New product

[euRasian32]

Anyone seen or heard of the ecoaqualizer?

It says the benefits are:
*reduces water changes by up to 75%
*eliminates cloudy or yellowing water
*dramatically reduces green algae growth
*keeps water crystal clear year-round
*relieves stress and improves health

Both salt and fresh water benefit from the unit. There was also good feedback from people/stores that use it, seeing results in 1-2 days.

I'm not rushing out and getting one, but I might consider putting it on the Mother Ship eventually. I sure as hell wouldn't skimp on my water changes though...

[flynngriff]

Hrm, sounds like a load of crap to me... I suspect that if it worked as well as they say it does (or did anything at all for that matter) that we'd all be using them already. Their scientific explainations sound worse than the original Star Trek's.

Hey Old Salt, you know more of the science behind all this than most of us. What do you think?

-Flynn

[ImagineAquatics]

A water ionizer?? Wouldn't that acidify the water by adding negative ions? I wonder if there is any electrolysis involved, or if somehow they ionize water without breaking it into free ions

[TheOldSalt]

This thing has been around for about 3 years now, and have to say that I don't know any more about it today than I did when it was new.
I have read page after page after page of tech & promo info on this thing, and it's all in doublespeak. The info goes on & on without really saying anything.

Personally, I think it has to be a piece of crap based on pure fantasy. I'd love to think otherwise, but the carefully crafted info released by the manufacturer doesn't even say what it actually does, let alone how it's supposed to do it. The worst part is that when I compared a few different sources, they all described something completely different.

One of them actually seems to say that some rare earth minerals inside it glow when exposed to the electricity in the air around a typical fishtank setup, and that the energy released by this is what somehow does..something..to the particles in the water passing through it, which are then ( I'm guessing ) ionically charged in such a way as to make them either become super easy to filter out, or stick together into bigger, filterable, and harmless compounds.

Sadly, I'm not making that up, and even sadder, it is completely different from other versions I read. Saddest of all, compared to the other goofy explanations, that one makes the most sense. I couldn't even begin to guess if one single word of it is true.

I've been meaning to try one of these things for kicks, but in the nick of time, I always managed to find something better on which to waste my money.

If the makers of this thing should ever decide to come clean and give us a real explanation of exactly what it does and how it does it, I would love to hear it. I have a funny feeling, however, that such a move would hurt their sales even more than promoting it as high-tech snake oil.

[ImagineAquatics]

I carefully read the info about this unit, and I think it 'ionizes' the water with near infra red light. That would basically add electrons to the water, providing any neutrally charged hydrogen atoms with a negative charge (O2 would be too stable to ionize, I think.. I could be wrong...But how would a H ion be neutral???) That would allow free bonding with anything receptive to a H- ion. What good would that do?? I don't know.. Maybe something substantial. I recommend asking them for a demo unit. If it is worth its salt, surely they will be willing to relinquish one to a moderator of this forum (for advertising at the least... If it works...)

[flynngriff]

Hey, now that's a good idea!

We could contact manufacturers when they have a new product, and see if they would let us test it. I think Old Salt's endorsement on a product would get them some sales...

Seriously, would you be willing to do this? With all the crap and snake oil out there, it would be great to have someone we know and trust test them for us. If the product actually does work, they'd be fools not to send out one for a review... And if it doesn't work, they'll say no anyway...

-Flynn

[ImagineAquatics]

That's not a bad idea. I'll have to talk that one over with my partners.

[TheOldSalt]

I'd be willing to test anything anyone wanted to send me, although I don't reckon that many will want to send anything.
Frankly, in regard to the ecoaqualizer, I'd be happy with just a straightforward explanation from the maker of what it does and how it does it. Somehow I doubt they'll wanna give me one.

[Ownager2004]

It sounds like a bunch of garbage to me. I read the see how section and ive taken 3 college chemistry classes and they dont explain anything. It says it weakens hydrogen bonds... I dont think it is possible to "weaken" a hydrogen bond, especially not by ionizing the molecule?

It also says "halogens such as Na+ and Cl- become freed up to naturally sterilize contaminents"... well ive got news.. All chlorides besides silver lead and mercury are VERY soluble. So if your Cl- anions are reacting with anything the chances are that your fish were dead a long time ago, lol.

Also Na+ isn't a halogen, lol.

So on this point alone they are claiming that their product does something that is natural to an aquarium enviroment without help and then they are saying something that isn't true by basic chemistry knowledge.

they also say that this thing reduces surface tension so that CO2 and other gasses can escape more easily, and then they recommend it for planted tanks... hmm...

The fact that they have a "EcoAqualizer Fact or Fiction" section really bothers me also..

I would never buy this product, it just looks like a tube that gets water pumped through it to me. It never says what the process is that is actually producing "far infra-red" light or ionizing the water... If it worked It seems like something my CHEM teacher would have mentioned when we discussed the water molecule and also something that would have greater applications than just the home aquarium.

[euRasian32]

I'm not going to pretend that I know what the hell you guys are talking about... but I can think of numerous cliche's to stamp on this, I mean c'mon, where do the batteries go?

[ImagineAquatics]

Thought of something else. If they use far infra red light, how much of it will actually be absorbed by the water? We all know the percentages of the spectrum absorbed by seawater. You have to get pretty deep before you get 100% red light absorption. So how efficient could the process be?

[TheOldSalt]

The red light is what gets absorbed quickly; it's the blue that penetrates deeply.
It doesn't matter of course, since there's probably no way this contraption emits any light, infrared or otherwise. In fact, I'd go so far as to bet that the reason they say it uses far-infrared is because that's in the invisible spectrum, and since almost no one has any way of checking for it, not many will be able to dispute it.