My first tank I used just florite and gravel. 3/4 of my tanks, I set up with a thin layer of 100% natural kitty litter on bottom (clay) then i put 1 1/2" of self mixed 50/50 peat moss/organic topsoil mix. Topped 1 tank with eco-complete, some with pool filter sand and others with tahitian moon sand. No co2 at all. Use fert tabs and fluroish. Been that way for over a year now. Only problems I have had is with the eco-complete tank. Dirt started coming to the top of the substrate (Damn MTS) had to recap the tank with sand to stop it. Eco-complete is slowly working itself up to the top, but the dirt is staying down. It does tend to cloud the water for a couple days if you remove plants are do any re-aranging. Plants do good in florite/gravel, but are really lush in the other tanks. Now I have switched to 50/50 R/O tap water some of the plants are not handling it well at all. Luwiga has totally died off and guppy grass is getting dark brown stems, but leaves still green