pass on to my wife when she doesn't like the look of the eco complete. 😊

Let me know if the argument works, lol.

Right now, I am just grateful that after 7 years, mine is getting interested in the fish😅

[DrJenn]

On 1/14/2022 at 12:12 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

@Bentley Pascoedid a test on the Brightwell substrate and there was no ammonia leak which is pretty great never played with it myself but plan to with my next medium to high tech setup. Everything else will leak ammonia except the eco-complete which can be a mess even with rinsing in terms of cloudy water initially but that passes. 

I have done eco-complete and had success. I have had aquasoils (Stratum) as well and had success. I have done dirted and had success - this is where a sand or gravel cap comes in as most of us do not cap an aquasoil (you may trap some of the nutrients causing compactions and gas pockets). I also have failed with them as well. What it comes down to is - what's your water out of the tap? pH, gh and kh? What do you want to grow? Are you going to supplement CO2? What type of light will you be using? Are you buying plants from a big box, a local shop or online? Are they potted or tissue culture?  How bigs the tank?

It you are planning to use crown plants, bulbs (like aponogetons), crinum, val, dwarf sag and swords eco-complete works well. @Mmiller2001is a high tech plant guy and does a lot of beautiful aquascaping so he moves plants around a lot and these are stem plants delicate to some degree and this is why an active substrate consisting of small clay balls works for him and others who will be changing up their scape. @Guppysnailis one of our resident low tech plant folks and she trims and moves plants around a lot so eco complete is not a good choice for her. It will end up being a style thing for you. What kind of planted tank person are you?

A dirted tank is not suited to someone who is planning on making a lot of changes. It is more of a plant it, trim it and leave it alone situation because every time you pull something some soil and detritus will get into the water column and can cause chemistry changes. I would say if you see yourself getting serious about plants then an aquasoil system would make sense. If you don't have time for that (because a moderate to high tech setup takes a  fair amount of work in the begining) then eco-complete and some low light easy care plants totally makes sense. If you want to jump in the deep end on a low tech setup a dirted tank will be most economical for a large tank but comes with headaches you may not want to take on early in your hobby. 

I’m currently running ecocomplete in one of my tanks and black diamond in the other two. I’m pilot testing two aqua soils as caps for the black diamond: tropica powder and brightwell.
Plants responded immediately to the additional aqua soil. I did not notice an ammonia spike with either, but I added it gradually rather than all at once. The tropica was a much better shade (more black) vs the brightwell which was more brown.

for eco, you must use plant weights or everything floats back up and you will lose your mind.

 

will update as we continue!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@DrJennthats interesting about the gradual intro of aquasoil. Makes a lot of sense small load of ammonia can be dealt with fairly easily between the plants and biome. 

[PaigeIs]

OK, so I am VERY new to all of this.  This thread is fascinating but also confusing.  I am starting a new 20g planted tank.  I want to mix some kind of "healthy" substrate in with the gravel. I can't afford to use all high-end substrate.  I also do not want to change the PH of the water in the tank.  The PH of my tap water is in the happy zone for my platies. We have a 10g platy tank with rainbow colored gravel that my 8yr old picked.  The plants are doing OK, but I add fertilizer tabs and liquid.  For the new tank, I am hoping to start off with something a bit more plant friendly but also affordable.  

I've read through this entire thread and I'm still confused.  Sounds like EcoComplete will be a pain to plant into.  The other products are a mystery to me.  I need something I can mix with/layer with gravel. Does anyone have a suggestion?  Oh!  I'd love something black! 

 

[Jennifer V]

On 1/23/2022 at 10:13 PM, PaigeIs said:

OK, so I am VERY new to all of this.  This thread is fascinating but also confusing.  I am starting a new 20g planted tank.  I want to mix some kind of "healthy" substrate in with the gravel. I can't afford to use all high-end substrate.  I also do not want to change the PH of the water in the tank.  The PH of my tap water is in the happy zone for my platies. We have a 10g platy tank with rainbow colored gravel that my 8yr old picked.  The plants are doing OK, but I add fertilizer tabs and liquid.  For the new tank, I am hoping to start off with something a bit more plant friendly but also affordable.  

I've read through this entire thread and I'm still confused.  Sounds like EcoComplete will be a pain to plant into.  The other products are a mystery to me.  I need something I can mix with/layer with gravel. Does anyone have a suggestion?  Oh!  I'd love something black! 

 

Based on all of the research I did when I started my first tank a year ago, I opted for eco complete topped with gravel and I haven't noticed any issues planting in it. I don't have stem plants though, just swords, crypts and dwarf sag so maybe it depends on the types of plants you'd like to get. But you can always use plant weights too. 

I'm like you, still confused even though the last few days I've been researching substrate nonstop and reading this thread over and over again in prep for my new 20L but I think I'm actually going to go with eco complete again. And it's black! Yay! 

 

 

[Mydonkeyfish]

I use eco complete in my planted dwarf crayfish tank. I only have java fern and an amzon sword i am growing out for my 75. I love to use fluval stratum for carpeting plants like s repens but sometimes i just use regular sand with fluval stratum under iy as a nutreint layer!😁