Eco-Aqualizer - thoughts anyone?

 

Does anyone have any first-hand experience with one of these do-hickies?

It's not the construction that matters necessarily it's what it does to the water molecules---it sounds like a natural anti-oxidant or free-radical reducing process for water, put in layman's terms I guess???

 

 http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html

MORE FISHY SCIENCE

Regarding last week's aquarium "EcoAqualizer" item, reader David Stafford of Cornwall, England, made an inquiry of the site:

I was very pleased to see: "ECO-Aqualizer is completely safe for both saltwater fish and freshwater fish." Could this be because it actually does nothing at all? After all, the explanation of its modus operandi has no basis in science, does it?

I suggest that readers who have not visited the site, do so now in order to understand and perhaps share Mr. Stafford's puzzlement concerning what is presented there as the technical details behind this device/system. See it at www.ecoaqualizer.com/index.htm. Phillip Newcomb, the inventor of this fish-magnet scam, promptly responded to David, obviously despairing of his dismal lack of scientific understanding, and offering this much-needed enlightenment:

Hello David,

Water is H20. H2O is Oxygen and Hydrogen. Oxygen is Negative charged. Hydrogen is positively charged. Thus water is a POLAR substance. This polar nature allows water to be a univeral [sic] solvent.

Whether fresh or salt. H2O is H20. That's the basic science. Due to the polar nature of water, +'s and -'s bind up things. ECO-Aqualizer disrupts this binding as well as hydrogen bonding.

If you feel it don't [sic] work — don't buy it. Keep doing what your [sic] doing. It's the only aquarium product with a full 180 Day Money Back Guarantee.

Thank you in advance...

Now I'm worried. Any system that "disrupts" the binding between hydrogen and oxygen, as well as between hydrogen atoms, might really spoil the entire universe! We need those +'s and -'s, friends! Oh, wait.... electrolysis does that, doesn't it? These high-tech matters confuse this old brain....

What worries me even more is that water is a "universal solvent." That means it dissolves everything, so the planet Earth is currently going into solution! Stand back! This won't be pretty!

Just what ever gets into these amateurs like Newcomb that makes them think they've got science going for them? Too many comic books, perhaps?

 

I searched the old threads and went to the links and read the studies.  VERY interesting indeed, we're probably wasting our money for certain. 

 

Although, I must say that our previous 40g sump w/G2 skimmer, worth a small fortune, wasn't apparently removing the "waste" either as my mere 54g corner reef tank has suffered from high nitrates for months now and I only feed the fish 1/4 tsp of Dianichi dry food pellets a day.  We religiously do 5g water changes every week (& occassionally two) using RO water and Instant Ocean.

 

About two weeks ago we spent another "small fotune" changing out the Oceanic sump & G2 skimmer with a bio-filtration system (sump/refugium) & downsized our skimmer to an exterior mount version and my nitrates are still exactly the same.   We've added hords of LR to both the intake and final stage of the filtration (& there's tons in the tank too), but alas nothing seems to work.  We have 7 fish in the tank along with the standard cleaning crew.  I figure if the eco-aqualizer doesn't do anything I can at least send it back for a refund......who writes their testimonals??

 

Thanks for that link

 

1.  You are correct on the substrate replacement, but adding anything to the back of the display tank would be difficult as the LR canopy leaves little room for access in the rear.  Can this be added to the front?  We have about 1.5" of sand and is pretty even throughout the tank bottom, e.g. not high/low spots.  The LR base is directly on the bottom glass (it was added before adding the sand--the sand was then blown off the rocks with a baster and allowed to settle).

 

2.  We used most of the existing LR that came with the tank, but added about 5 new pieces which make up the upper canopy - the new LR was from The Aquariums LR tanks and were swished around before loading into the cooler for transport.

 

3.  The return pump is 1200 gph and we recently reversed the sump, which significantly shortened the uptake line and hard-plumbed the entire system to reduce detritis build up that was occuring in the tubing.

 

4.  The maxi-jets are pretty well covered with corraline, but I think they're 1200s (they have very strong flow and I often override the timer so both are running together for additional circulation).  Not sure if I understand what you mean by being able to point them downward, they seem to only rotate left to right.  I did recently remove the fan from one of the jets and have considered removing the "Y", but am leary to eliminate any additional directional flows.  The "Y" is definitely causing some low flow issues from the intake pump--this is partly why we flipped the sump around and eliminated about 3' of tubing leading back to the tank and this helped, but didn't resolve the issue.

 

5.  The refug light is 18w and there are only about 3 pieces of LR in there (it just looks like more from the photo angle).  The light runs 24/7 and the substrate is Figi Mud.  I'll take a photo from above so you can see it.  The micro algae is blooming like mad,but the macro algae isn't doing much.

 

6.  Should I remove the Tongan branch from the compartment and add about 6" of Oolitic, leaving just enough LR rubble at the bottom to keep the coarse grade from being sucked into the intake pump?  I didn't know I could do that, but it seems completely logical from a natural filtration perspective--it's like filtering home brew mash using the grain as the filtration system, ha, ha.

 

7.  I will post new photos so you can see the changes we've made. We lost one of our clams (purple) and the other (can't recall their names & don't want to run and look them up) keeps tipping over. The Turbinaria has been moved up and 2 pieces of Tongan branch were added to the rear of the display tank (after living in the skimmer side of the sump for two weeks) as additional canopy supports.

 

I think this hobby requires the need for an aquarium doctor who makes house calls--there is definitely a niche market for this profession I'm certain of it. :-)

 

Karin