The product being reviewed is the Microbe-Lift Gel Filter Starter. I bought it from Maidenhead Aquatics in Taunton and paid £18.99 for it.
You can find the product on Amazon here https://amzn.to/2Hq7hax
Star Ratings:
- Very poor
- Poor
- Average
- Good
- Excellent
Packaging & Delivery:
Clearly, a lot of thought has gone into the design of the label on the bottle. It is bright, colourful and eye-catching. From first glance, you can see that it is suitable for both tropical and marine species. What I don’t like about it is that around water, your bottle is likely to get wet, same as mine did, when it dries the label then cracks and leaves white patches where it was once black. That in itself is not great, but the big problem it leaves you with is that the white writing on the back, the instructions, become unreadable.
Aesthetics:
I spoke about the packaging a second ago so I won’t harp on about that. The product itself is a thick, gooey gel, perfect for sticking to the rocks you’d think… no! You can stick this stuff on any kind of media you like, but the second it has a bit of flow around it, it starts to break off and then float around your tank. It takes a long time for this stuff to completely melt away, even when it is on the rock. Floating gloop around your tank is not nice to look at.
Ease of Use:
This stuff is not the easiest to get into an even layer when using it on rock. It tends to fall into one of the holes and then you can’t get it out easily. The instructions are not clear at all as far as dosing goes, it simply says “The dosage depends on the type and size of the filter medium”. That’s it. Nothing further. It comes with a nice little dosing cup with different measurements on it, but your guess is as good as mine as to what level I need to fill it to. Also, if you use the cup you can’t get the gloop to come out of it once it is in there! Not even swilling it with water will move it, its a case of get your hands in there and dig the stuff out of the cup. Then, you now have the task of getting it out of the bottle… I have thrown what I think is about a quarter of a bottle out just because I couldn’t get it to come out, no matter how much I swilled out the bottle.
Overall:
As a filter starter, the product seemed to work very nicely. I am using a prawn to cycle my tank and the bacteria seems to be doing its thing. Would I buy this again, absolutely not! There is a liquid version of the same thing available, which I had in my hand and then swapped at the last second! (I really wish I hadn’t!!) I think it is a good product, but not in the gel form if you want to use it anywhere other than a canister filter. Buy the liquid version and I am sure you will see results.
*** Disclaimer ***
All opinions on this product are my own, please do your research before buying any product or livestock. Do not treat my opinions as fact, all comments made on this site are derived from my personal experience. This post is not endorsed or sponsored by any company and I have paid full retail price for this product.
