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?
