[stagger]

Hi, I have had a few tanks setup before with Eco Complete, and although this is a quality fertilizer, it will leech out and lose its nutrients after a few months.

So my question is would it be ok to go with normal regular black gravel as long as I use root tabs?

 

[2wheelsx2]

IMO, specialized substrates all do the same thing -- gives you more margin for error and less work to grow plants. Most plants will feed from the water column, so if you're willing to dose macros/trace, you really don't need to go to specialized substrate. But absolutely, you will get better growth with specialized substrates.

 

[fromthelbc]

IMO, specialized substrates all do the same thing -- gives you more margin for error and less work to grow plants. Most plants will feed from the water column, so if you're willing to dose macros/trace, you really don't need to go to specialized substrate. But absolutely, you will get better growth with specialized substrates.

x2.

 

[stagger]

Thanks for the reply. The reason why i may shy away from Eco this time is that I noticed when I did a water change and disturbed the bed, it made a dust cloud, even though I turned the filter off during the water change some still got sucked up into the filter when i restarted

I think this time I try reg gravel since i dos EI method and use root tabs, see what happens

Thanks Again for your reply's

 

[2wheelsx2]

Thanks for the reply. The reason why i may shy away from Eco this time is that I noticed when I did a water change and disturbed the bed, it made a dust cloud, even though I turned the filter off during the water change some still got sucked up into the filter when i restarted

I think this time I try reg gravel since i dos EI method and use root tabs, see what happens

Thanks Again for your reply's

I think you're going to run into that problem with fines whenever you use a substrate that you don't have to rinse. And as the substrate gets old, no matter what type it is, even gravel, is going to collect some detritus. I actually gravel vac my EC once in a while to keep it from looking "dirty".