eggsonrye1023

I just googled them, they sounded really good. Eliminates the latecite needs. Eco Complete looks the best.

lauraleellbp

I've got Fluorite in one of my tanks and Eco is going in my new one. I picked Eco because I like the color, various grain size to help root the plants, and shouldn't cloud the water like Fluorite tends to. It's also easier to work with overall than soils and sands and other inert substrates.

I do hear good things about the new black Fluorite, but I haven't tried it out yet.

Next tank I set up I'm going to try out a product developed to go under sports fields called Turface; I've been hearing mixed things about it, but I want to try it out...

wrkucera

for me I found microsorum pteropus, lobelia cardinalis, hygrophilia difformis and bacopa caroliniana to do well with absolutely no chemical or co2 ferts at all. the Ludwigia repens is questionable. however this is in a 10 gallon tank still using the same simple 18" perfecto lighting hood and swapped out the standard flourescent for a Flora Sun Max Plant Growth Fluorescent T-8 Lamp - 5,000K - 18 in. less than $9. And I used 1 bag of eco-complete substrate that I felt was key to this setup. I keep a small group of guppies and a $2.50 economy corner box filter. the growth is slow but it's been working and that's the most important aspect for me. The fact that I do almost no maintenance at all is impressing me the most so far. I must tell you that I set this up during the last week of december as a christmas gift so you know the time frame this has been running. I also decided that I wouldn't bother at all with waterchanges and just top off with new conditioned tap water when I see the level dropping. It's already seen one birth of fry(less than 2 weeks ago) and the females are already fat again!

wrkucera

Okay the turface i have never even heard of untill this post. could you tell me more? It does sound interesting? maybe I'll look it up myself...

The eco substrate is so far a top pick for me. unfortunately I found out late about the use of this stuff, and now I have a 55 gal. tank with 100 pounds of flourite red... it's gonna be a pricey re-do for me but maybe in the future.

lauraleellbp

Turface is inert, which means that it won't provide nutrients to the plants. It also is rather light and clouds the water when it's moved too much. It's distributed by Lesco and was developed to go under grass turf on football and baseball fields to help prevent too much soil compation. People use it because it's good for encouraging root growth and it's cheap- usually less than $25 for a 50lb bag. You can try and find a local distributor by going to Lesco.com.

If I use it, I will use a nutrient-rich underlayer and a layer of colorquartz on top to try and keep the cloudiness down. It's so light even fish swimming over it can stir it up if the tank isn't heavily planted.