# eco complete help!



## ScottyDont (Mar 9, 2005)

syphon it out...i added sand to my tank today I washed it till the water went from brown muddy to clear, add it to my tank and my tank is ALL muddy!!!! i've been doing 20% water changes for 3 hours with slight improvement! it 2am and I wont stop till my tank is clear...so maybe you should try that?


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## jeff63851 (Oct 17, 2004)

I'm not really sure if I should do that. I heard that the eco complete has some good effect in the water quality. Also, I can't make any water changes since it's raining here. Good luck with your water!

Thanks

-Jeff


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## ScottyDont (Mar 9, 2005)

3:10 and i stoped its still sorta cloudy but 100% better, I remeber reading this happend to a guy and it coated all his fish (discus i beleive) and he said he was loosing them, just syphon it out to be safe


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## jeff63851 (Oct 17, 2004)

i did a water change...but the water is still cloudly...should I plug in my Filstar XP2 to clear up the water?

Thanks

-Jeff


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## ScottyDont (Mar 9, 2005)

i think if you plug in the filter it wont settle, I plugged mine in and after 12 hours my tank is alot clearerand if it dosent help just unplug


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## Cheeseybacon (Feb 13, 2005)

*I'm in the same boat*

I'm having the EXACT same problem. I just broke my tank down tonight to replace my gravel with some Eco-complete and now everything is completely white! I can't see ANYTHING in the tank, it's as if I filled my tank with nothing but milk. I just _knew_ I should have drained that all milky crap out first... but noooooo, I just had to follow the directions and empty everything into the tank.    

It's understandable for every substrate to cloud the water initially until it settles, but this is outrageous.


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## ScottyDont (Mar 9, 2005)

note to self....wash eco-complete...


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## fishoutawater (Feb 9, 2005)

Hey I had the SAME problem. I am the one with the stuff coating my discus. I had a huge problem with this stuff at first. It actually lovered my Ph from 7.6 to 6.6!!! a huge drop for my discus. My discus were haggard and needed help. The white stuff was killing my fish!!! The way I remedeed the problem was to do a 90% water change. I litterally sucked out all of the white crap that was sitting ontop of the eco. Make sure you plunge your siphon into the gravel too! If you dont, everytime you go to plant something a BIG white cloud rises and clouds your water. Things are stable now. The tank looks great. I already have Tons of new growth thanks to eco. My theory on the stuff is, the "solution" si not the saving grace of this stuff. The eco itself is the real reason we buy the stuff. Getting rid of the white junk in my opinion just makes it so that rather than buying a Solution packed substrate, you now have black flourite :tongue:. I would get rid of it. 
GOOD LUCK


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## Cheeseybacon (Feb 13, 2005)

*A little improvement.*

It's been about a day now and the tank is finally beginning to clear up. I can't really see any white stuff settled on the surface of the substrate like some of you have described, so I dunno, maybe the filter took care of most of it. In any case, the white crap still makes it's presence known when I try to move plants around and such. Additioanlly there is a light dusting of white crap that has settled on my C02 ladder and some of my broad leaf plants. Guess I'm gonna be doing lotsa water changes and siphoning over the new few days.


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## duck (Apr 22, 2004)

When i put Eco in it took about 24 hours to clear up,had the pumps running, the next day i added the fish,plants with no problem.
If i remmeber correctly it says to drain when putting in an estabished tank.


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## ScottyDont (Mar 9, 2005)

Note to self..wash eco complete 

just need to keep telling myself


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## Cheeseybacon (Feb 13, 2005)

duck said:


> If i remmeber correctly it says to drain when putting in an estabished tank.


That's just it, it wasn't really an established tank. True, I did have stuff in it before I put the eco-complete in, but I broke the whole thing down and scrubbed the tank inside and out, so I figured the rules reguarding established tanks no longer applied to me. Established or not, I'm definately washing that milky crud out when I use Eco-complete in the future.


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## Cheeseybacon (Feb 13, 2005)

*It's baaaaaaaack!*

Ugh, this is so annoying, I start planting stuff this morning, and by the time I got done carefully positioning the 2nd plant (two java ferns), the entire tank was already just as milky as the day I first put the eco-complete in. Now I gotta wait another day or two for it to clear again before I can continue planting.  There should be a sticky at the top of this forum warning all newcomers about this phenomena when using Eco-complete.


