# Warning - Contaminated Eco Complete in the market



## Al_ (May 5, 2005)

Bags of contaminated Eco Complete have flooded the marketplace.

These bags contains extrememly high levels of calcium carbonate and phospates.

Carib Sea added clarifier and pH adjuster to some bags in an attempt to salvage them. These bags have a gooey, milky-white fluid in them and will cloud your water.

It is recommended you use Florite as a replacement.

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

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

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/showthread.php?t=6572


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## gnatster (Mar 6, 2004)

Welcome to APC

I have been following the threads on Planted Tank about the Eco-Complete issue. Thanks for posting a warning here. I must hasten to add that Carib Sea knows about the issue and has worked with those that have contacted them. Also please don't state that people should replace with Fluorite. There are many alternatives to Eco-Complete besides Fluorite such as Florabase, ADA substrates, locally sourced inert substrates and many others. 

Again, thanks for the heads-up


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

I've been following the planted tank threads also. Some members have said Carib-Sea said they would send them replacement product, although so far no one's gotten any replacements.

ADA substrates aren't inert, they lower pH and GH.



> A high pH level (alkaline) of the substrate causes difficulties for aquatic plants in consuming nutrients. The Aqua Soil Series decreases the hardness of the water and lowers the PH level...


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## mlfishman (Apr 4, 2005)

Actually he didnt say the ADA stuff was inert, he listed locally sourced intert substances as an option.

>>There are many alternatives to Eco-Complete besides Fluorite such as Florabase, ADA substrates, locally sourced inert substrates and many others.


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## Talonstorm (Feb 16, 2005)

Carib-sea has been very cooperative with customers contacting them about the contaminated eco. I contacted them and they will be replacing the bad eco I got. It has been less than 2 weeks since they started offering to replace bags, so we need to give them a chance to ship out the new product. I am excited to try the eco. I currently use flourite in my 29 gallon and I don't like the color of it. I have not seen anyone else "recommend" using flourite as a replacement, I have seen people saying they prefer flourite, but that is up to ones own preference.

Tina


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

IMHO if you have a "contaminated" bag of Eco it should be fine as long as you rinse it first. Get a big spaghetti strainer and a garden hose and rinse it real good.


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## SAWALLACE (Dec 24, 2004)

For those who requested replacement, did you contact Caribsea via email or is there a form somewhere?


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## gnatster (Mar 6, 2004)

Caribsea email address [email protected]

The support that Caribsea has shown to this point has been outstanding. However please use some judgement before sending out them a note. If you are no having issues with E-C you purchased or if you did and it has passed, let it go. Please also remember that polite emails are replied to in a polite fashion with generally favorable results. A note full of veiled threats and/or expletives can easily be lost with a simple < del >.

As a data point. The E-C I used a year ago raised my GH for weeks. After 6-8 weeks the GH settled down and has been stable ever since.


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

Someone posted this on another forum:



> Caribsea will not be shipping out the new substrate until the 4th week of May. Their contractor which mines the stuff for them really created a disaster for the company and they are purging all of there remaining stock and replacing it with new. I will not be shipping any out until then too when I have all of mine replaced.
> 
> You would not believe how frustrated they are right now. If you do call or send an email to them please give them a few days to respond. They are literally overwhelmed right now.


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## Talonstorm (Feb 16, 2005)

*Update*

I received my replacement eco-complete sometime between Wednesday and Saturday last week (it came while I was on vacation). They even sent an extra bag! :smile:

Carib-Sea is definitely a top notch company that stands behind it's product!

Tina


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Hang on to those contaminated bags. They sound like a cheap source of phosphate!. Just extract and dilute 2 mls of extract per every 2 gallons! :smile:


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## OakRaid (Mar 17, 2004)

*eco complete*

I just bought a bag of this, and after reading the instructions to just dump it in your tank if it is a new setup.... which mine was .. so any way after dumping it in and ending up with milk for water. I waited a day and did a 
5 gallon water change (10 gallon tank) it has cleared up, although I can still see some white residue on the gravel.
Wish I would have read this thread before I dumped it in the tank.
My question is ... Should I remove it and start over ... Or can I just do a few more water changes to get the calcium and phosphates down??

Thanks,
Dave


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

OakRaid said:


> I just bought a bag of this, and after reading the instructions to just dump it in your tank if it is a new setup.... which mine was .. so any way after dumping it in and ending up with milk for water. I waited a day and did a
> 5 gallon water change (10 gallon tank) it has cleared up, although I can still see some white residue on the gravel.
> Wish I would have read this thread before I dumped it in the tank.
> My question is ... Should I remove it and start over ... Or can I just do a few more water changes to get the calcium and phosphates down??
> ...


I know this is an old post, but does anyone know the answer to OakRaid's question about water changes getting the calcium and phosphates down?

