Ecosystem miracle mud?

I saw that marketing piece on it and did a little research on it.  Look here
http://www.reefs.org/cgi-bin/ultima...8&t=000029
Some say it works well but there are also reports of yellowing the water.  One guy says he found twigs and rodent droppings in it and that under a microscope that it's indistinguishable from regular old dirt.  Aazing how those twigs and rat turds made it all the way to the ocean and thru their "special drying process".  Anyway, the thread was enough to make me a skeptic, but I certainly have no first hand experience.

 

If you're having nutrient problems, this is where you need to start:

1) Get your feeding under control
2) Do regular water changes
3) Get a quality skimmer

If you've got those 3 in check there are some other things you can do but I wouldn't waste time trying quick fixes.

-JB

 

I run an "ecosystem" sump. I haven't had yellow water or a problem with the caulerpa going asexual. The twigs are most likely because the mud source is mangrove silt, and the rat turds? I'd love to know he distinguished between turds and mud clumps.

It's pretty nice to have your own caulerpa farm if you have herbivorous fish. I didn't feel like spending the the extra money on miracle mud, so I got mineral mud. It was about half the price and it's been working well for me for the past 8 months. Just follow the instructions on how much mud to use. I think it's 1 gallon of mud for every 40 gallons of water and they recommend at least 3" sediment depth. I also wouldn't recommend adding a mud sump to an established tank. It's very messy and puts out fine mud particles all over the place that have to settle out and then removed with filter pads. Good luck!

 

Glad to hear that it's working out for you.  Is this on a FOWR tank or a reef tank?  Also, do you run a skimmer too?  I know there are lots of different ways that people use to have successful tanks and I think that's what makes the tank tours so interesting; not just to see the beautiful livestock, but to see what kind of a configuration was used to achieve that.
--AJ

 

It's a reef tank and I also run a skimmer that pulls out lots of nasty black garbage every day. I wouldn't use an ecosystem only setup for a reef tank. That probably wouldn't work very well. Unless if maybe you had a massive caulerpa sump. I just don't think they export all that many nutrients. Although, now that my fish are in QT, the caulerpa hasn't grown very much...

 

I'd do some research on this stuff before you spend alot of money and wish you hadn't. I've used something like it.....junk and never again are the only words that come to mind. And FYI caulerpa is the single worst micro algae EVER, it will find its way into your main tank and when it does it will almost for sure bloom and your tank will be a pile of grass. Some many have said the fatal lines "it won't get in my display" and " i can manage it if alittle gets in the display".....tank teardowns later they realize its not as fun as it looks.....ask california

 

I've had it get into the display tank and my blue hippo tang decimates it... Not really an issue.

 

Posted By h2so4hurts on 03/02/2009 03:24 PM
I've had it get into the display tank and my blue hippo tang decimates it... Not really an issue.
^^Ironically this is the same statement the last four people who didn't listen to good advice said.....then they learned the hard way. To each his own 

 

There are as many rave reviews of caulerpa as there are negative. I haven't had a problem with it. A lot of people say chaeto is better, but I've found it doesn't export nutrients quite as well. It produces significantly less biomass than caulerpa. I guess if it blows up in my face you can say, "I told you so"