Bill

Hi there,

I've been checking out all the aquarium additivey things that I'm going to need for my fish. This morning I came across this product:

"Tetra EasyBalance
Happily, the fishkeeper's life is about to change forever

It's all thanks to EasyBalance - a revolutionary new liquid water additive, which cleverly eliminates the need for frequent water changes.

Until now, there was really only one way you could keep your aquarium water properly balanced. That was by removing some of the old water every few weeks and replacing it with fresh - a messy and time-consuming chore.

Now EasyBalance changes everything - researched and developed over many years, long term tests have proved conclusively that TetraAqua EasyBalance actually eliminates the need for frequent water changes.

In effect, when EasyBalance is added to the aquarium, it replicates the 'refreshing' action of traditional water changes - so now fishkeeping will be much easier and cleaner.

Now, using a little EasyBalance every week will keep your aquarium water in chemical and biological balance for six months."

Sounds great! But how well doesit really work? Has anyone had experience of using this product? I'd be interested to hear.

Thanks

~Bill

Sabi

Sounds interesting, if not wonderful ,that is if it works, of course!
Any idea what the price is like?
Like Bill, i'd like to know if anyone used this product before...

Bill

The prices I found were:

100ml: £2.98/$5.94US

250ml: £5.79/$11.53US

500ml: £9.98/$19.88US

I'm guessing the prices would be different in the US or elsewhere, but those are the converted prices I'm also wondering about Tetra SafeStart - trouble is you need to use 5ml per 6 litres of aquarium water, and with a 160 litre tank, that's a lot of SafeStart. I'm looking at plant health additives, stress treatments and all sorts of other things too - they're all pretty expensive and it's kind of hard deciding what I really should buy As a 14 year old I am pretty much skint most of the time, and all the aquarium costs are starting to add up!

Luniyn

It does actually work as several of our members who had problems with nitrates in their water (from the tap they already had more then they should) have found it lowered their levels quite a bit. The truth is though, if you are looking for a way to do less water changes and gravel vacuuming, then there isn't an easy answer to that (well you could get someone else to do it for you but aside from that). This may help but when all of the things that drop down into the substrate over time all of a sudden cause your tank to change overnight into a cloudy nightmare with quite possibly a lot of dead fish, this won't help at all. Now that isn't to say that it is a bad product, and for certain conditions on some tanks it can be actually pretty helpful. If you have live plants in your tank, this actually creates CO2 which they will appreciate. However, if you do not have live plants, then you MUST have good aeration in your tank or you could have a lot of problems on your hands. So there are pluses and minuses to this products, but really nothing replaces regular maintenance. In fact other then a tap water conditioner (which in some cases isn't even necessary) you don't really 'need' any chemicals. Weekly water changes, and regular maintenance will keep your tank healthy and happy, and you can save the money for better quality foods and other things for your fish.

Bill

Thanks for the advice Luniyn It's sounding easier now I'm definitely adding some live plants, so I guess My tank wil take care of itself for a lot of things. With cycling I think I'll just set the tank up with plants, then add a few fish and see how I go. I'm still wondering whether I should invest in a test kit though - they're quite expensive, and I don't think the kit would get used that often. I could buy single kits but they are even worse value From what I've read on this site, though, it sounds like a good idea to have one. I'll keep researching

Luniyn

Definitely skip all chemicals over being able to afford a test kit. It is a must unless you have a pet store that is close by that you can take samples of your water to. But if they are just using test strips though, you are better off getting your own kit. The one that most of us recommend is this one from API. And it will get used a lot, especially if there is a problem in your tank, the first thing we are going to ask is what is your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH in your tank. Test strips are a waste of money so skip on them, but get a good liquid based test if you can't find that API kit locally.

sgould

Also, you can order that test kit online for quite a bit less than what most lfs charge for it, if cost is an issue.

Sabi

I've been wanting to get the API test kit for a while now and was going to ask my LFS if they've got as i thought buying online will be more costly.
I just checked out the link Lunyin put up...
19$is =R133 and i paid R165 for just a nitrate test kit!!!

armadillo

In general, I avoid Tetra products because the instructions always arrive in German here!!!

I tried SafeStart, and I have to say, I am not impressed. There was nothing safe about my levels of ammonia/nitrite. Nor did it seem to precipitate the cycle.

armadillo

There's nitrates in tap water?

armadillo

Same thing happened to me with an ammonia test kit. I had the paper strips for the rest, and figured I only needed the extra liquid test for ammonia. Cost me an arm and a leg and now I've got the full liquid test kit anyway. Ah well, you live and learn.

Luniyn

There can be. That's why it's always a good idea to run a full set of tests on the water right out of your tap to be sure what you are starting with.

armadillo

Oh, funny. I did that on mine and it showed no nitrites/nitrate/ammonia/metals (tested for a couple), and a pH of 7. I assumed everybody's water was like that.

Interesting.

Luniyn

No you have everyone's dream water there then. I have a pH of 7.5 and an ammonia level of 1.0ppm. There was another person on here that had 25ppm of nitrite right out of the tap. And another that had a pH of 9.0. In one of the cities here in the US (Chicago I think, or maybe it was Boston) has very high levels of phosphates in their water which would lead to lots of problems with algae. So no you are one of the fortunate few if you have that nice quality of water there.

armadillo

That sounds horrible! 1ppm ammonia in tap water? Where on earth does that ammonia come from? I dread to think about this.

griffin

water quality can vary a lot over different locations and even time of the year. pretty surprising if you didn't think of it, but i guess kinda expected if you do think about it.

not something you need to test frequently, but good to know as a baseline. or you could just get the info from the water source. they have much better test kits

armadillo

My localest FS keeps track of that, and tells me about it. He's a pretty good guy. Am lucky. Only problem is his store is tiny so aside from knowledge, I can't get much there.

griffin

lol - i wish other fish stores were good at giving out good info!