Anyone familiar with Brightwell Aquatics products?

[Electrokate]

Hey,
A friend asked me about the product line by Brightwell Aquatics. I can't judge much by their website (other than that they have an excessive fixation with fly animations) Can anyone report anything on them?
http://www.brightwellaquatics.com/
Thanks,
Kate B

 

[DonW]

Hey,
A friend asked me about the product line by Brightwell Aquatics. I can't judge much by their website (other than that they have an excessive fixation with fly animations) Can anyone report anything on them?
http://www.brightwellaquatics.com/
Thanks,
Kate B

I think that is a guy that split from Kent and went out on his own.

Don

 

[Boomer]

That is correct Don, it is Chris Brightwell. It looks like a good line for the most part but it is very new. Looks like he has great marketing skills a nd are well done with all the fancy stuff and packaging.

 

[NC2WA]

Boomer,

So is it all about fancy marketing and packaging OR is there a good product to support the flashing marketing???

Kirk

 

[Boomer]

You would be surprised how import fancy marketing is like his. Fancy sells, be it a good product or not. I remember many years ago on the phone, with one of my many talks with Albert Thiel. He cold not understand why his stuff was not sell, I mean "he is Albert Thiel" . I told him that when you have a product line with typewriter type stickers on the bottle people do not even give it a second look and just pass it buy and pick up the Kent with the fancy labels. He then hired someone to redo it all with fancy stuff and an new logo and POOF it started to sell like wild fire. Chris has done on of the best marketing jobs I have see. Funny thing though, at MACNA his booth sucked and he was there by himself 99 % of the time. Few people stopped.

Most of his products are fine IMHO but a couple are iffy, like is like his redo of Purple-Up more or less called Liquid Reef. You should have seen the rant between him, Randy and Billsreef on RC about the Kent's "Purple-Up" product when he worked for them and trying to convince them that it worked as claimed. He is a good BS'er I'll say that.

 

[NC2WA]

I thought Purple Up is just an algae bloom waiting to happen.

 

[tike]

I don't know about the product but someone has some mad flash skills!

 

[Electrokate]

I actually dislike flash abuse. Does not help that am related to not one but 2 obsessive infomatics oriented software engineering perfectionists who apparently have gleaned from extensive study the "correct" way to set up a website. This ideal does not involve any flash or java, that's all I have understood from passively enduring many hours of rants, and is 100% accessible to all languages, computer screen types/sizes, browsers, operating systems and disabilities. I am however not aware that either of my 2 relatives have produced said state of sublime web product excellence.

I really do hate flash when it slows things down, displays migraine/seizure causing bursts of light, or prevents me from bookmarking the page. Great for making amusing games and youtube animations. But the site is very nice looking graphically.

So anyways, the products (sans purple up clone) are good? Two thumbs up? They do have VERY nice packages. Nice indeed. Makes me feel slightly less uncool to be so obsessed with bottles of diluted salts when they have excellent packaging. Actually their prices appear better than competitions' prices. Looks like a promising line... will have to check it out.

 

[packer]

I recently have used the amino's- coral and fish types, the phytochrom and the zooplanktos-m along with the restor. I did notice a rise in nitrate soon after. Dont know if it was these, but I did reduce use to maybe one dose once a week and not daily as first started. I do like the Aminomega to soak nori in, and fish seem a bit brighter in a few weeks use. So my take is an okay product, just use carefully and watch nitrate parameters.

 

[120gallons]

I have an interview with him on the podcast I did reviewing MACNA. He is a scientist type fellow and seems to know his stuff. Though I haven't tried his products yet.

 

[returnofsid]

Purple up will do as it advertises...growing coraline algae. However, it's also been said to have some bad side effects when used over long term. From what I remember reading in studying it, there are several metals that increase over time with it's use and are NOT at all good for our tanks.

On the other hand, save your money and keep your Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium levels up where they need to be and you'll get all kinds of Coraline growth!!

 

[packer]

Brightwell does not make purple up.

 

[Boomer]

Nobody said they did. They make a "Purple -Up" like product, called Liquid Reef. Go back and re-read the posts

 

[packer]

I was refering to returnofsid's post about purple up. I thought because it was posted in the Brightwell posts it was eluding that it was made by Brightwell.