# Eco Complete after a year



## banderbe (Nov 17, 2005)

My tank has been going down hill after about a year with eco-complete as the substrate.

Anyone here kept a tank with eco-complete for longer than a year without running into algae issues?

I think my major mistake was thinking I didn't have to gravel vac. I'll never do that again- not gravel vac. that is.

I think I have so much biological garbage in my substrate that I will be plagued with cyanobacteria (bga) until I just take it all out and start with new substrate.

Lesson learned, I guess. In the future I'm going to pull up the plants in sections over a period of weeks during water changes ever six months or so and give the substrate a good cleaning.


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## fishfan (Feb 19, 2006)

How do you gravel vac it. The particles are so fine they get sucked up.


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## John S (Jan 18, 2005)

ive had mine over three years no problems with it i i hardly ever clean it.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

I've had my tank for about 18 months without any algae issues. Why do you feel it's the eco that is giving you algae as opposed to any substrate you might have. Organic waste would build up in any substrate but the amount of time it would take to reach problem levels is probably based on the fish load, feeding schedule, plant mass, light, etc. You can gravel wash eco by squeezing the tube of the gravel wash to reduce the strength of the flow.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

I have a 10 with all Eco set up now for almost 3 years, no problems. I do gravel vac whenever I uproot/replant, so entire tank probably gets done once or twice a year. Just control the flow so you don't suck up all the finer particles and you won't have any problems.


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## banderbe (Nov 17, 2005)

houseofcards said:


> I've had my tank for about 18 months without any algae issues. Why do you feel it's the eco that is giving you algae as opposed to any substrate you might have. Organic waste would build up in any substrate but the amount of time it would take to reach problem levels is probably based on the fish load, feeding schedule, plant mass, light, etc. You can gravel wash eco by squeezing the tube of the gravel wash to reduce the strength of the flow.


I don't really blame the eco-complete.. I phrased it wrong I guess..

I am more interested in people who never gravel vac and their experiences with algae.


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## dapellegrini (Jan 18, 2007)

Depends on what you mean by gravel vac, but if you are referring to pushing your python into the substrate to any depth to remove gunk, then I would have to say I never gravel vac. I do put the python close to the bottom of the tank to suck out mulm maybe once a month or so.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't gravel vac as the tank is almost fully planted, leaving very little exposed substrate. It is all either hidden in a mess of stems of under my mid or foreground plants.

There is a good piece on BGA at the bottom of this page: Aquarium Algae

I will say that I have only used Eco for a short time now, but I have had aquariums for close to 20 years and have rarely had to deal with BGA (no time in recent memory)... Before Eco I used Flourite and did not gravel vac that either.


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## jon_the_newb (Dec 30, 2006)

I've had Eco Complete in my 29G for over a year, no algae problems at current. I don't vac at all. Water changes just come from where ever the tube settles, usually somewhere in the middle. I don't get any noticeable build up on the bottom, I think the SAE's and guppies keep anything from sitting on the bottom for too long.

Jon


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## Hashbaz (Apr 23, 2006)

I've only had EcoComplete for 9 months now - but here is my experience. The tank is overstocked and I do not remove dead leaves very often, so I assume I get a lot of gunk. I never clean the bottom. I have only noticed gunk building up in my hairgrass. The rest stays pretty clean. I have MTS and assume they help a lot in keeping things clean. Do you have any snails?


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## banderbe (Nov 17, 2005)

I tried keeping olive nerites once but they died within a day. I don't think they like soft water like mine which has a GH of ~5.


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## fishfan (Feb 19, 2006)

As long as the subject was brought up, does Eco-Complete retain its look after this amount of time? In other words, does it stay that dark gray/black color or do the particles dissolve over time? I haven't done much research on Eco-Complete so don't know if it breakds down with time.


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