ddm18, if you want a webpage that will say something will work, just hop around eBay for a few minutes. There is all sorts of worthless crap on there what will tell you "cut your water changes in 75%!" or "catch any fish in seconds!" or "guaranteed to help your fish breed" or "insert attention grabbing phrase here!" And, they all have webpages. If you want a webpage, I think I can make one in about 10 minutes. I have no doubt you have heard the phrase "You can't believe everything you read." And that is more true on the web than in any other media we have ever had.
The simple turth is that there are many, many people who are willing to tell you anything you want to hear to make a sale. And most of it is incredibly dubious. Some of it is downright dangerous (to your fish and maybe even to you).
I think that all of us replied that we would be cautious and to frequently check the water parameters. Good advice all around, in ANY situation. And, what precisely did you think of when you read the world 'pearl'? I thought of a hard, impermeable solid sitting on the bottom of the tank.
And I also thought of the classic 'ceramic clothes waching disks' of the 1970's. Back then, you could hardly open a newspaper or magazine without seeing an ad for these ceramic disks that you would toss into the clothes washer instead of using powder or liquid detergent. The ad claimed to use electromagnetic fields or charged ions or some other pseudo-scientific buzzword to clean your clothes. And guess what, the first 3 to 5 times you used the disks -- they worked perfectly, just as advertised! You never had to buy soap again, right? Wrong. The catch was that clothes washing in detergent always leaves some soap on the clothes. [i.e. you can tell who uses powder detegergent by turning on a black light, for example] So, the first few times the disks 'worked' by using the soap that was dissolved in the clothes already. But then, they stopped working, obviously. The company tried to alay disgruntled customers by saying the disks were cracked or not compatible with the customer's water or something. But, in a matter of months, the public wised up and you never saw an ad about these things again. The biggest problem is that any saleman can try to sell you anything, and when you question it, they say "oh well, they laughed at Colombus, and they laughed at Copernicus -- and someday, everyone will know I am right, too." This is why you have to look at claims through a skeptical eye.
The same is true for a lot of these instant cycle products. I stand by my comments in the first post.
And I also stand by my skepticism. There is nothing wrong with being a skeptic -- all that means is that we demand proof. And, as this is a new product, we are completely, 100%, undoubtedly justified in being skeptical. If several people have success with this product, we will welcome it. I am sure several people looked at the bio-wheels at first and just said "huh?!?" to themselves. But that product has become a PROVEN winner. And if these pearls are proven, we will accept them too. Bio-Spira has been good, but has not been proven in my mind -- hence my second post about feeding any starter with pure ammonia for a period before introducing fish. The real science is what has been proved, which is taking the time to grow these bacteria, and the real science is that none of the instant cycle products has ever been anywhere near 100%.
But, in the mean time, I, and it appears several others, stand by our skepticism.
And finally, what you consider wrong with these message boards are in many ways what I consider to be completely right. These posts and questions are here to seek and recieve the advice of other fishkeepers around the globe. And that experience has been is that a lot of these instant cycle products are useless wastes of money. And that experience has also been that we are skeptical of new products and unproven claims. But this is also where we come to share our experiences with new products and learn about new things. What we got from trulytropical is two lines claiming to cycle in 24 hours. No more info, no data, no explaination. Just because there are low or no readings after 24 hours does not mean the tank is cycled at all -- the readings could be low beacuse he stocked (very) lightly and the pollution just hasn't built up. Every once in a while a post will show up claiming 24 hour cycling when this is exactly what happened, only to get a post a week later complaining about the high pollution levels. My very first thought after reading the post, in fact, was: "There is a good chance this guy works for this company trying to make a few bucks off people for a short time, then run away to the sunset with our money." Skeptical, yes. But, I am openminded enough to listen to others' expericences as they come in.
So, I do not think you needed to insult us just for being skeptical and trying to be helpful. And you certainly did not need to insult the message boards -- can you suggest an improvement? I, and I am certain the administrators here, would love to hear any improvements you could suggest so that we can improve this (and every other) forum. There are a great deal of us who think long and hard before we post.