Tetra Easy Balance

[robert1305]

Hi, its me again, just been looking at the above product, has some pretty fantastic claims, the best one is it does away with weekly water changes to one every SIX months,
Just wondered if any member has ever used it, and if they have does it work,?

Regards Bob

 

[Colin_T]

I have never used it and wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It has contradictory information and not doing water changes for 6 months is going to significantly increase the risk of the fish dying from diseases.

I copied the following paragraph from the Tetra website
http://www.tetra-fish.com/products/water-care/easybalance-plus.aspx
"New Feature: Nitrate Reduction with Nitraban™ – Serves as a nutrient for denitrifying bacteria that consume the oxygen releasing nitrogen from the aquarium. On average the nitrate concentration will drop below 40mg/l."

My response to the above statement.
That doesn't make sense because denitrifying bacteria are anaerobic bacteria that die if exposed to oxygen. And it's very difficult to have anaerobic areas in an aquarium with healthy fish because there is lots of oxygen in the water.

--------------------------
Your best bet is to do regular water changes and try to avoid adding things to the aquarium unless they are needed.

 

[Byron]

Agree completely with Colin. Aside from the wild erroneous claims made by this and similar product manufacturers...there is absolutely no substitute for regular substantive partial water changes in any aquarium holding live fish. Once a week, and at least 50% but preferably more (I change 65-75% every week and have for over a decade). This will prevent numerous problems and most disease. And we can guarantee the fish will be healthier.

 

[AbbeysDad]

No, no, no, NOOOO! There is NO bottled additive product that can reduce or remove polluted water. The frequency and volume of NECESSARY partial water changes will vary nearly with each tank. It depends on tank size, bio-load, and fast growing plant life (that converts pollution into plant tissue).
We like to say that 50% weekly is a fair average. That would be more than necessary for some tanks, and no where near enough for others. Why I have grow out tanks that get 50% twice a week - even more in some others due to the fish load and feeding. But in a nutshell, there's no such thing as water that is too fresh and clean.
In any case, there simply is not an additive that makes water cleaner. The product may have some other qualities, but as far as I'm concerned, the marketing people blew it with such a claim.

Note: Having written the above, we might use nitrates as a rough guide of water quality and do the partial water change when the value is 10-20ppm or so. However, I feel it's often just easier to target 50% weekly. (just my nickle)

 

[AbbeysDad]

I see Colin and Byron all posted while I was writing....but I see we're all basically on the same page.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I concur with all of the above. You need to change at least 50% of your tank water every week (I change around 60%-70% every week, but that’s just my opinion because I like clean water.), to keep my fish healthy, and my tank clean.