Brightwell Aquatics?

Acanthastrea

New member
anyone have any experience with these products? i'm thinking of switching to these and i'm just curious of anyone's experience. i'm currently using ESV, and open to recommendations.
 
i bought the liquid reef last week when i got some coral frags.Reviews by my LFS and online seem to be good brand
 
the entire line, but in general they seem more concentrated, i mean i have my own RO/DI water....

I cannot support the entire line as I think some of the products are misleading and some cannot even be what they claim or do what they claim (more below).

But on that point of concentrated... To get anhydrous calcium and magnesium supplements, one would typically start with the bulk produced hydrated solid material. Then they would remove the water, probably by heating.

So instead of worrying about the cost of the water in the additive, I'd ask why pay to dehydrate the additives if you are just going to dissolve them in water again. IMO, that is mostly a marketing gimmick.
 
As to which product claims cause me to avoid them entirely as a company, here's a copy and paste from old threads:

Here's my comment from other threads on Brightwell:

Some Brightwell products are likely just fine. Others seem poorly thought out, from a scientific standpoint (although a cynic would say the point is sales, not utility).

Here are some of my thoughts on them:

Liquid reef is like Purple Up or Kent Liquid reactor in that the main ingredient (fine sand) does not dissolve in seawater. I do not recommend it.

Kalk +2 is also poorly thought out. The magnesium in it does not dissolve in limewater. And there is very little present anyway.

Their iodine product claims that iodide is the primary iodine-containing ion in seawater, which is incorrect.

Another Brightwell product that I have a problem with: "elemental". Specifically, I can't imagine anyone choosing this odd mix of things even if it worked as described, which it won't.

You can't link right to it, but it claims to have the useless aragonite, like Liquid Reef, but then goes on to add additional calcium and strontium, and a miniscule amount of magnesium.

If it worked as claimed, it is a very odd and unbalanced mixture of calcium and alkalinity. Since the aragonite won't dissolve, it is basically like a mixture of calcium and strontium, along with a miniscule amount of magnesium and potassium.

What would one use that for? The text says as an add on to other methods to diversify additions? That is a goal???
 
Magnesion P also really annoys me.

http://brightwellaquatics.com/products/magnesionp.php

43% magnesium by dry weight? I don't think so

Hopefully it is just a typo, but it is repeated in the 430,000 ppm comment and has now been on his web site for at least 5 years!

Pure anhydrous magnesium chloride is 25.53% magnesium by weight.

Pure anhydrous magnesium sulfate is 20.19% magnesium.

He says the product contains just these two, and ends up 43% by weight magnesium.


That said, the product is likely OK, but I have little confidence that he has them at a proper ratio if this simple math gets done wrong.


There is NO PRODUCT that is 43% by weight magnesium that I'd dose to boost magnesium.
 
I'm not a fan of the misdirection in their marketing but unfortunately that's an issue with some other manufacturer's as well. I don't believe their products are more concentrated than other similar products. They do have nice colorful packaging though.
 
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Finally, if you haven't had enough yet, here's a thread I started on the utterly ridiculous and claims he makes for his Neomarine salt

http://brightwellaquatics.com/products/neomarinet.php

It is detailed in this thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2397423

Most absurdly ridiculous is this line:

"For what it’s worth, the final formulation provides all major, minor, and trace elements at concentrations within 0.000001% (with the exception of chloride) of their respective average natural seawater concentrations."

FWIW, that claim means that calcium could be present at 412.000004 ppm but definitely not 412.000005 ppm :lol:
 
I have only used Microbacter7, Garlic Guard (I think its Brightwell, it has pretty packaging), and BioFuel. I like them all.

The Biofuel helps maintain low Nitrates and the garlic guard has, in my opinion, helped get all my finicky fish to eat prepared foods (Mandarin, Copperband, marine betta (before they had captive bred)).

The MB7 worked great the first time I addeded it tremendously clearing up the water and increasing skimmate (about a month after adding the Biofuel alone). Since then I have noticed it leads to increased diatoms and brown slime algae in high amounts (while it was the only thing I intentionally changed in the past several months I can't be sure it was the MB7), now I only does 5 mls every other week, that and the fact that I find it hard to believe marine bacteria survive in my fridge in a bottle for 2 months questionable makes me believe it does little other than pollute the water now.
 
As a marine biologist, all I can say is I agree with Randy 100% on all he said. I've rolled my eyes more than few times from some of those marketing explanations.
 
