[Minhha2006]

Hi TPT. I am planning on mixing Eco complete into my pre existing sand in the tank. I saw a thread on mixing Eco with gravel so I got to thinking. I want the sand to be able to give more surface area for the more fine rooted plants to grab onto and the EC to hang onto the nutrients for a bit longer.

I plan on just mixing the two together with my hands. Is this a bad idea?

Edit: autocorrect got me. Complete, not Comolete. Sorry.

 

[Smooch]

Not a bad idea, however, I wouldn't do it all at once especially if your tank has been set up for awhile and you don't vacuum. All the stuff in the sand will cause a ammonia spike.

Do a 1/4 of the tank per week during a water change. The water change will remove the stuff in the substrate and keep ammonia at bay. Test your tank BTW during the process just to make sure.

 

[Minhha2006]

I do vacuum the tank and I do try to pick up as much gunk as I can at the moment. I finally bit the bullet and got a pressurized co2 system so I can finally grow some tougher plants that are more difficult to root. I didnt even think of the substrate being a problem until this morning.

 

[Smooch]

Take it slow. When I added to my gravel I did a deep vac on the section I was going to add to, mixed new stuff in, then put the plants back where they were. It wasn't hard, just had to exercise some patience.

 

[boothie]

I have black or very dark echo complete and the tahitian moon sand. They look very nice but after a while the echo complete gets turned to the surface and the finer particle sand gets sorted to the bottom.