Tetra Easy Balance With Nitraban

On another blog and in various forums, I read some good but mostly bad about this product, Tetra Easy Balance With Nitraban. Here is one such blog about it, that claimed it was good, and my reply...

The blogger asked:

"Whats in it?... I had a number of concerns on this front...
The most that Tetra will say is that EB contains “essential elements” and vitamins which are often absent from tapwater. “Essential elements” I take to mean minerals and trace elements, and I have myself confirmed that their claim that it contains all of the nutrients needed for plant growth. I have never fertilised my aquaria in two years."

And my reply:

Here is "What's in it?"... and more... from a recent post of mine in another forum.

Here is a snip from Tetra's website information on their product...

"Tetra Easy Balance: Change 50-75% of your aquarium water at least once every 6 months, provided Easy Balance® has been added as recommended and the aquarium is other wise properly maintained."

When I first heard about Tetra Easy Balance a couple of years ago, I was very leary about the fact that it was advertising that people could go six months without doing a partial water change... a MAJOR piece of BAD ADVICE, IMO. I don't think that any company involved in the fish keeping industry should be giving that kind of advice while promoting weekly dosing of their chemical compound.

I kept trying to find out what was in the product and it took quite a while to find the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) on the product since Tetra does not make it available on their website. I eventually found the MSDS on WalMart.com as they have the MSDS' for all products that they sell available on their website... which is what all companies are supposed to do.

Here is the link to the Walmart.com MSDS for Tetra Easy Balance. http://msds.walmartstores.com/cache/2258_1.pdf

Here is a snip from the MSDS list of "dangerous components:"
Sodium Hydroxide (up to) 2.5%
Tartaric Acid (up to) 2.5%
Formaldehyde (up to) 2.5%

The other ingredients are Sucrose and Water (89.4%) and an undisclosed 3.1% of something.. or maybe it's 3.1% Sucrose but the MSDS doesn't clarify what the missing 3.1% is made up of.

I am still unsure whether this is the MSDS for Tetra Easy Balance with Nitraban or an earlier version of EB (without Nitraban if there was such a version) as I have not been able to find an MSDS with the "full name" listed... only "Easy Balance".

The other potentially very serious negative about the product is that the "nitraban" is actually some kind of little pellet that gets distributed into the gravel and then these pellets dissolve. If you have foraging fish like goldfish, certain cichlids, etc., they could easily ingest these pellets and who knows what kinds of side effects that would have on the long term health of the fish.

There is a forum thread that I read a while back about a guppy tank where the guppies did not breed or have babies even once during the time of the Easy Balance dosing on the tank.

IMO, anything that stops guppies from breeding has to be a serious chemical compound that can't be good for our fish. If Tetra was to re-market the product as a fish birth control and give full disclosure of the negatives of the product, then I may not have as many complaints about the product.

Hope this helps.

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/

The main reason why I DO NOT LIKE Tetra (the Company) FW: Monthly Aquarium Maintenance

The below email is a monthly e-minder that I signed up for with Tetra, years ago, to see what it was and I never did unsubscribe but every time I get it, I wonder how many fish Tetra killed this month??? This "e-minder program" from Tetra is mainly marketed to newbie's which makes it even worse.
Here is the email and I'll add my comments afterwards.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tetra [mailto:e-Minders@tetra-fish.com]
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 12:03 PM
To: Lenny Vasbinder
Subject: Monthly Aquarium Maintenance
Hello from TetraCare.
To keep your aquarium in tip-top condition, please be sure you're doing the following on a regular basis:

1. Test the water monthly using your test kit. Is the water okay (normal pH, zero ammonia, zero nitrite)? If not, please call us at 1-800-423-6458, and we'll help you correct any problems.
2. Do a partial (25%) water change, unless you're using EasyBalance(R). Be sure to add a water treatment such as AquaSafe(R) to the water you add to the aquarium, as tap water is toxic to your fish.
3. Change the cartridge in your Power Filter every month.
The TetraCare team is always here to help you.
You can contact us at 1-800-423-6458. We're here 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. EDT Monday through Friday, and Noon to 6:00 p.m. Saturday & Sunday; otherwise leave a voice mail message, and we promise to return your call within 24 hours!
There's never a charge for TetraCare - we're happy to help.
The TetraCare team
----- END MESSAGE ------
OK... The first tip is OK except it doesn't talk about testing for nitrates... which while not the perfect test to determine how good/bad the water quality might be, it's certainly an indicator of a potential problem and should be tested on a regular basis... especially considering the rest
of the "tips" given in this email.
The second tip is suggesting only a monthly 25% PWC which might be OK for a very lightly stocked aquarium... although I think even this example of a tank needs more than 25% of fresh clean water a month. Can you imagine how high the DOC (dissolved organic compound) level would get after the same water is flowing through a dirty filter for a month? The WORST part of this second tip is how Tetra says "... unless you're using EasyBalance..." which is a product Tetra pushes on newbie's. This is a product that Tetra says can be added to a tank and then you only have to do PWC's once every six months. I've written about this crappy chemical before and it's nasty stuff to put in an aquarium and subject fish to for six months. One forum thread I read several years ago added this stuff to their guppy tank and the guppies did not breed in the tank... so I ask... can a chemical that stops guppies from breeding possibly be good for your fish? Maybe Tetra should market this as birth control for livebearers... LOL
If the first two tips didn't kill all of your fish, the third one will likely put them over the edge. Now, Tetra, in order to sell more filter cartridges, is telling people to trash their fully cycled and perfectly good and healthy filter cartridge and advising folks to put a new one in, which will put the tank into a mini-cycle with resulting ammonia and nitrite spikes... every month. (Read my article "Filter Maintenance And Cleaning" for more info on this topic)
In conclusion... this example tank likely has a high nitrate level, huge levels of DOC's in the water column and is being put into a mini-cycle with soon to come ammonia and nitrite spikes... and this is being advised by Tetra to do this on a monthly basis.
So... does Tetra own some of the importing and pet fish farms, so they have an interest in killing as many fish as possible so they can sell people new fish??? Inquiring minds want to know!!!
Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/
(Links to articles referenced above listed on the right side under Archives - Year, Month and under Labels)