I'm wanting to grow a HC carpet in my 60l tank and am considering dry starting. I've bought some eco complete, but as it comes wet in the bag, will I be losing the bacteria that are in there if I dry start, or will the substrate remain moist enough (as I'll be spraying it with water) for the bacteria to remain? Can I/is it worth dry starting other plants?

Also, do I need to be fertilizing at all? Either now or when I fill the tank? I will have CO2. I have this at the moment which I put in my current set up and the plants seem to be growing well. I don't know what other plants I will have in my new setup so I don't know about root fertilisers. I have root tabs at the moment, but they're expensive.

As a side note, did anyone else find the bag instructions of how much you need a bit of a pain? I ended up buying two bags as it recommends a depth of 3 inches, and one bag wouldn't be enough for my tank, but the pounds of substrate per gallon of tank suggests I only need the one bag.