# Eco-complete



## cturner (Jan 9, 2008)

I had a 10 gallon planted tank that I recently turned into a 20 gallon planted with shrimp. I have eco-complete and onyx sand as the substrate. My question is even though the bag says that the eco-complete won't raise the PH I wanted to make sure no one has had a problem with the PH raising in their tank while using eco-complete.


----------



## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Unfortunately, Eco Complete does have a reputation for raising pH. I bought a dozen bags of the stuff two years ago. There were a few bits of seashell mixed in with the gravel that fizzed rapidly in HCl acid. The buffering effect wasn't all that big though and it faded over 5 or 6 months.

CaribSea, who makes the stuff, supposedly thinks the problem is solved and I haven't heard about anyone having this issue recently.


----------



## cturner (Jan 9, 2008)

Okay thanks for your help. I've started adding it to my discus planted tank too and didn't want to do the whole tank till I knew for sure if it would raise it or not. I checked my shrimp tank ph and it went up .2 ppm so I figured it might even have been the onyx sand that raised it that little bit. I don't know! Does that make sense??


----------



## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

0.2 ppm???? What are you measuring with, lab equipment? I'd consider that to be well within the expected error of measurement.


----------



## cturner (Jan 9, 2008)

Well with shrimp I was a little concerned with any rise in the ph. If it does the same thing in my discus tank then I will be very concerned!


----------



## NoSvOrAx (Nov 11, 2006)

I have both eco-complete and onyx sand. Both will buffer the the kh. The onyx sand actually does it faster and higher than the eco-complete. And by onyx sand, I mean the seachem stuff. I really like both and bought the onyx specifically for its buffering abilities.


----------

