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I am starting my 55 gallon planted in just 2 weeks! So I am finalizing my ideas.

I was planning to use ecocomplete. Is this better for plants? Or would it be just as good to use a balck gravel?
How much is ecocomplete usually?

I love eco complete. I have it in all my tanks. I've never had to use any substrate fertilizers for even my big amazon sword and some of the eco complete has been in use for years. It works more like sand than gravel. You can't gravel vac but have to stir it like sand and vacuum the top. It doesn't compact like sand though and I've had no issues with anearobic spots or plant roots not growing so long as it is lightly stirred every few weeks or I now use trumpet snails to stir it for me. When I moved my 55g the whole bottom of the tank was a mass of roots from the amazon sword, crypts, and a huge lilly. The only thing I do have problems with is that it won't slope. If your trying to do a thick substrate that is deeper at the back than the front it won't stay that way. It levels itself out over 6-12months time until the whole tank is flat. I kinda avoided that by placing a large piece of driftwood before filling it with eco complete and then added more driftwood and some rocks afterward but it just doesn't like to stay evenly sloped.

I have about a year worth of pics on the computer that I haven't uploaded but I do have some from the first week while I was setting up the 55: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/fish/55g/