Anyone remember HBH Balance Blocks?

[ZoWhat]

10yrs ago I use to be a huge user of HBH Balance Blocks that are tablets that sink and slowly dissolve releasing what they claim were 72 elements

All I know is when I consistently used Balance Blocks my Zoas would grow out and take over entire rocks in like 3mos. I was like "holy crap, I'm sold"

I specifically remember it being Eagle Eye Zoas that took over a 8inx8in rock in no time.

Then HBH went out of business....

I just found a product that's seems very very similar:

Sea-Lab No.28

Same concept of dissolving tablets releasing 28 elements.

I ordered some and will give it another try 10yrs later

Any users of this Sea Lab No.28???

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Bump and definitely let us know

 

[mdb_talon]

Let us know. I saw these in a 2lb box recently and considered it for a small new tank i setup that just starting to need dosing. Did not want to have 2lbs of this crap if it dont work though! Better if you spend the money and tell me if it worth it though

 

[ZoWhat]

Bump

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sea Lab was my cup of tea and did work it seemed. Fosters and Smith went out and I culd no longer get them. I realize amazon has them but I dont need 2 pounds. If anyone has some to part with, let me know

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Sea Lab was my cup of tea and did work it seemed. Fosters and Smith went out and I culd no longer get them. I realize amazon has them but I dont need 2 pounds. If anyone has some to part with, let me know

All Seas Marine 050-28 SLB Splmt Replenisher 1/2# Blk

 

[ApoIsland]

Sea Lab was my cup of tea and did work it seemed. Fosters and Smith went out and I culd no longer get them. I realize amazon has them but I dont need 2 pounds. If anyone has some to part with, let me know

I may be able to find the remnants of my box somewhere in storage. You are more than welcome to have it. It's been a couple years at least though and I'm not sure on shelf life.

If you are diligent about testing they can work. I hate testing so they did not work so great for me. . My yellow tang developed some white lumpy thing on the end of its nose and one of its fins a few days in. White lumps disappeared within a few days after the blocks dissolved and have not come back. During the breakout I had someone test the water and Calc and Mag were through the roof.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I may be able to find the remnants of my box somewhere in storage. You are more than welcome to have it. It's been a couple years at least though and I'm not sure on shelf life.

If you are diligent about testing they can work. I hate testing so they did not work so great for me. . My yellow tang developed some white lumpy thing on the end of its nose and one of its fins a few days in. White lumps disappeared within a few days after the blocks dissolved and have not come back. During the breakout I had someone test the water and Calc and Mag were through the roof.

PM me what you need ($)

 

[ApoIsland]

PM me what you need ($)

No need $. I'll PM you if I can dig them up.

 

[anthonygf]

10yrs ago I use to be a huge user of HBH Balance Blocks that are tablets that sink and slowly dissolve releasing what they claim were 72 elements

All I know is when I consistently used Balance Blocks my Zoas would grow out and take over entire rocks in like 3mos. I was like "holy crap, I'm sold"

I specifically remember it being Eagle Eye Zoas that took over a 8inx8in rock in no time.

Then HBH went out of business....

I just found a product that's seems very very similar:

Sea-Lab No.28

Same concept of dissolving tablets releasing 28 elements.

I ordered some and will give it another try 10yrs later

Any users of this Sea Lab No.28???

I have been using this for 5 years, everything growing great including my clam. Never have to dose cal or mag. Just recently I switched ICP company, one test came back Cal 608, mag 1238. My Hanna and Salifert reads Cal 430, mag 1380, this months ATI results are shocking, Cal 632 and mag 1252. I used Red Sea Mag tester and got like 1180, and Salifert cal tester was through the roof over 500.
Along with that still low on most trace elements, Aluminum has been rising every month for the past year, iodine and flourine is still low. Close to a year ago my 5 year old duncan just retreated and has not opened for several months, tried everything with no luck. Would come out a little and retreat, all other corals and clam ok. I gave the Duncan to a fellow reefer that bought one of my lights and says is doing great. Well I purchased another Duncan head of a different strain or family and has not come out yet in two months. I stopped using this stuff and did two 20% water changes for 2 days and another 10% the next day, raised mag to 1400 slowly over the week and my Duncan is now coming out.
My Hanna Cal tester still reads almost 200 lower than actual, I even have a calibration checker and shows is still calibrated, Salifert mag reads almost 300 higher than actual and tried a new test kit same reading 1380-1420 when Red Sea reads the same at 1180-1200. Confirmed testers with new salt water and get the same discrepancies with the testers. For the past year I thought my readings were good, occasionaly I use 2 different test kits to compare readings and never got this far out of whack.
I am wondering if they have too much aluminum, but the stuff does work okay, you just have to keep checking your parameters and get ICP tests. I wonder if the aluminum was coming from my net top frame cover.
Hanna Calcium and salifert magnesium test kits are not reliable any more, and I thought my mag/cal was where I want them, 1400 and 430!

