MelaFix (Warning:Pictures)

[Agu]

Melaleuca formulations have been sold in the last ten years in a pyramid marketing scheme. You can get melaleuca laundry detergent,toothpaste, vitamines, etc.It's similar to Shaklee and Basic H products of previous years. The melaleuca tree is considered a noxious weed in Florida because the oil in the trees is so flammable it's a danger if a grove of trees catches fire. But if it works, it works. Page 67 of the Pet Warehouse has it for sale for$3.97 for 8 oz.[I have no financial interest in Pet Warehouse or melaleuca products]

 

[horge]

Precisely, Agu.
It was a freak show, as I remember. That's why I and a lot of others gave tea tree oil and peripheral products (--man, were there ever some wild ones!) no respect. The Australian counterpart to our Chamber of Commerce would release no information on the active components of tea tree oil, just dressed-up but vague generalizations. Either they had no clue then or they regarded it a trade secret. I'm looking now to see if things have changed in the eight or so years.

Hi Eric.
At this point, obviously homeopathy is all anyone can afford to grant it status. While reductionist analysis seeks to validate, unmonitored usage and "testing" will take place anyway. The fuzzy appraisal kirbster's provided may not be empirical, but I'm sure you consider it has value. Others are bound to arrive.

P.S. Perhaps I misunderstood, but I'm not sure mentioning material from Sprung is irresponsible, no matter how questionable the material. The citation seemed guarded enough. Now if you meant "the remarks MADE BY Julian were irresponsible", you'll find little dissension in the house

 

[Kirbster]

Horge, you calling me Fuzzy?

Regarding homepathy: I'm not a big fan of it. I preach as much as anyone else does about prevention rather than treatment. I don't get diseases in my established reef tanks...never have. Not on fish and not on corals. I attribute that to paying attention to creating ideal environments and thus eliminating stress. Quarantine also helps.

But I also do a lot of work in which I subject corals to massive amounts of stress. Just shipping a Euphyllia or Catalaphyllia in a bag is an unnatural and quite harmful and stressful activity for them. Euphyllias often are imported with tissue damage which usually leads to an infection. I don't know what bacteria/virus/protozoan/parasite causes these problems, nor do I have the facilities to make accurate ID's. But I do know it isn't hard to get an "infection" that wipes out a system full of Euphyllia. I also know that when I make 50 or 60 cuttings of Sinularia (or worse yet Lithophyton or the other tree corals) that they often heal quickly and easily, but sometimes one will "go bad" and this often results in all of them following suit within 48 hours.

If I can find a homeopathic remedy that prevents or reduces the above, I'm going to jump all over it. I tried Sano with fish, realized quickly it was a joke, and didn't give it a second thought. My losses from shipping and propagation mishaps are minimal (and in my mind acceptable), but if there is a cheap way to reduce 2.5% to 1.0%, I'll try it, witchcraft or not.

So far with MelaFix, I have seen no ill effects and several surprising recoveries. Would "several" hold up to scrutiny? Of course not. I'd be the first to scream, "Where's the quantifiable data?!?!"

I use MelaFix in systems receiving newly imported corals and in my "healing" systems for cuttings. Both of these are similar to a reef tank. They have deep sand beds, fish, get fed heavily, etc. I do everything the same as I do in a display reef except that all the animals are routinely stressed...intentionally. That is why I said I put MelaFix directly into my reefs. Most people think my coral quarantine is a display reef when they see it.

The reason I intially didn't want to publicly post my MelaFix stuff is that I don't want to be lumped in with the homeopathy crowd. I have been vocal against Sano and extremely voacl against the slick marketing of Leng Sy's ecosystem method. That's why I told Jason I didn't want to be involved with testing MelaFix unless its contents were going to be available for public assesment...which they are. I am fully aware, however, that it is still filed under "homepathy", and in my opinion it still should be.

I have a reputation for being fairly rational about the marine hobby, I don't want people to think I've gone off the deep end.

KA

 

[Agu]

Kirbster, If my post came across as an attack on your character or ethics I apologise. The purpose of the post was to give some history of the product. Thank you for using your corals as guinea pigs and post an update if you continue to test the product.

 

[farmertodd]

How long were these animals in the aquarium? These symptoms would be synonimous with shipping stress. I *do* use SANO btw

Just wondering.

Todd

 

[horge]

Fuzzy? Yes kirbster, but take it as it was meant: a compliment. (start the violin music)

I am fully appreciative of empirical data. But reductive logic and its pinnings can be taken only so far when constrained by the limits of BB post space, and in the context of a complex dynamic like a reef microcosm:

I would imagine that if hard "unfuzzy" data were the only currency of this medium, we'd be whipping out citations and referenes all day before ever getting a point across. Much worse if the data itself were to be traded verbatim. Maybe the reason this medium works is that we start off assuming everyone is competent at reefkeeping; has a solid grasp of basic biology and chemistry and then some; has an ample resource pool of information to draw on; is not out to disparage or to show off; and is honest.

If anyone had tried to deliver the "fuzzy" data in your pictures by using "unfuzzy" empirical verbiage alone, I imagine the result would have been lengthy at best, and at worst impenetrable.

I apologize if you feel slighted, kirb, (choke!) but I guess I overused your fine post to sneak in a point for the positive side to "fuzzy".

Would anemone fritters ease the hurt?
Hehehehe.

BTW: regarding the dressed up vagueness regarding Melaleuca alt...things HAVEN'T changed in the decade since:

(From an Australian defender of Mela-oil)
".....The group of researchers that has done the most comprehensive job to date is the team of Microbiologist at the Department of Microbiology, University of Western Australia. Led by Professor Thomas V. Riley, his team of people including Miss Christine Carson and Miss Katherine Hammer has managed to not only do excellent research, but to have the research accepted and published in some higly respected international publications.

In 1993, they proved that Tea Tree Oil was effective in killing the Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, a bacteria that has become resistant to any other treatment (MRSA).

A major part of the groups initial work was in developing the best possible method to measure the Anti-microbial efficacy of Tea Tree Oil. The standard methods to determine the anti-microbial efficacy of synthetic products were not useful when measuring the efficacy of Tea Tree Oil, as they were designed to test water soluble products. Tea Tree Oil is an oil, and therefor it was necessary to use an emulsifier together with the oil to determine the efficacy. This meant that the result of the test could have been influenced by the emulsifier and not showed the true power of the Oil.

Now sponsored by the Australian government funded research organisation RIRDC for more than 3 years, the team has produced a number of interested findings. Including the proof that Tea Tree Oil kills Malazzesia Furfur, a yeast responsible for certain types of dandruff, dermatitis and vaginal infections.

Another interesting finding was that Tea Tree Oil actually does not kill the healthy bacteria on the skin but only the bacteria that are pathogenic, if Tea Tree Oil is used daily in the right concentration.

As this team now possesses the most advanced scientific understanding of how Tea Tree Oil actually works, Australian Bodycare has increased the co-operation and financial support of the research group."

Suitably vague, everyone?

[This message has been edited by horge (edited 01-19-2000).]