Mike Olson: I’m glad the product is working out for you.
Tangman: The winner of our photo contest has placed some photos of his progress on several forums. I am not sure if I am allowed to post links to these forums on Canreef so I’ll let you do some searching =)
There is some information on cost on our faq page at
www.polyplab.com/faq/html
The cost for a 100 gallon aquarium is around 17-18 dollars a month.
StirCrazy: No problem about the confusion =) I must admit, the names we chose are a little confusing. You can read more about this product at
www.polyplab.com/reefresh.html
Ruth: System Reef-resh is a much more gradual (and consequently safer) nutrient export system than other European bacterial systems. We use more efficient strains and a much safer carbon source. Bleaching is not a problem that you will encounter with this product.
VanReefer: I’ll try to answer your question with a quick summary of some of the mechanisms at work here..
There are several bacterial species in the RF-Genesis product. Some species are designed to stay in a planktonic (free-floating) state in the aquarium while other species are designed to firm micro-colonies with existing and novel strains. These micro-colonies are also known as biofilms.
Biofilms typically contain many layers of bacterial cells to form microcolonies. These colonies have fairly complex cell to cell communication between the cells and act as a “team”. The bottom layers of these biofilms attach to a surface and provide some kind of structure for the upper layers. The upper layers are the nutrient exporting elements. They trap nutrients to feed the cells that it is made of. As the top layers of the biofilm consume nitrates and phosphates, it repeatedly grows and sheds.
The layers of the biofilm that have been shed are either eaten by your corals (sound tasty huh?) or are skimmed out by your skimmer. That is why people are noticing more skimmate - you are skimming out bacterial slough.
There is no real problem with missing a day or two of dosing, but the system is most effective when dosed as instructed. With an extended period of non-dosing, the biofilms will find other food sources to survive, but over time will be unable to sustain the structure of the biofilm and will slough off entirely. If you are running a skimmer, they will not break back down before they are skimmed out.
However, if you are running a skimmer-less setup and you stop dosing the product for an extended period of time (several weeks), then you do run the risk of the biofilm layers breaking back down. This is why we do no recommend running System RF in a skimmerless setup. Will you get a second cycle? Unlikely… At this stage your aquarium will likely be mature enough to handle a temporary increase in excess nutrients.
Correct. RF-Fuel is a source of organic carbon and several amino acids that are soluble in the carbon source. The fuel source encourages some strains to multiply that we want to grow, while not effecting other strains that we do not want. It does minimally fuel the growth of some of your existing bacterial stains.
Some European methods use vodka as a carbon source. Vodka is a terribly stupid thing to use as a carbon source in aquariums since it encourages the wrong types of bacteria to grow (Mostly autotrophic as opposed to heterotrophic). It also rapidly results in monocultures of that species and over time you end up with aquariums filled with bacteria that do not provide any real nutrient export.
In a market saturated with hundreds of garbage "reef products", skepticism towards any new product is wise. So regardless of how this product sounds on paper, the experiences of other hobbyists will be the best reviews.
We have put in a LOT of time into developing this product, so to hear positive experiences with the product is very rewarding. Thanks!