 

[ZoWhat]

I have been using this for 5 years, everything growing great including my clam. Never have to dose cal or mag. Just recently I switched ICP company, one test came back Cal 608, mag 1238. My Hanna and Salifert reads Cal 430, mag 1380, this months ATI results are shocking, Cal 632 and mag 1252. I used Red Sea Mag tester and got like 1180, and Salifert cal tester was through the roof over 500.
Along with that still low on most trace elements, Aluminum has been rising every month for the past year, iodine and flourine is still low. Close to a year ago my 5 year old duncan just retreated and has not opened for several months, tried everything with no luck. Would come out a little and retreat, all other corals and clam ok. I gave the Duncan to a fellow reefer that bought one of my lights and says is doing great. Well I purchased another Duncan head of a different strain or family and has not come out yet in two months. I stopped using this stuff and did two 20% water changes for 2 days and another 10% the next day, raised mag to 1400 slowly over the week and my Duncan is now coming out.
My Hanna Cal tester still reads almost 200 lower than actual, I even have a calibration checker and shows is still calibrated, Salifert mag reads almost 300 higher than actual and tried a new test kit same reading 1380-1420 when Red Sea reads the same at 1180-1200. Confirmed testers with new salt water and get the same discrepancies with the testers. For the past year I thought my readings were good, occasionaly I use 2 different test kits to compare readings and never got this far out of whack.
I am wondering if they have too much aluminum, but the stuff does work okay, you just have to keep checking your parameters and get ICP tests. I wonder if the aluminum was coming from my net top frame cover.
Hanna Calcium and salifert magnesium test kits are not reliable any more, and I thought my mag/cal was where I want them, 1400 and 430!

I'm not understanding what you are saying.

The way I'm reading this is:

* you have been using the Sea Lab No.28 product for 5 years

* your corals are doing great and growing

......but meanwhile:

* your Calcium ppm has been over 600 due to the use of Sea Lab No.28

* your Magnesium ppm has been low

* your trace elements thru ICP have been low

..... yet you continue to use Sea Lab No.28

Is this what you are saying?


.

 

[anthonygf]

I'm not understanding what you are saying.

The way I'm reading this is:

* you have been using the Sea Lab No.28 product for 5 years

* your corals are doing great and growing

......but meanwhile:

* your Calcium ppm has been over 600 due to the use of Sea Lab No.28

* your Magnesium ppm has been low

* your trace elements thru ICP have been low

..... yet you continue to use Sea Lab No.28

Is this what you are saying?


.

No. I stopped using it over a week ago after getting High cal, aluminum, barium and strontium; low mag, iodine and trace. All corals and clam is growing well except for my Duncan, now the Duncan is making an appearance after several water changes and discontinued use of this product.

Sea-Lab says this product cannot be overdosed, but cal and aluminum continue to rise according to ICP. I do 10% water change weekly on my 75. I am not saying this is a bad product but you still need to be careful and check params with two different test kit makers for cal, mag, alk, etc. Even the dKH was higher than I thought, was reading 8.2 on my Hanna- calibration check was good, ICP 9.27 and Salifert 9.3.

The only real problem was the test kits not seeing the change in parameters, Hanna and Salifert. I was still dosing iodide and trace elements. My 46 gallon bowfront was over 5 years old and consuming calcium fast enough to keep up with Sea-Lab. In Dec I upgraded to 75 and had to cut up some of my colonies due to aiptasia growing in the polyps. So I had a little upset there for a month and then things started growing again.

I also removed any aluminum materials from tank, screen top and Kessil goose necks. Need to dose for No3 and Po4 because of all the water changes to prevent bottoming out nutrients.

I am sorry for the confusing story, hard to explain the past 5 years of using this product. Maybe got a bad batch, I don't know. Overall this product is ok but don't rely on it. I will have to manually dose mag along with alk and others by hand. But I never had to dose mag or cal for like 6 years, that is something good?! Yes/no?

Will see in about a month on my next ICP test.

 

[rossroams]

In my very low tech mixed reef I drip kalk and once a month I’ll add in a block of the Sea Lab #28s. The montipora cap seems to respond very well to it. You can overdose these in the sense of reef parameters, but if you are chronically deficient and dose these at a low frequency I can’t imagine there would be too many negatives.

 

[Johnson94]

I use this in my 50low boy. And my 10g nano. No issues. But you do need to have something consuming the calc and mag. If you have just Zoa and other soft corals. Calc will climb and climb.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Any users of this Sea Lab No.28???

I personally do not use or recommend products that cannot meet their own wildly exaggerated claims. They prey on unsuspecting reefers.


"Sea-Lab #28 restores and maintains the concentration of calcium, strontium and all trace elements at the same levels found in the sea, automatically. Formula #28 always works, and cannot be overdosed. This is not a slow-dissolve or time-release product. It dissolves only to replace depleted elements."

