# Capping Eco complete with black sand?



## TLE041 (Jan 16, 2010)

I wouldn't bother. The finer substrate will eventually sift through to the bottom. You'll end up with two layers with all the sand at the bottom (reverse of what you want).


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## grizzly_a (Sep 9, 2014)

+1 for Tony. You could do a half-n-half, (EC in the parts with plants and sand everywhere else) or just stick with black sand/coal slag on the whole thing.


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## schnebbles (Jan 10, 2015)

I tried that and yep, the sand isn't on the top anymore. I want to re-do my substrate and get rid of the eco


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Don't use eco. Just use sand. I ditched eco for black diamond and it was totally worth it thus far


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

+1. Fine particle substrate will NEVER remain on top of course large grain substrate for any amount of time. It'll always just eventually fall to the bottom, filling in the gaps. 


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## Soxfandowd (Aug 1, 2014)

I set up a 10G and a 40B with Activ-Flora. And I love it. It is more like very small granules rather than sand. It does not cloud up when disturbed and holds plants well. I don't vac the substrate because I have so many plants but I do wave the vac back and forth over the top of the substrate to remove mulm. It comes in quite a few colors. I wanted the black which was unavailable forever from the vendor, but a LFS was able to order it for me. It was not cheap at $20/16lb bag. But I really like it!!! Bonus is that my Dwarf Panda Cories, Otos, and Flying Foxes all like to mess around in it! I do use root tabs and dose dry ferts but from what I've read you end up doing that with any planted tank at some point no matter what substrate you use.


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