Gunther

about ready to replace with flourite. Eco is some nasty stuff it clouds up your
tank when your fish moves. It covered my plants with black dust. I had the worst algae ever with this stuff even with the replacemant bags. Its mostly powder which will get sucked up in your filter and I even had a sponge on the
intake. It compacts down and I can't see this being good for anything.

It gets sucked up in the python and you can't do a good job of cleaning it.
It's not black it looks like an ashtray. It gets stuck to your fish.

Now im stuck with 160lbs of this stuff. Never had a problem with flourite
have like 200lbs of the stuff in my other tank for 8 years now without one
problem.

What good is eco-complete?

Simpte 27

Pretty harsh statements considering many people here use it without problem (myself included). Have you ever thought it might be user error?

Gunther

Is that your refute?lol I assure you, it was rinsed the correct way.

How can facts be harsh?

aquaboy

I'll take it out of your hand instead of it going to trash. I live in alexandria & work in DC.

-Brian

Bert H

Eco doesn't need rinsing, and it won't cloud your water. If your water is turning cloudy you probably have a batch of the stuff that's bad. Check your phosphates, if they are sky high, you have the bad stuff. If so contact the manufacturer and they will replace it. (At least that's what folks have reported in the past)

Gunther

Likewise, I live in Alexandria and work in D.C. too.
I wouldn't trash it, cost to much at the LFS.

guess I have two options replace the eco
Or buy a better filter that will work with sand.

My p.delhezi pair are the ones stirring it up.

would an Xp3 work with sand?
it's for a 75g. and the the xp3 has the
impeller on the top, unlike the 350.
I use to own two of them but sold them with my 180.g

Gunther

Wrong! I already had it replaced and the person from C/S said it has to be
rinsed adding to an established tank. Even say to rinse it on the package.

This eco stuff clouds a tank worse then anything even after a good cleaning.
It will continue to cloud up when fish stir it up also.

Man I'm feeling aggro here and I'm a nice guy really. I'm just having a hard time with this eco, so don't take it personal.

SolarityBengals

I can't python mine very well. If I move stuff it makes the water cloudy but it quickly settles down. Mine appears pretty black and I have a canister and no problems. I really like it so far, minus that it kicks up easily. I've heard the sand settles to the bottom and the gravel will go to the top so I'm hoping that will happen.

I never rinsed mine. In a couple days it was clear.

Bert H

I can understand your frustrations.

Maybe I've just been lucky. I did a ten gallon with Eco, granted it wasn't an established tank, but I just dumped it in. I have never had the water cloud over when I uproot/replant with Eco. With Flourite, it takes me about 6 months before uprooting/replanting doesn't cloud up the tank. I guess the motto is ymmv.

John N.

I don't think anyone is taking it personally. This is your experience, and it happens to be a bad one. Most people are probably wondering what's wrong with your set, and why it's making this so cloudy. Are you dosing anything? I get cloudy water that goes away after a day when I replant or do maintance.

As for the fact that its sometimes really grainy, I agree. It's kinda hard to "gravel" clean Eco. You can't do it like normal, and stick your tubing over the the substrate. Instead you have to stir the stuff up a little first and then suck up the floating debris.

Compaction is an issue for most substrates I would say. Eco does have a tendency to have more compaction than others to do the smaller grain size.

As for the color..I like the color. Soilmaster looks like an ash tray from the pictures I seen. But it's all in the eye of the beholder eh?

Anyways what are your plans now? Are you going to try to figure out why your Eco is funky (I assume 'funky' b/c most people have good experiences), or are you going back to flourite?

-John N.