I think I may have added one bag of this Eco to my 29 gallon tank too. It wasn't too milky (just a tinge), but I'm pumping the pressurized C02 in and am struggling to get the pH below 7.6. The KH is also way higher than my other tanks. The tank was set up on Labor day this year, and normally it should have balanced out by now.
I'm also starting to get some BBA and that's sometimes a sign of excess phosphates, isn't it?


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

The answer for me was "No".

What does a phosphate test tell you? If it's way high, when you're not really adding much, it's a good sign of a bad batch.

Drop an e-mail to [email protected] explaining the situation. They should ask how many bags of EC are in the tank and replace for free. They did it for me about 2 months ago. Betty is the one who helped me...


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Thanks Mike.
I checked the phosphates today and they're only around .01 ppm. I did figure out why I couldn't get the pH down though. My controller was way out of callibration, so it was really sitting at 6.9 all this time... Duh....


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## MeauxJeaux (Jul 1, 2006)

Bumping this thread with my first post. 
I'm a novice so I really wont be able to give a lot of technical info. I recently purchase 4 bags of this stuff online for my 37 gallon. I'm using RO water, so I guess it's safe to assume the water is soft. I added some driftwood and various plants during the setup. The water was really cloudy at first but cleared up overnight. Checked the ph the next day and it was jacked up to around 7.8. Thinking it was the wood that caused it I removed it and did a 50% water change. Checked the ph the next day and it was still high. Partial water changes for 2 weeks with no decrease in ph. I didnt notice any milky coloration in the bags I used but there are a lot of white/pepper colored pieces in the mix. 

So will this stuff cause the ph to shoot up like this? Maybe the company I bought it from had some old stock on the shelves? It's very frustrating. I apologize for bringing up old an old thread but it's driving me bonkers.


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

EC has some buffering qualities as far as pH goes. Plus, wood will usually drop pH.


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## MeauxJeaux (Jul 1, 2006)

turbomkt said:


> EC has some buffering qualities as far as pH goes. Plus, wood will usually drop pH.


That's why it's driving me nuts. I was really just grasping at straws when I removed the wood. 

Yall have a great forum here btw.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Drop a strong acid on the white colored pieces. 

Mine actually had tiny sea shells in it.


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## MeauxJeaux (Jul 1, 2006)

Spoke with Rick at CaribSea yesterday and explained my problem He was very helpful and is sending 4 bags to replace the ones I bought. Great customer service and I will continue to use their products. Everyone makes mistakes, it's how the mistakes are responded to and handled that makes the difference.
=D> =D>


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## ultimatehipster (Jul 24, 2006)

*Me too.*

Hi everyone. I'm new here but have been reading so many posts I feel like a lurking neighbor! I've been wondering about my Eco-Complete in my 2 month old tank and whether it is an old bag from one lfs. My ph has been going up and so many variables have my head spinning. I do not inject CO2, I now only have 6 plants rooted, a little java moss, and about 6-7 various wisteria and moneyworts floating. (I got Diana Walstad's book after I planted my plants and have since "picked" out quite a few) It's a 20 gallon, 16" high. I have a bag of Eco-Complete under a small gravel layer, total layers are about 2.5 inches. Using well water that is way hard (ph 7.4, kh 17, gh22) , so started doing what everyone says is a no-no... adding the sodium softened water to bring down hardness (tank water is at ph 7.4, kh 6, gh 9). SO..... Right now I have a mix of unsoftened hard well water with softened well water and fluval peat in a bag in my filter ... setup is with an Eclipse 2 filtration and light hood. Sorry this is so long... My ph is now at 7.4 after I begrudgingly went out and got Seachem's Acid buffer b/c it went up to 8.0 yesterday and my cory cats haven't been well since they moved into this tank from our 29 gallon. That tank has been setup for over 10 years using only the house sodium softened tap water and has never had problems with cory cats, clown loaches, black or red-tail shark as well as platy... So I'm monitoring hourly, ph and kh and just want this water issue to stop! I moved the cory cats into this tank to give them space and they just sit there. I have been obsessing about what to do, what not to do and read so much I get confused. Nitrates are 5-10 and I had been using a bubble wand since they liked it in the other tank but realized I was driving of CO2 and that raises the ph. Any advice would be great. RO is not an option and I won't be buying water to lug in.

I see all the time how sodium softened water is bad for fish but our 29 gallon shows very healthy acclimated fish so I wonder if I should ditch the plants and do that. OH, I have 2 otos (who ended up cycling my tank, I used 2 bio spiras that didn't seem to help.. but tank finished cycling in 20 days (July 5th)), 3 corys (want to add more but not to make them miserable!), one platy fry who hitchhiked with others I've since returned b/c they were ill, and today b/c I think I need more fish poop to help establish the tank further, I added 2 swordtails and one platy.

I was also wondering if I should remove the gravel (small size, not sharp but not fine= estes black) and replace it with a better substrate for cory cats? Wouldn't this be a nightmare for the fish if I try to do that when they are in there? I don't want to scare them to death but can't house them anywhere else...........

Thanks everyone for "listening" !
-Tracey
:typing:


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