nitrate minus

[fenning]

can anyone tell me anything about a product from TETRA called
nitrate minus.
it goes under the gravel for 1 year
and should stabilize kh-ph. as well as nitrate.
as anyone any more information before i try it.
many thanks.

[JSchmidt]

I don't know about this product specifically, but I've got no faith in Tetra most products. They seem intent on developing stuff that leads aquarists into believing that tank maintenance is unnecessary. First it was EasyBalance, now this.

I'm beginning my Tetra boycott.

Jim

[wetmanNY]

I think it's Tetra's marketing advice that's bad. These big corporations need a two-pronged campaign. One directed to the naive-- they have that already.

Now Tetra needs to do an adult campaign talking frankly about their ingredients and the chemistry involved. (Genuine chemistry, not Marc Weiss chemistry or eco-aqualizer chemistry)

Their industry competitors already know just what's in EasyBalance. Their labs analyze it and copy it or don't or improve on it or cheapen it or whatever. There are no "trade secrets" within the trade.

So are we amateurs going to cook up some Easy Balance at home, if we know what's in it or how it works? Fool around with Ferric chloride? Very interesting. Maybe a handful would. Like PMDD, which began as "Poor Man's Dupla Drops"-- largely because the original fertilizer was the most expensive fertilizer in the world, drop for drop, bottled up like a perfume and marketed in the style of Bee Jelly..

But EasyBalance doesn't make water changes unnecessary. We're not idiots. It was a stupid way to market it.

Meanwhile, with some professional honesty Tetra would gain prestige and the confidence of knowledgable fishkeepers.

They don't realize yet that reputations are won and lost now on the Internet.

Before the 'Net, there was no one to spread the word except the LFS... who got their information from the corporate salesman or out of industry-manipulated mags like the old unreformed and unregretted Tropical Fish Hobbyist-- which is currently undergoing a renaissance and getting closely allied to the Internet-- have you noticed?

[OrionGirl]

Just a few thoughts--if you needed further convincing...What happens at the end of the year, when the product is depleted? Are you supposed to tear your tank down in order to replace the stuff under the substrate? That's ridiculous! Kh and pH can have many different values for different setups, so how can one product provide for all needed values? Nitrates are a normal result of the biological filtration, and are not 'bad'. They can be dealt with through water changes or plants quite easily. Of course, both those options don't make Tetra a thin dime...

As always--anything that promises to make tank maintenance a thing of the past is probably excluding a bit of information...Like the fact that they don't care if you follow their advice to the letter, and still lose all your fish.

[RTR]

Tetra is not Tetra anymore, and it does show. Sad.

Dupla is not Dupla anymore, which bothers me not at all. I gave them up years ago, Tetra is next.

[wetmanNY]

A Pfizer division lately, was it not?-- until Pfizer dropped them. Wouldn't do, for a 'reputable" drug corporation to be marketing various magic bullets to aquarists...

[RTR]

Originally it was Baensch's (of Atlas fame) father's company, then some mutlinational (could have been Pfizer - I just don't remember), then was spun off/divested.

Dupla is now Red Sea or some such.

[fenning]

many thanks to all those that have replyed to the nitrate minus.
It does appear impracticle in its use and its promises.

However a loacal fish store as been useing it for some considerable time, apparently with great results.

They have been selling nitrasafe bags which are twice the price
of the nitrate minus and conciquently useing the minus in the store.

I intend trying this product not in the gravel but in the external canister.

I only know this from a friend that works there, but as the saying goes ( the proof of the pudding is in the eating ] and I shall keep you informed. ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.

p.s nitrasafe bags work very well.