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## duck (Apr 22, 2004)

Don't know why you having this problem, I've used it 2 tanks one with 4 bags the other with 9 bags 24 hours later clear as,no milky anything.

Ivano


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## duck (Apr 22, 2004)

Are you running the filter,if not run it that's what i did.


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## Laith (Jul 7, 2004)

Never used the stuff but from all that I've read and despite the good things one hears about Eco-complete they do seem to have a big problem with consistency in their product.

Some people have no milkiness, others do. Some people have KH increases, others don't. Some people are finding "wierd" white rock type pieces in there, other aren't. If I remember correctly, some people have reported *drops* in their pH!

If they don't get a handle on where this problem is and fix it they are going to lose more and more potential customers even though in general the product seems pretty good.

But when the market is comparing your product to Flourite which has a lot fewer stories like this you need to wake up and do something...

ok, enough ranting :icon_bigg ! I just hate to see a business blowing opportunities because they haven't quite got... whatever it is that's causing this: bad quality control, bad management?


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## Cheeseybacon (Feb 13, 2005)

On the bright side of things, I've noticed that all of that white crap settling on my C02 ladder has decreased the rate in which the bubbles ascend the ladder. The bubbles now travel slow enough that they completely desolve before reaching the top of the ladder.


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## supaoopa (Oct 25, 2004)

When i first setup my 10gal with eco complete i already expected it to get cloudy. I had a submersible filter (duetto 100) packed with poly fiber and it cleared the tank in about 3 days. I know there was a lot of 'good stuff' extracted from the water with the polyfiber, but i didn;t want the headache of cloudy water everytime a fish picked at the substrate. Plants have been growing great and no cloudyness even when replanting.


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## wintermute (Mar 5, 2004)

sounds like your eco complete was contaminated w/ something. i've never seen this w/ eco complete, but i've read about it (i believe on this forum). the person contacted the manufacturer and i believe got a full refund and possibly some free eco complete. the only clouding issues i've ever seen was a very mild black clouding that went away on its own in a day or two - probably due to fines in the substrate and the "black water extract". could you see the white milky substance in the bag before you opened it?


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## Cheeseybacon (Feb 13, 2005)

Yeah, I could see the milky crap in the bag before I even opened it up. I was very hesitant, but I heard so many good things from so many people and they did say pour the entire thing in, water and all, so I took the plunge. Oh well. It's getting better, slowly.


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## figgy (Feb 27, 2005)

Hi,

All my planted tanks are in eco-complete. In fact I just filled my new 46gal bowfront this am. It always gets cloudy at first, then clears up after 2-3 days at the most. Doesn't seem to matter whether or not I run a filter, it just takes that long.

Figs


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## Hawkeye (Mar 22, 2005)

I have Eco-Complete in five tanks now and love it. It worries me to here they are having problems with the consistent quality problem. I read some where that they had a bad batch get shipped. My advice to any one buying any they should look real close in the bag. If you see allot of white spots don't buy it. This seems to be the problem batch. I sure hope they get things worked out. I find this product to be the easiest way to grow plants.

Hawk


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## Darrell Ward (Jan 14, 2005)

I been reading on the discus boards that some people were having problems with the Eco. It seems they keep their raw material outside in piles. So, aragonite and other things have been finding their way into Eco. That's what I hear anyway. If that's the case, then they need much better quality control for sure.


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## jeff63851 (Oct 17, 2004)

yep...i guess it's how they package it. I also found some white silkey balls that seems like dustballs that sink in the water. I'm also going to plug in the filter. If I'm right, the bag just says to dunk it in your tank...blah...I'm going to have more washing to do...

Thanks

-Jeff


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## FISA (Dec 3, 2004)

Ive got both my tanks with eco complete with no problems at all !!! and both tanks bought and filled with substrate at different times...from different LFS (Online and Local )

all ive got to say is great product!!! all the plants love it !

I hope those of you that have been having probs get it sorted out...
:icon_frow 

I Personally will always use and recommend Eco for planted tank substrate...
roud:


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## jeff63851 (Oct 17, 2004)

After doing the water change, the white milkey clould AGAIN rose and now I can't see a dang thing in the tank! I left the Filstar xp2 on, if it's going to do anything to the water quality...Does carbon have anything to do to clear up the milkey water? I guess i'm going to do another water change tomarrow...

