# CaribSea Eco-Complete African Cichlid Substrate



## aaronjunited (Sep 29, 2009)

Was reading the article in the library. I have to say its a well written article and it really does 
infuence you to buy the product.

Who uses this stuff?, i'm just trying to sort out substrate for my new mbuna tank. I'm slowly selecting each part for the tank, sourced the fish and now trying to get my head around substrate and rocks for the decoration. Would anyone be kind and help me out with the substrate and rocks?

I have a 42" long 15.2" and 18.1" high. *** been advised on putting the following in my tank.
Yellow Labs: 1m 4f 
Socolofi: 1m 4f 
1 BN Pleco & 4 synodontis lucipinnis

Would the carbisea eco complete be good for this tank? I like the idea of white substrate but what colour is it exactly.

Any help would be appreciated.
Aaron.


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## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

I've used both version of the Eco-Complete African substrate -- both the crushed coral and the sand. Both are essentially white in "real life." I now am using the sand and I have it layered with black Tahitian Moon sand. The eco-complete layer is first and then I put the black sand over. It looks nice. I could have mixed it together, I guess, but chose this.

The crushed coral version is quite "chunky," I guess would be the word -- lots of tiny shells, etc. It's really your preference, I'd think.

I have lucipinnis and they really are quite small (much smaller than the multipuncatus I used to have). I personally think the crushed coral would be a bit large for them. I think they'd prefer the sand . . .


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## aaronjunited (Sep 29, 2009)

So the crushed coral is slighty bigger pieces. with the lucipinnis being bottom feeders there could be a chance of them getting hurt, would the coral affect the labs and Socolofi?

What is the sand like? Does it lift alot when doing water changes or anything like that?

One more concern would be putting under gravel jets to project waste and bits to the filter intake, would this sand be moved by the under gravel jets?

Thanks for your input.


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## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

I'm not sure the lucippinis would be "hurt" by the crushed coral, but it would definitely be less comfortable for them to scoot around on than the sand.

I have the Eco complete as the bottom layer and the Tahitian moon sand on top, so the Eco complete doesn't get disturbed when I gravel vac. The moon sand does, of course, but I only lightly vac. When I had the crushed coral, I was much more aggressive with the vac as the coral was far too heavy to be sucked up much.

I don't use gravel jets, so can't say.


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

aaronjunited said:


> Was reading the article in the library. I have to say its a well written article and it really does
> infuence you to buy the product.
> 
> Who uses this stuff?, i'm just trying to sort out substrate for my new mbuna tank. I'm slowly selecting each part for the tank, sourced the fish and now trying to get my head around substrate and rocks for the decoration. Would anyone be kind and help me out with the substrate and rocks?
> ...


I use CaribSea Eco-Complete Cichlid Gravel... Caribsea has several different versions of sand and gravel. The one I use is the crushed coral/shells version, it's coarse, and the pieces range in size from 4 mm to 10 mm.

http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/ ... plete.html

http://www.dtpetsupplies.com/catalog/Af ... Substrate/

On the website, it looks more black and brown, but I've had mine for about a year now and now it's mainly white and grey. Mine doesn't have much brown or black in it at all anymore. But I like it just the same even though the darker colors have faded. It's loaded with good stuff for my cichlids! It has all kinds of small pieces of seashell and coral in it and it has aragonite too. It adds calcium, magnesium, carbonate and other good things to the tank. It contains live water-purifying bacteria. The website says that 4 equals 1! You would have to buy 4 bags of ordinary gravel to equal the surface area available for water purifying bacteria in just one bag of Eco-Complete African Cichlid Gravel! And no rinsing is required. DO NOT RINSE THE GOOD STUFF OFF before putting it into your tank!!! Your water will be cloudy for probably two days after adding it to your tank... And I can personally say I have NEVER had an algae problem since I started using this gravel.

I have a 55 gallon mbuna tank which has yellow labs and cobalt blue zebras. I will be adding some rusties soon. My yellow labs never dig, but my cobalts do a lot and they have no problem at all scooping up a mouthful of this stuff and spitting it out into a huge pile beside my rocks. 

I have another tank that has sand in it. I don't really know which substrate I like better. Using a gravel vacuum, you can be real aggressive when cleaning the gravel, but when cleaning sand you have to be more careful not to suck a lot up. Sand keeps the uneaten food and poop on the surface so it's easily seen. The gravel is a lot more coarse which helps camouflage such things. In a way, the sand is easier to clean b/c you can see the bad stuff on the surface, BUT I have always heard that you need to churn the sand up every now and then to prevent toxic gas from building up in the sand bed. Soooo, I do that about every 10 cleanings in my sand bottom tank. And when churning the sand make sure you turn OFF your filter!! Sand will kill a motor in a matter of seconds! :? And you can't use under gravel filters with sand.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/a ... trates.php

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/sand.php

If you decide to use sand I highly recommend rinsing it...especially if it's the black moon sand!!!! Get a 5 gallon bucket and a garden hose and have at it!! LOTS of black goo comes off of it and you surely don't want that gooey sludge in your tank.

You might also want to research Nature's Ocean Crushed Coral Substrate or Florida Crushed Coral.

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/p ... catid=7322


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## aaronjunited (Sep 29, 2009)

thanks for the input Susie, really nice help. I have decided from other threads i'm gona go with argonite and pfs, have you ever used argonite before?

Thanks again for the above.


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## CutieSusieQ (May 12, 2009)

aaronjunited said:


> thanks for the input Susie, really nice help. I have decided from other threads i'm gona go with argonite and pfs, have you ever used argonite before?
> 
> Thanks again for the above.


I personally would not mix the two. If the aragonite is more coarse than the pool filter sand, it will eventually become a mess and the aragonite will work it's way to the top of the PFS over time. I'd chose one or the other as the substrate. The PFS will not buffer your water like the aragonite will. So if you do decide to use PFS as your substrate, you may want to consider using crushed coral or aragonite in your filter to help keep your PH high (depending on what type of filter you're using).

Also, you may want to research using pool filter sand a little more. I've read it can cause brown algae problems.


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## flemming (Mar 3, 2010)

*Would Eco-Complete African Cichlid Substrate be safe for my oscar, firemouth, jack dempsey, pleco*


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

I don't see why not.


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