Randy,
I believe that you will find few people on RC that are using the product, and in fact I would dare say that few members are using Kent products, in general. Active members on the forum are a different breed from our general customer base; that is to say, members who are spending a considerable amount of time on the forum asking questions, offering sage and credible advice, and reading posts are among the most advanced of reef aquarium hobbyists and they tend to have very strong opinions and views about what products or approaches they have found to work with their systems. As such, I believe that only a few of our products are likely to be used by this group of hobbyists. So in a nutshell, it could be stated that, by and large, RC forum members are not Kent customers in general. This brings me back to my statement that I don't expect too many people to come forward and identify themselves as users of Liquid Reactor.
I've made a few observations during this discussion on LR. It's very difficult for a company such as Kent Marine to develop a product that will be widely regarded as necessary or credible by a group of elite reef hobbyists, for the afore-mentioned reason that they already have some very concrete ideas about what can and cannot work, particularly when the mechanism is not understood nor is detailed information on it available.
Judging from the post claiming that our Turboââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¢Calcium, which is straight calcium chloride at 35% calcium by dry weight, is worthless to increase the calcium concentration in a reef system I can see that even the most basic of products undergoes intense scrutiny even though it's honestly a no-brainer; in this particular example, the guy is just wrong, yet he posted on a public forum that the product doesn't work. Had I, and another member, not corrected him, that could have swayed the opinions of others who have no experience with the product but are willing to take his word for it. Was the claim against it made simply because Kent Marine is thought of as a huge company that's taking advantage of consumers? I don't know. I don't mean to single that member out, I'm merely making the point that people are quick to jump to conclusions for all the wrong reasons. Rather than post a question asking if it was odd that the product didn't seem to do anything, this person chose to say that the product was trash. Honestly, it's frustrating, not only as a representative from the company that makes that product, but also as a hobbyist of 25 years, and as a scientist, that someone would make such an unfounded statement. What I'm getting at is that in many cases people will not bother to contact the manufacturer with the question or even ask it on the forum, or they just don't understand it and chalk it up to marketing hype, so instead they simply bash the product. That's not sensible. So the position of a manufacturer among such advanced hobbyists is precarious because no matter which way we go there will be someone there griping that the product is all wrong, won't work, etc. I'd like to make it clear that Kent Marine is a business, and in order to keep the doors open we have to introduce new products to the market and we do this with two intentions: providing a good and needed product and increasing sales. This is not to say that the products are needed by everyone with an aquarium. A perfect example is the calcium line of our products. Why do we have so many? Because there are so many different views about how it should be done, and therefore the need for those different products exists. On this forum and others, I believe that there are very few die-hard Kent customers. They may have been at one time, but they have moved on to other approaches of reef-keeping that may include one or two of our products but revolves around something that we don't do. We're happy to have the support of those customers, happy to provide them the support they need and the most consistent product quality we can, and happy to have their business when we introduce new products. I have already stated that I use only a handful of products in my own aquaria, so I'm coming right out and saying that there's no need for copious numbers of additives to be successful. The issue of marketing on the older labels in which it seemed like a few sentences discussing the product accompanied by a paragraph of propaganda is being addressed and I'm changing the labels as they run out to be more informative and less product-oriented. This will take time, so I ask for the patience of all members on the forum that have an issue with this. I understand their POV completely and this is why changes are taking place. This all comes back to the main point, which is that we provide some very basic products to reef hobbyists that enable them to make up their own minds about which products to use and which ones to avoid. I'm sure there are people who will take issue with Marine Biosediment, or Techââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¢I, Marineââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¢C, Coral-Vite, etc., because they disagree with the approach. That's fine, because there is practically no limit to the number of product choices on the market and the opinions surrounding them, so it's easy to move from one product or approach to another. However, for many hobbyists those products are what they pick up every time they head down to the LFS to see which fish and inverts have arrived, and they choose to use these products for one reason only: they work.
I have made these points merely to illustrate that we as a manufacturer are in a tough position with hobbyists on a forum like this not because the products don't work, but because opinions are easily changed, products are denounced due to a difference of personal reef-keeping philosophy, or our marketing upsets some of the members. Please take this statement at face value. We're doing our best to provide for the needs of all hobbyists, not just those that are advanced.
) are sold each day, and yet there is zero scientific proof that they will do squat to the human body, other than the placebo affect.
