As I was going to be away a lot over the holiday season, I was worried about my neighbor trying to maintain tank chemistry for 2+ weeks. My LFS recommended I get a 1kg block of Sea-Lab 28 in my sump to maintain Calc, Alk and trace elements etc. They apparently use it to maintain the tanks in their store and swear it's a great product.
I was pretty skeptical as this stuff is purported to be self dosing but gave it a try as it seemed safer than my neighbor who does top offs also maintaining tank chemistry when Im away. Prior to this I was using Kent turbo calcium, superbuffer dkh, Kent Magnesium/Strontium and trace elements.
I dropped in the sump the week before christmas and began testing 2x daily out of complete paranoia. Levels all seemed good and where they should be - Again I find it hard to understand how this stuff can self dose any of the elements the manufacturer claims it maintains...
On returning home I noticed explosive growth in my corals and good coralline growth too (something that I've struggled with since going to 20k bulbs only w/no actininc supplemetation).
I started looking around the internet and saw some posts where Woodstock, Boomer and others were discussing this product. This was around 2004 and the posts kinda fizzled out. I also discovered some discussion with Bob Fenner where he stated it was a pretty good product for small tanks and it has been around for many years.
So my question is this....does anyone use this product? Has anyone used it and seen similar results as I have? Is it just one of those things that used to work fine, but has been superseded by modern two part supplements, or is it just snake oil?
I have to say I'm impressed with the way my tank is looking and this stuff sure would make maintaining chemistry a hella lot easier, If I could trust it and get over the paranoia of testing 2x a day!
I was pretty skeptical as this stuff is purported to be self dosing but gave it a try as it seemed safer than my neighbor who does top offs also maintaining tank chemistry when Im away. Prior to this I was using Kent turbo calcium, superbuffer dkh, Kent Magnesium/Strontium and trace elements.
I dropped in the sump the week before christmas and began testing 2x daily out of complete paranoia. Levels all seemed good and where they should be - Again I find it hard to understand how this stuff can self dose any of the elements the manufacturer claims it maintains...
On returning home I noticed explosive growth in my corals and good coralline growth too (something that I've struggled with since going to 20k bulbs only w/no actininc supplemetation).
I started looking around the internet and saw some posts where Woodstock, Boomer and others were discussing this product. This was around 2004 and the posts kinda fizzled out. I also discovered some discussion with Bob Fenner where he stated it was a pretty good product for small tanks and it has been around for many years.
So my question is this....does anyone use this product? Has anyone used it and seen similar results as I have? Is it just one of those things that used to work fine, but has been superseded by modern two part supplements, or is it just snake oil?
I have to say I'm impressed with the way my tank is looking and this stuff sure would make maintaining chemistry a hella lot easier, If I could trust it and get over the paranoia of testing 2x a day!