Aquarium Additives Sea-Lab 28 Block

Sea-Lab Aquarium Additives: Sea-Lab 28 .5 lb Jar, Sea-Lab #28 1 kg Block, Sea-Lab #28 2 lb Box

www.marineandreef.com

Really? That is one incredibly smart block of stuff! Sadly, some people probably believe that it does that.


It dissolves, releasing everything in it, at some rate.

It certainly does not do this:

"Sea-Lab Formula 28 is a mixture of naturally occurring buffer compounds that maintains natural ocean concentrations of calcium, strontium, and all 15 essential trace elements. "

"As elements are depleted from solution, Formula 28 delivers exactly equivalent amounts to replace them."

Curiously, it makes no mention of magnesium at all. Their "product analysis" is just a list of concentration of SOME ions in seawater. If you believe their list of ingredients, it releases those over the time it takes to dissolve. . By the time it has dissolved, it has released all of these:

Sea Lab #28 Replenisher Kilo Block / Sea Lab / Additives / Saltwater / Dry Goods - Quality Marine

 

[ZoWhat]

I personally do not use or recommend products that cannot meet their own wildly exaggerated claims. They prey on unsuspecting reefers.


"Sea-Lab #28 restores and maintains the concentration of calcium, strontium and all trace elements at the same levels found in the sea, automatically. Formula #28 always works, and cannot be overdosed. This is not a slow-dissolve or time-release product. It dissolves only to replace depleted elements."

Aquarium Additives Sea-Lab 28 Block

Sea-Lab Aquarium Additives: Sea-Lab 28 .5 lb Jar, Sea-Lab #28 1 kg Block, Sea-Lab #28 2 lb Box

www.marineandreef.com

Really? That is one incredibly smart block of stuff! Sadly, some people probably believe that it does that.

TRULY SICKENING

It dissolves, releasing everything in it, at some rate.

It certainly does not do this:

"Sea-Lab Formula 28 is a mixture of naturally occurring buffer compounds that maintains natural ocean concentrations of calcium, strontium, and all 15 essential trace elements. "

"As elements are depleted from solution, Formula 28 delivers exactly equivalent amounts to replace them."

Curiously, it makes no mention of magnesium at all. Their "product analysis" is just a list of concentration of SOME ions in seawater. If you believe their list of ingredients, it releases those over the time it takes to dissolve. . By the time it has dissolved, it has released all of these:

Sea Lab #28 Replenisher Kilo Block / Sea Lab / Additives / Saltwater / Dry Goods - Quality Marine

Besides weekly WCs.... is there a product that does a good job keeping up on trace elements and minerals?

Brightwells REPLENISH is a product I've looked into as well

 

[Conrad Noto]

10yrs ago I use to be a huge user of HBH Balance Blocks that are tablets that sink and slowly dissolve releasing what they claim were 72 elements

All I know is when I consistently used Balance Blocks my Zoas would grow out and take over entire rocks in like 3mos. I was like "holy crap, I'm sold"

I specifically remember it being Eagle Eye Zoas that took over a 8inx8in rock in no time.

Then HBH went out of business....

I just found a product that's seems very very similar:

Sea-Lab No.28

Same concept of dissolving tablets releasing 28 elements.

I ordered some and will give it another try 10yrs later

Any users of this Sea Lab No.28???

I don't know about HBH, but the Sea Lab are excellent. I use most of the time and always if I go away and no one there to dose tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Besides weekly WCs.... is there a product that does a good job keeping up on trace elements and minerals?

Brightwells REPLENISH is a product I've looked into as well

In a perfect world, you do what some systems like Triton recommend: measure and dose every element, or every element you care about, individually.

In a less than perfect world, you do something in between that and dosing a mixture from a trusted company that tries to maintain trace elements by dosing what a "typical" reef tank might consume. No claim that it maintains any specific level, just that it adds what is most often important:

for example:

A- ELEMENTS - Tropic Marin®

A- ELEMENTS contains essential anionic trace elements to support an ideal growth and natural colouration of corals in a reef aquarium.

www.tropic-marin-smartinfo.com

"Tropic Marin® A- ELEMENTS contains essential anionic trace elements to support an ideal growth and natural colouration of corals.

Trace elements are natural minerals, which are needed by the aquarium inhabitants for active biological processes and especially needed by corals and invertebrates for skeletal growth. In seawater there are tiny quantities of these elements, which are consumed in a short time by coral growth and other processes. Regular supplementation of these trace elements is therefore unavoidable."

 

[mdb_talon]

Besides weekly WCs.... is there a product that does a good job keeping up on trace elements and minerals?

Brightwells REPLENISH is a product I've looked into as well

I have heard good things about TM "all for reef". I wont try it because it seems cost prohibitive on large systems and 2-part plus frequent water changes is more efficient in my situation

 

[KrisReef]

Sea Lab has been around for at least 35 years. The laws of physics have been around a bit longer. Randy seems to think that the laws of physics may be more believable than product claims and in this case I would lean strongly towards Randy's assessment of chemical dissolution equations and the impacts of those upon mineral activities in water.