I won the "Not so perfect tank" contest Polyp Labs had a few months ago. While I used the product for 5 weeks, I noticed a big improvement in the colours of my sps but since I ran out of The System and stop dosing, my purple monster frags and some lime green/teal stags have lost most of their colour and they appear to be dieing. Unless you plan to use The System "forever" I do not suggest using this product. I stopped using the product because it would cost me 180$ every 5 weeks on my 450g total water volume setup. I was impressed that it worked so well but now I wish I hadn't even entered the contest... sound harsh? Yes it is... but Im the one seeing what damage its caused to my system. If someone needs me to answer questions I'll glady do so.

oh oh, can i say it ?

Go ahead.

That is exactly why I didn't start using this product... Hell It took five years for GF to talk me into making a lifetime commitment... :wink:

I apologize Dark, no offense to you.

Thank you for the time to tell us about your experience.

I would be better off not opening my mouth, but i just get my panties in a bunch about this type of (filtration?)stuff...Cheers, hopefully your livestock is recovering...most of all, welcome to canreef :)

I and several others (like vanreef above) had posted a few questions regarding it, IMO, they were either not answered, skirted or outright changed. If you take the time to re-read each question, youll see what i mean.

One of them was a question i asked related to the problem you are experiencing...
"Tell me, if you do not feed these bacteria a source of carbon, what happens ? "
The reply was answered with a re-phrased question....."If you don't add an appropriate carbon source, What happens ?"
The secret word there was "appropriate"....

The answer was,
"The bacteria will stay in a planktonic state and can't form biofilms.
Bacteria use cell to cell communications to control gene expression amongst the cells. (This mechanisms is called quorom sensing). Some bacterial species use this to initiate biofilm formation."

With my little layman sized brain, this means....Like in your scenario, they simply die and pollute your tank.("planktonic" seems like a cool word for it tho :p )
What i cant figure out is why would they die, if the food source is primarily nutrients in your tank ?

Whats the difference what kind of life form it takes , wether its a fish or bacteria? In any way,you feed in addition to what you were, bio load has increased and so has pollution.

I dunno, i still havent met a nutrient thats dodges my water changes.

Bah ! i got a headache.

I have followed your thread on another board, and you mentioned it helped the colors out a bit.
In your opinion, could you also say that running at thier "recommended parameters" this may have also had something to do with the improved coloration?

Thanks for your input.

I guess your reef liked the reef resh and then reacted negatively to not getting it...kinda like feeding a dog steak for awhile, then watching him go back to dry dog food Ha Ha! It must have done some good while you were using it if your corals had that much of a decline after.
All I know is that I do a 20% water change every 1-2 months, I feed my fish and corals alot, I have ALWAYS had nitrate readings around 10-20, and ever since I have used this product they have been at ZERO. This reason alone has made it worth the money, not withstanding the sps growth ive had in my mixed reef and other benefits

I say if it is working for you and you don't mind continuing using the product... then go for it... But I would caution you in stopping using the product abruptly... you should probably wean it off slowly. I would probably ask Polyp lab again (as I did earlier) about the potential problem with stopping this product abruptly... maybe ask them to stop using it on one of their "test tanks" after 6minths to a year of use.

You have to consider too that if you stop using any product, it's going to have negative effects on your reef. It's really no different than when they introduced the protein skimmer. It was just another product to improve the quality of your tank. If you decided to stop using your protein skimmer one day you would see an enormous change in your reef. I'm not siding with anyone here but I'm always open to people who want to pour their time and money into creating a product that improves the condition of my tank. I haven't used this product yet nor will I until there is a lot more case studies and it's less expensive for larger tanks but it has done what Polyp Lab said it was going to do according to most. I definitely don't like the idea of corals bleaching or dying off when you discontinue the use of it though. Personally, I think it's an interesting idea but I'm going to monitor it's progress before I decide to get on board. I know these topics can get kind of heated but hopefully no one tries to jump down my throat for my comments. I'm just trying to be neutral right now but still interested in seeing how this idea evolves.

This is a good point!!

Actually its a lot different, a protein skimmer is a basic filtrations system not a additive/food source. you would be more on the ball comparing it to feeding mysis instead of a skimmer, That is the biggest problem is people are thinking of this as a basic component instead of an additive which it is. now I have used several additives over the years and not one has had really amazing effects when I used it but at the same time I never noticed a difference when I stopped using it.

Steve