Miracle Mud. Is this stuff worth getting?

[Minh Nguyen]

For terrestrial sand, use sand with minimal organic in it if possible. If there are lots of nutrients, there will be hair algae and lush macro algae. Continue harvesting these will decrease the nutrient level and will result in nutrient poor water.
I used silt that settles near the river mouth, lots of organic. It was fine for my tank. Last summer when I harvest the mud, the water temperature was 90+, so the organisms I got have no problem with the heat in my tank. It really added lots of diversity to my tank. I put 2 inches of this mud into my refugium (6 inches of sand there before)
I have use silica sand (sand for sand blaster) in my tank without problem. When I set up my first tank here in Corpus Christi, I used sand from Corpus Christi bay exclusively. The tank was thriving until a melted Rio pump puts out lots of copper into the water and kills all my shrimps and bleached all my corals. The tank recovered but never reach it former glory. I took the whole tank down, and buried the sand and rock in my back yard when I started my tank now. I was one of the first people to order sand from Home Depo. I got Southdown sand for 2.75 for the 60 lbs bag. I ordered a pallet of it. Gave away a bunch to friends and used 2000 lbs in my tank/refugium. I used Southdown because it is white, cheap and have little organic in it. The fact that it is CaCO3 rather than silica matter very little I think.
If I have to do this again, I will go out to South Padre Island and get several thousand pound of sand off of the sand dune. They look very white, very few organic in it and very fine (the wind deposit this sand off the beach). This will works great for a reef tank.

 

[MattM]

I also wonder if you take different sample batches of MM under analysis, if the result varies from batch to batch, it would be an indication that MM is an non-formulated product to explain the content inconsistencies.

We would like to do that. We would also like to analyze the 2-year old product to find out what was released into the aquarium vs. what is totally inert and non-reactive.

We just have trouble coughing up $300 per test on a product that we have already completely given up on!

 

[danmhippo]

We would also like to analyze the 2-year old product to find out what was released into the aquarium vs. what is totally inert and non-reactive.

That would be difficult as other non-MM material may be in the sediments after 2 years mark.

We just have trouble coughing up $300 per test on a product that we have already completely given up on!

Don't blame you........

 

[leftovers]

it would seem to me all you need is a nice sandy loam baked at 400 for a few hours to sterilize and voila you have yourself a nice batch of MM. I would recommend you bake when no one is home sice it can stink up the house...its not gonna smell like fresh baked bread.....

 

[dragon0121]

Kajjan,
I've gotta laugh. Matt told you what was in this stuff and that he had it analyzed on page 1. On page 3 he linked to a thread that dealt with when it was analyzed. For six pages people have been slamming this product for the very reasons Matt had posted. Nobody had ever said it doesn't work, that isn't the complaint! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: People who have it and defend it, spent a lot of money on it. It's gotta sting to find out they could have bought a big bag of sand at the hardware store and some macro algea and live sand for the same results.

 

[Kajjan]

Kajjan,
I've gotta laugh. Matt told you what was in this stuff and that he had it analyzed on page 1. On page 3 he linked to a thread that dealt with when it was analyzed. For six pages people have been slamming this product for the very reasons Matt had posted. Nobody had ever said it doesn't work, that isn't the complaint! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: People who have it and defend it, spent a lot of money on it. It's gotta sting to find out they could have bought a big bag of sand at the hardware store and some macro algea and live sand for the same results.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: You see, I'm laughing with you! Isn't that fun? I'm sitting here on this side of the planet making someone else on the other side laugh like that. On the other hand; there you are, on that side of the planet, making me, on this side of the planet, so surprised about the way you think! I had this strange idea about the people in the land of the free, you see. I totally overlooked the possibility that this discussion was about money! I had the naive way of thinking that the main aim here was about 'does this mud work or not?'. Oh,no! It was about money! You guys, are discussing prices! And we thought (up to now that is) we're itchy about money here in Sweden! Anyhow, so this works? Ok. Fine! I'm very willing tp pay what it costs to get it here and into my system. Period. And if anyone has any problems with that? Well, that's not a discussion I'm interested in participating. That discussion sucks. But maybe it isn't all about money? Maybe it's about religion too. I know you're quite religious people (generally speaking) over there and I beleive one shouldn't use the word Miracle too light?
Whatever. I'm ending my part of the discussion here since I understand your point now totally and have no further questions. I rest my case.

 

[jamesw]

I see where you are coming from Kajjan,

This feeling has developed here in the US because we are getting sick and tired of getting ripped off by "snake oil salesmen" in the aquarium hobby.

When we find out that some guy just sold us a bag of arragonite for $30 us that we could buy at the hardware store for $3, naturally, we get PO'd!!!! (That's a technical term).

If you just want something that works and you don't care about the money, I'd be happy to send you some sediment from my aquarium. I'll even send it for free if you pay shipping.

Cheers
James Wiseman