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Permalink Reply by Jason DuBois on February 15, 2012 at 11:53pm

Check out the discussion entitled dirt or flourite?! also check out my video. I did it and its pretty good but the flourite is light in weight and so it is easier for dirt and bits of mulch to get on top of the gravel. So its slightly messy after a while. Mixing with dirt then regular gravel is pretty nice. 

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Permalink Reply by Ethan on February 16, 2012 at 12:28am

Are you using regular Flourite? Would you recommend mixing Flourite and dirt and using gravel to cap it, or having a layer of dirt, a thin layer of Flourite, and then a thin layer of gravel on top? (I will throw out the dirt once every year and restart, but i don't want to loose the Flourite with it)

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Permalink Reply by Paul V. Rotondi on February 16, 2012 at 2:09pm

Hi Ethan,

I haven't had any issues so far with using EcoComplete over Dirt/Fluorite Red/Peat mix...and my plants love it so far.  One of the things I did was to use enough EcoComplete to keep the dirt from seeping through.  Fluorite (either Black or Red) should work fine, and as long as you plant heavily at the start, you shouldn't have too many issues with over-mineralization/nutrient overload, and the algae blooms/Greenwater conditions assiciated with heavy nutrient load.

Mind you, My 210 Gallon tank is only about 6 weeks old at the moment, and so far I've only see a tiny bit of Algae buildup on a few leaves as a result of the lighting I'm using...I use Amano Shrimp (Caridinia japonica) to keep the algae in check, and they're big enough that the angelfish in my tank will leave the shrimp alone.

Check my profile if you'd like to see the videos and photos of the 210 in action.  You'll notice I'm using about a 1 1/2" - 2" cap of EcoComplete over 3" of Miracle Gro Organic Plus topsoil/Fluorite Red/Peat mix...so the dirt's not really going anywhere unless I dig it up.

Hope this helps you out...talk to you soon.

Paul

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