yes, it raises gh for about 6 months.

 

The considerable increase of GH is from Calcium only. No Magnesium.

In addition you may notice that your pH is buffered about 7.2-7.4.

--Nikolay

 

Eco will raise both gh and kh. I do not believe this will ever stop even after 6 months. I have had mine for over a year and its still leaking although is has slowed down alot. All thoughts considered I would never of used it knowing that it altered the gh/kh like it does.

 

I've had the same experience as others with Eco raising KH/GH. Mine was raised to between 7-9 degrees; my tap reading is 2-3 degrees. This lasted from 3-6 months, know have soft water again 3-4 degrees.

 

My experience changes from batch to batch. I've only had it leach in one of my tanks. The others don't seem to at all...

 

Eco Complete claims:

# Contains iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfur plus over 25 other elements to nourish your aquatic plants.
# Iron rich Eco-Complete eliminates the need for laterite
# Nitrate and carbonate free – will not increase pH or carbonate hardness
# Supplies Calcium without raising pH


So if we are encountering these fluctuations i believe it is important to let caribsea know their science is incorrect...

 

What you have to remember is most "gravels" are epoxy coated to keep them from affecting water chemistry. Any time you add uncoated "rocks" to your aquarium, you're basically adding minerals. Most "plant" substrates are uncoated, so they will affect your GH in some way. Eco Complete usually (as trenac reports) only causes a 5-6 dGH increase, which isn't too shabby for an uncoated gravel.

Personally I believe the "contains bacteria" claims are overrated, so I don't think it hurts to rinse the substrate before use. It's packed in water and lots of shipping and handling are going to mean minerals in the substrate have dissolved in the water in the bag. After several water changes and the gravel has settled, GH will go down.

Eco Complete is not supposed to affect KH. However, recently, some Eco Complete has been contaminated. Some rumors said the contamination happened because the area where it's mined hit a vein of calcium carbonate. Other rumors say the contamination occured by Eco Complete being accidentally mixed with one of Carib-Sea's saltwater substrates.

The bags are easy to spot... their "water" is milky white instead of clear. Still another rumor says Carib-Sea added a "clarifier" to the "contaminated" Eco Complete which caused the calcium carbonate to precipitate out and form the milkly white color - Carib-Sea then sold these bags at a discount to vendors.

Here's what the bags look like:

These WILL raise your KH.

Additionally, it's been discovered that the bags with this milky white fluid contain insanely high levels of phosphate:

Milky fluid from Eco Complete bag

Bags of Eco Complete with milky fluid added to tank, tank filled with water... this is a test of the tank water!!! :shock:

If you have one of these bags, Carib-Sea will replace it for you. Their e-mail is REEFSAND@aol.com.

(Small note, I didn't take these pictures, I'm just mirroring them.)

At this point I am unsure how the "milky fluid" Eco Complete and the "clear fluid" Eco Complete compare with regards to phosphate, GH, and KH. I would tend to think the "clear" bags won't have the high phosphate and KH levels.

Threads:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=17035

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15791

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=17212

 

Hello,
I am having similar problems with my substrate. I've had my tank running for two weeks now, at the begining my kH and gH where both around 4º, but two days ago I tested and they had rocketed to 7 and 8º respectively. I tested my decoration stones with Cloridric acid, they were all right; then my black gravel, which apart from a few white peebles did not made any bubbles, and then I tested my plants fertilized substrated, a botton layer of about 1/2 an inch of JBL aquabasis plus, and it started fizzling like mad!. How long am i going to take with this?. I was planning to have a school of cardinals with soft water and i don't know what to do now.
Regards,
Guillermo