Potting Soil vs. Eco-Complete

[aaron7353]

Hello everyone. I need some advice. I'm looking to set up a planted 29 gallon, and substrate is where I'm already hitting a road block. I would like to know which is better: potting soil (capped of course) or Eco Complete Plant Substrate?
The first obvious difference is cost. It would be much cheaper to do capped potting soil than Eco complete. Then my question is, does one regain nutrients better than the other after plants begin to use them up? I have heard that good substrates should be able to replace their nutrients by gaining them from water column dosing (dry ferts in my case). Which is better in that aspect?
Any other pros and cons or suggestions would be awesome. Thank you in advance!

 

[HybridHerp]

Okay, I use both of this things, and I am of the opinion that dirt+cap is better than basically anything else ever (except maybe amazonia but that stuff is expensive).

Eco doesn't contain nutrients, it just is good at absorbing nutrients and making what's in the water column available to plant roots.

What you could do if you wanted though, is cap dirt with eco complete.

Question though, what kind of lighting are you aiming for?

 

[aaron7353]

Question though, what kind of lighting are you aiming for?

I am planning on being in the medium lighting range. I'm trying to avoid the huge cost of CO2 for the time being.

 

[aaron7353]

Also, does the capped dirt seem to absorb nutrients?

 

[HybridHerp]

Also, does the capped dirt seem to absorb nutrients?

I guess. Really dirt just has nutrients...a lot of them in fact.


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[aaron7353]

Awesome. I'll probably just go with the capped dirt then. I was debating capping the dirt with Eco complete, but I don't see the reason to spend the extra money if I don't need to.