Mirobacter7 is a bacterial supplement. It's probably no better or worse than other brands but since we don't know that's in it there really is no way to tell. I don't use any bacterial supplements since indigenous naturally occuring bacteria are plentiful and viable in aquariums. I doubt any bacterial supplement will deliver viable ammonia oxidizing bacteria in any case. Using them usually requires repetitive and ongoing dosing which wouldn't be necessary if they were actually viable in the tank.

Biofuel is an organic carbon source ,easily replaced with standard vinegar and/or vodka at much less cost. The advantage to using generic products like vinegar(acetic acid) and/or vodka( ethanol) is that you can actually know what you are dosing. Commercial products keep their contents a proprietary secret

Garlic Guard is a Seachem product. This is a recent thread on garlic which may be of interest:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2407035&highlight=garlic

These are some of my my posts from it:

I think using some of the garlic it as an appetite enhancer for fish might be ok in small amounts but I have trouble getting past potential negative effects like damage to gut flora and fauna , transient hypoglycemia and interference with ureagenesis and lipids which may be associated with heavy or long term use. Seems to be at lest as much potential downside as upside for using it with marine fish or bringing in significant amounts it to a reef tank .

garlic contains some phosphorus, iron , and organic carbon as well as trace metals including zinc which could be a concern. The allicin contains sulfur as well. These may not be an issue at low levels . However, adding an organic compound can effect many reactions and activities in a closed system . I'm personally particularly wary of any claiming anti microbial properties.

I don't see any benefit to adding it to foods. That's my opinion . Maybe appetite enhacement but that's a pretty subjective observation. Again in small quantities I'm not sure it will hurt but I'm particular about organics going into the water.

I've used garlic supplements for appetite enhancement and can't say it makes a difference even with finicky eaters like mandarins,fry , and certain wrasses. My fish gobble up foods with it and without it with equal vigor.


 
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thank you for all the information, what additives would you recommend in a well stocked sps/lps/ excotic invertabreate tank, what brands do you recommend?
 
Randy,

Thank you for your ongoing efforts to keep vendor claims honest. It is a shame indeed that the pet industry has no honest governmental oversight...

Bob
 
what additives would you recommend in a well stocked sps/lps/ excotic invertabreate tank, what brands do you recommend?

I don't really have specific brands I recommend (although I trust a few brands to have well thought out products, such as ESV, and since we can't know what all is in many products, trust means a lot, IMO).

I discuss additives here:

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners, Part 2: What Chemicals Must be Supplemented
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php
 
After speaking with Aviad from Red Sea I have come to trust their process in developing supplements, systems, salt and test kits more than I would others. Not saying there arent multiple good companies out there, since we know there are, just my choice.

As for Brightwell I used their salt mix the first 6 months my tank was up and running because I was given almost half a bucket with my tank. Everything thrived quite well, using half a cup per gallon always tested right at 1.026, coral had great color and growth for the most part and everything was happy, I also wasnt supplementing anything those first 4-5 months and just 10% changes weekly.

When I ran out I switched over to Red Sea coral pro due to the reviews, info direct from red sea, and the fact the local suppliers always stock it at great prices. Main thing I noticed was having to use between 1/3 and 1/2 a cup(just over a third really) to get the same 1.026 salinity which is nice.

Going forward I have been and will primarily stick to red sea products for supplements and testing, although I never had issues with APi kits, brightwell or seachem supplements.
 
thank you for all the information, what additives would you recommend in a well stocked sps/lps/ excotic invertabreate tank, what brands do you recommend?

I dose only calcium hydroxide for calcium and alkainity, a mix of magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride for magnesium rarely .

Once in a while, I tinker with dosing some iron maganese for macro algae .

I don't recommend brands but can tell you those I've come to trust and use:

Coral Life Salt: hundreds of buckets over 10 years with only one poorly mixed one.

Salifert test kits for most things; api too., hanah 713 colorimeter for PO4 testing,hanah digital checker for alkalinity.

Pinpoint pH monitor, conductivity meter, milwaukee digital refractometer.

Bulk calcium hydroxide from Bulk Reef Supply

Arm and Hammer baking soda for carbonate.

Bulk Rox 8 granulated activated carbon from Bulk Reef Supply

HC gfo from Bulk Reef Supply

Store brand plain white vinegar and plain distilled vodka for organic carbon dosing.
 
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