Miricle Mud ! DIY?

[suckair]

ok.. I want to play with this mud stuff but no way I can pay 800 bucks to fill my refugium with it! So anyone out there with DIY mud ideas that have been done with sucess?

 

[Mouse]

Apparently the guys at CarribSea have made a refugeum Laterite/mud/Oolitic arragonite mix. It may be cheaper.

 

[Anonymous]

Kent Marine also has a new product that seems to be after the same market as "Miracle Mud" and is cheaper. I wonder if anyone has tried it or the Caribsea long enough to form an opinion?

 

[liquid]

The only thing I can see with Miracle Mud is the high Fe content and maybe the elevated Mg content:

http://www.inlandreef.com/MManalysis.htm

http://216.239.35.120/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.lars-sebralla.de/ma_miracle.html

I'd say grab some Southdown sand and mix in some First Layer Pure Laterite (tm) at maybe a 4:1 or 3:1 ratio (available from the freshwater planted LFS') and see what happens:

http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm

That 3:1 ratio should give you approximately 40,000 ppm Fe in the finished product which should mimic Miracle Mud's Fe conc pretty well. However, you may want to try lower concs of laterite first to see what happens in an isolated tank, which is what I was thinking of doing but found I didn't have time to mess with it. Make sure you use First Layer Pure Laterite (tm) as not all laterites are the same and this particular laterite is the highest in Fe conc according to the above URL written by Jamie Johnson.

One word of caution w/ laterite: the stuff is pretty powdery so it might cause an algal bloom due to Fe leaching into the water column initially. One way around this would be to mix up your Southdown/laterite, add it to the tank, and then put a thin layer of Southdown over top of it to keep the laterite in the substrate.

Or here's another option: go to your local greenhouse and get some ordinary potting soil that does not contain Perlite or vermiculite or any other fertilizers and layer that on the bottom of the refugium w/ some Southdown. Terrestrial soils are full of Fe, so this might work as well and it might not cloud the water as severly as laterite might.

Have fun and keep us posted.

Shane

[ May 07, 2002: Message edited by: LiquidShaneo ]</p>

 

[joejdsn]

by the way, MattM, when can we expect your flatworm medicine to be available? thanx.

 

[MattM]

After we get a patent pending number. We will be licensing it to someone else for production and we need to have intellectual property rights in place before we do that.

It's been applied for, just waiting on Uncle Sam now...

 

[suckair]

some very good idea's. I remember when you were going to experiment with it and I was in a holding pattern awaiting your results.. I guess I will take the lead and see what happens

 

[MattM]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by minime:
<strong>Kent Marine also has a new product that seems to be after the same market as "Miracle Mud" and is cheaper.</strong><hr></blockquote>

The Kent product is called "Marine BioSediment".

While it is marketed for refugiums, mud filters, and seagrass beds, the Kent product is quite different than MM. It is mostly aragonite, and has some added stuff like calcite and magnesium. It looks like aragonite sand, not backyard dirt. Their literature also has a little "dig" on Miracle Mud:

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

"Rather than being a blend of terrigenous (terrestrial in initial origin, i.e. silica sand, humus, etc.) particles, Marine Biosediment is composed of minerals naturally occurring in the afore-mentioned marine habitats..."

We've seen the Carib-Sea product as well - it looks like Miracle Mud mixed 50/50 with aragonite sand.

Based on our analysis of Miracle Mud, and our experience with other "no-BS" products from Kent, I would say the Bio-Sediment is certainly worth a try.

[ May 07, 2002: Message edited by: MattM ]</p>