# Carib Sea Eco-Complete



## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Welcome to TPT.

Enough for what?


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## AguaScape (Oct 28, 2018)

@hyewiz 
Welcome! Eco-Complete is almost completely inert. It will absorb some nutrients from the water to provide to roots. You will need to feed plants with column dosing though. Almost any substrate will need some type of column dosing eventually so you might as well start now. Eco and gravel will be difficult to plant in though. Have you considered using washed play sand or Black Diamond Blasting Sand? Much cheaper, easy to plant in, and has a nice clean look. I have Eco-complete capped with BDBS.


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## hyewiz (Feb 3, 2019)

Thank you for the reply, I will check the "washed play sand or Black Diamond Blasting Sand" or maybe white sand?


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## AguaScape (Oct 28, 2018)

hyewiz said:


> Thank you for the reply, I will check the "washed play sand or Black Diamond Blasting Sand" or maybe white sand?


Make sure it is a graded and washed sand. You will still have to wash it, but general purpose sand that has not been graded will have a lot of dust that will contribute to compaction of your substrate.


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## hyewiz (Feb 3, 2019)

How about if I go around by using Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix as base and cap that with eco-complete


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## AguaScape (Oct 28, 2018)

hyewiz said:


> How about if I go around by using Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix as base and cap that with eco-complete


. I would not recommend soil substrate for a beginner. Some have great success with it, Others have had disastrous results. Biggest problem is stirring up the soil into the water when replanting.


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## hyewiz (Feb 3, 2019)

Oh OK, so Black Diamond Blasting Sand it is its just I'm in Montreal Canada and not everything is available down here, hope I find BDBS. for dosing what do you recommend?


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## AguaScape (Oct 28, 2018)

hyewiz said:


> Oh OK, so Black Diamond Blasting Sand it is its just I'm in Montreal Canada and not everything is available down here, hope I find BDBS. for dosing what do you recommend?


. I believe it is sold under a different brand there. Try looking for sand blasting sand medium grade. The type is coal slag.


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## hyewiz (Feb 3, 2019)

even that for past hour I tried to find anything similar to Black Blasting Sand but with no luck. 

Ill try more tonight and pray to find.

Thank you


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## Maryland Guppy (Dec 6, 2014)

Black Beauty Coal Slag manufactured by Manus.


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## ursamajor (Oct 6, 2015)

If you already bought the Eco-complete, you should use it. With both eco-complete and the various sands you will need to add additional fertilizers anyways. The BDBS won't provide any extra benefits in your case, unless you really like how it looks or are planning on frequently replanting your tank.


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

I use Eco-complete with Caribsea Crystal river sand. Gives a much more natural look than coal slag.

Here is a picture:


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## hyewiz (Feb 3, 2019)

Discusluv said:


> I use Eco-complete with Caribsea Crystal river sand. Gives a much more natural look than coal slag.
> 
> Here is a picture:


Thanks at least "Caribsea Crystal river sand" is available through Amazon Canada. And for fertilizer I use Seachem Flourish, Seachem Flourish Iron and Seachem Flourish Phosphorus??


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## Tannerleo (Aug 4, 2018)

I use Eco-Complete and agree with AguaScape that it's hard to plant in.

If you end up using it I'd recommend:

Put in about 10mm of the Eco-Complete.
Place Flourish Tabs, following the pattern recommended on the bag.
Cover with the rest of the Eco-Complete.

I wish I'd done this when I started. The Flourish Tabs can be difficult to smoosh down into Eco-Complete afterwards.

Good luck!


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## Hammy4848 (Apr 11, 2018)

Hello
if you live in Montreal you can buy something called LavaGrip From Home Hardware
https://www.homehardware.ca/search?query=lavagrip
LavaGrip is used to deice sidewalks.
It is completely organic and is made of volcanic rock just like Eco-Complete and it is inert.
LavaGrip is sourced from British Columbia, Canada. 
The product is mined and produced by CanLava Mining Corp., a Canadian mining company headquartered in Coquitlam, British Columbia. The volcano last erupted some 7,000 years ago. This was after the last ice age and the deposit is the only post-glacial lava rock in Canada.
$22.00 for 35LBS 
this product was on dragons' den


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## hyewiz (Feb 3, 2019)

Hammy4848 said:


> Hello
> if you live in Montreal you can buy something called LavaGrip From Home Hardware
> https://www.homehardware.ca/search?query=lavagrip
> LavaGrip is used to deice sidewalks.
> ...


I do leave in Montreal, so should I add this on top of Eco-complete, or before Eco-complete


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## Hammy4848 (Apr 11, 2018)

You can use it instead of Eco-complete.
That's what I Did.


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

Putting one substrate on top of another is called capping. It is usually done to hold a light weight or unattractive, nutrient rich substrate in place. Like putting sand over Miracle Gro soil. All the substrates that have been referred to on this thread are inert gravel or sand. If you want to combine them you can. No real benefit to any order that you place them in other than if you're going with a deeper substrate it can be beneficial to have coarser gravel and rocks as a base. Sand is typically easier to plant in then gravel. If you layer them, sooner or later they will combine anyway.

Bump: Putting one substrate on top of another is called capping. It is usually done to hold a light weight or unattractive, nutrient rich substrate in place. Like putting sand over Miracle Gro soil. All the substrates that have been referred to on this thread are inert gravel or sand. If you want to combine them you can. No real benefit to any order that you place them in other than if you're going with a deeper substrate it can be beneficial to have coarser gravel and rocks as a base. Sand is typically easier to plant in then gravel. If you layer them, sooner or later they will combine anyway.


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