Planted Tank Guru
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Contra Costa CA
I have EC in a few tanks, and it is not messy, no cap needed. Does not really supply nutrients to the plants the way the label makes it sound. The material itself has these minerals, but it is the same as saying the plates you eat off of have minerals your body needs. NOPE! Gotta add food to the plate. Gotta add fertilizer to the substrate.
I have pool filter sand in several tanks. It is a bit harder to vacuum, and I do not like that light colored substrate. It does not cloud the water, nor compact, so is OK that way. Does not hold nutrients the way the better substrates can. Makes a nice path through a couple of planted hills, other accents.
Soils vary, but I would err on the side of caution.
If you get Miracle Gro, then I would sift out the largest bits (easy to do: just dump some in a bucket of water and stir, then net out the big pieces, they float).
Then, let it sit in that bucket for at least 24 hours and test the water. If there is no ammonia, then go ahead and do the change out. If there is ammonia, then cycle it in the bucket, doing enough water changes to keep the ammonia under about 3 ppm. Stir it as often as you can (couple of times per day) or add a bubbler or something to keep the water aerated. Might take a few weeks to a month.
This is almost the same as allowing it to go through this cycle in a tank, but no risk to the fish.
When the ammonia and nitrite tests show the water is OK, then the substrate is OK to make the switch.
To do the switch in a 10 is so easy!
Have enough buckets on hand to hold everything, strip it down, and rebuild.
If you like the gravel you are using then skim off the top layer, and reuse that as a cap. That is where a lot of the bacteria are. Not deeper in the substrate.
Then monitor it for a mini-cycle. A certain amount of the beneficial bacteria live in the substrate. You are losing them when you swap it out.
If the soil you are using had to be cycled then more bacteria grew in the soil, and your tank might not have much of a cycle.
If the material you are using had no ammonia, so did not need cycling, and it was used with just a bit of rinsing, then watch for ammonia, and be ready to do some water changes.
You could add some bacteria from a bottle, but make sure it has Nitrospira specie of bacteria. Don't waste your money on anything else.