Thanks

-Jeff


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

My problem with the Eco is it has raised my Gh quite a bit. I'm not sure if it was the eco, or some oyster shells in my XP3, but my soft (near zero GH water) is holding at 9dGH. I'm going to keep doing a few 30% water changes over the next few weeks and see if it was my Epsom salt OD which is still lingering. Very frustrating, but I am hopeful it will settle down to a nice soft water again. bob


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## jmelnek (Dec 20, 2004)

I just replaced my gravel with eco-complete and it could not have went any easier... Just siphoned out half the the water into a large rubbermaid then transfered logs, rocks, and plants then fish. After that I scooped out all of the old subtrate and vacuumed a few times, then just opened the bags of eco emptied most of the water that was in it and poured it in. Next I aquascaped and filled up with water (left about 5 gals) then put my fish back in along with 5 gals of existing water. It has been about a week and everything is going good...*crossing fingers*


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## FMZ (Jul 13, 2004)

Cheeseybacon said:


> I'm having the EXACT same problem. I just broke my tank down tonight to replace my gravel with some Eco-complete and now everything is completely white! I can't see ANYTHING in the tank, it's as if I filled my tank with nothing but milk. I just _knew_ I should have drained that all milky crap out first... but noooooo, I just had to follow the directions and empty everything into the tank.
> 
> It's understandable for every substrate to cloud the water initially until it settles, but this is outrageous.



Wait till you dump in Flourite without washing it :icon_bigg


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## crshadow (Sep 4, 2003)

Just wanted to add that I too had a similar problem recently with eco-complete. Eight bags from my LFS were perfectly clean with no problems, but another 4 bags that I bought from an online source had the white crud. I took a whiff and the stuff smelled really bad. I drained the water out of 3 of the 4 bags, but in retrospect I should have rinsed them completely. Like others, I also had a lot of milky cloudiness that eventually settled onto the substrate. All 12 bags went into the same tank, so I'm glad they all weren't like this... For the record, I thought I'd mention that it dropped my pH quite a bit as well...

Here's a pic from filling the tank for the first time.

-Jeremiah


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## Pearljam11 (Sep 23, 2004)

all this stuff I hear about white crap in eco-complete turned my decision around.. Im going with flourite from now on.

as for help, If this is a brand new tank, Id just crank up all the filters.. put extras on there if you have it. maybe some powerheads facing into the gravel, so you can get it all into the water column and filter it out.


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## SnyperP (Dec 31, 2004)

From what i remember over at APC, the Carbisea rep said that eco complete is stored outdoors near their other products. On a windy day stuff can blow over and contaminate the Eco-Complete. I really don't buy it. Some of those white chunks are HUGE. I removed all of the larger pieces by hand and after a couple of months the water parameters are more stable. Since then i've recommended people to rinse their EC and remove any white chunks when they start to put it inside the tank. 

I still prefer the look of Eco compared to other products.


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## joan (Apr 25, 2005)

I guess I was very lucky. I bought a bag of Eco-Complete 2 days ago to start my new 10G tank and the water looks great. No sign of cloudiness. Sounds like a bad batch got out there, but this leaves me very reluctant about future purchases. This one is my first planted tank, and Eco-Complete seemed the best substrate from what I could see, plus I preferred the look of it to all other substrates I found. I really hope this is not going to be an ongoing problem. If they are a reputable company I'd expect them to compensate customers with bad batches. If they are willing to do this, then I'm willing to continue to use the product. I certainly hope they do.


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## GraFFix (Feb 21, 2005)

Some pics of my 2 bags of EC...Im pretty dissapointed now. 

http://www.graffix.org/ec (the pics were taken today...just added batteries to the camera and forgot to change the date, 4-27-05)


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## jeff63851 (Oct 17, 2004)

sigh...I got rid of the milkey problem. One months ago, I contacted Carb-Sea through e-mail. After waiting for three days...they FINALLY sent me a reply I answered their questions. Now, after what...one month...I'm still waiting for their reply. :icon_conf . Now, my GH and my pH are pretty high. How can I lower this down?

bleh...

-Jeff


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