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Re: EASY LIFE (very very long)
Hey everyone,
I've been e-mailing Easy Life, trying to find out what exactly the
ingredients are. But unfortunately the company refuses to give it out. :D
Sooo... here is the communication that we had (posted here w/ there
permission of course, if some lawyer wants to know):
I asked:
I'd like to know EXACTLY what is inside Easy-Life. Your company makes too
many claims for me to be totally comfortable using this product. Unless I
know what is INSIDE this stuff then I refuse to use it. So can you send me
the ingredients?
They replied:
Thank you for mailing us about our product Easy-Life fluid filter medium.
Easy-Life contains earth minerals. No chemicals, bacteria, enzymes or
additional organics. It has a conductivity of about 185 mS (as opposed to
chemical and biological products, which have thousands of mS).
The exact minerals it contains and the way the endproduct is produced, is
our intellectual property. Anybody who would disclose such things with a
product such as this, would be a complete idiot. We have seen some cheap,
inferior imitations. So it would be really stupid to give those companies
the exact details regarding composition and production.
Additionally, it should suffice for everyone to know it contains merely
minerals. People use the product anyway when they know it has no detrimental
effects in the tank. Furthermore, it is completely safe even for kids when
they drink the product.
Last remark. Some companies let you believe that they gave the exact
contents of a certain product. In most cases they 'forget' certain
additions. How would you even know what exactly is in it ? Even you don't
know what exactly comes out of your tap water, or what the exact endproduct
is out of your osmotic system. Very low levels of e.g. PCB's can already
have detrimental effects on everything in your tank. And no one can ever
measure those low levels with the current test kits, while certain harmful
substances are not even available in test kits. So in many cases you can
never be sure if a company is truthful or not, for (at least that is valid
for the consumer) no one ever can confirm that.
I can only say, read the independent test reports and / or make inquiries at
those people who filed the reports. We at least have them, to show that the
product is not garbage. By the way, the number of reports will increase in
the coming months. Perhaps some people you know, have tried Easy-Life
already.
I replied back:
You have a valid point in saying that the ingredients are your intellectual
property. But by NOT disclosing the ingredients in your product and making
such vast claims you put yourself in the same bad light as Marc Weiss Co,
Inc <http://www.marcweissco.com/>
Just listen to some of the claims from one of its products Natural Aquarium
Vital:
• Reduction or elimination of a need for fertilization and additional
additives and special substrates.
• Liquid, time released CO 2 production as needed by the natural aquarium!
• The carbon cycle to be maintained as in nature!
• Doesn’t cause large pH shifts.
• Allows pH and ionic balance to be maintained as appropriate for aquarium
inhabitants.
• Excess food and waste biologically turn into fertilizer!
• Aeration can be maintained for maximum fish holding capacity of aquarium!
• No CO2 cylinders, controllers or monitoring devices needed! Won’t
“off-gas.”
• Plants to be protected from excessive UV light!
• Ideal for aquaponics!
These vast and all-reaching claims look a lot like the claims that you make
about your product. Here are some of the claims that you make w/ your
product:
•Fish become healthier when Easy-Life is present.
•Easy-Life absorbs all unwanted elements. The product improves water quality
immensely and stabilizes it.
•Easy-Life has a great capability to purify the water, whereby contaminants
that cause stress in the first place are removed.
•Easy-Life continually adds small amounts of oxygen to the water, which is
one key element to keep the water quality high and stable during relocation.
•Easy-Life fertilizes plants and brings essential minerals and trace
elements into the water. The bottom material will not degenerate and become
rotten anymore.
Do you see how the claims sound the same? PLUS Marc Weiss DOES NOT reveal
EXACTLY what is in their products. When people have tried out the Marc Weiss
products it either had NO results or led to BAD results (ie, tons of algae
starts to immediately grow in the tank).
So by not revealing what is in your products and making such vast claims it
will be much harder for you to market your materials to those in the United
States who are leery of buying anything and not knowing what it is they are
adding.
So do you see just what kind of position you are put in? It really doesn't
matter if a company does not FULLY disclose the ingredients of a product.
What matters is the one is given an informed choice of whether one should or
should not add that product into his tank. One gives that informed choice
when the ingredients are shown on the product. Your product does not give
the consumer that INFORMED CHOICE. Therefore it will be much harder for you
to sell your products unless you tell the consumer what is inside Easy-Life.
They replied:
I know what you are saying, that's why we tell the people what is inside
Easy-Life up to a point, and especially what is not inside. Like it is
stated on our web site (perhaps we should do that more prominently) : it is
a natural, anorganic blend of minerals in a water environment. It does not
contain any chemicals, bacteria, enzymes, plant extracts or other organic
materials. This says a lot. But it stops there.
It is not in our interest to name all the different minerals specifically
that are blended in the product, and also the exact way it is made in our
dry/wet production process. That is a fact of (business) life.
Some minerals are carrier materials, other mineral function as katalyst.
Other minerals remove haevy metals, ammonium, harmful bacteria. Some
minerals act as a tonic, for destressing purposes. And so on, and so on.
Every mineral has its job to do.
You have to understand : we have this product for nearly two years now on
the Dutch and German market. We have almost all aquarium shops (not many
real specialists over here) in Holland as customer. Furthermore, we have
lots of discusbreeders, importers and exporters of fish and lower animals,
etcetera, as customer. And we have NEVER advertized in magazines in Holland,
Germany or abroad. The steady growth of customers is mostly by word of
mouth. That shows the strength of the product.
If the product were rubbish, then we would have been out of business a long
time ago.
What do you think the 'big boys' among the manufacturers in your country do
? They all have their own lab, and all the so-called independent (double
blinded or not) scientifical tests are therefore not really independent. All
aquariums are different, they have their own 'individuallity' if you will.
What can a general, objective scientific test say about the effect of a
product ?
We come with PRACTICAL and independent reports from both commercial and
non-commercial experts in the freshwater and marine field. That is worth a
thousand times more than any scientific test that we could offer on our web
site.
We do have research results, but they are a vage reflection of what the is
described in the test reports.
How would you define 'destressing' ??? Can you put that in numbers. Or do
you actually measure the levels of cortisols to correlate that to stress.
NO. It's visual. If you have fish which are very shy, don't eat well and
have dark colours (like you see for example a lot with discus), then you as
an aquarist would love to see your fish do better. If you add Easy-Life and
see improvement in a few minutes or hours time, then you are satisfied. That
is practical.
The numerous activities of the product as we state them, is not exagerated.
It's just the summation of effects that the product has. Which by the way, a
chemical or biological product can never do in this versatile way. It works
totally different too. An example :
The 'normal' conditioners have water soluble polymers in it (some have plant
extracts like Aloe Vera, some have PVP or Carbamates). It is said that these
compounds protect the slime coat of fish, by giving the fish a 'chemical
jacket'. These polymers hang on the fish in the hope to protect the slime
coat. It is a the fighting of symptoms, rather than solving the actual
problems (water quality, stress level).
Easy-Life works totally different. It solves problems with the water
quality, whereby even the smallest trace of chemicals are removed out of
solution. It directly and indirectly destress fish. And it removes harmful
bacteria. You see stressed fish destress very quickly and the slime coat
will not be attacked by harmful bacteria. Easy-Life fights the cause of the
problems, and does not put fish in a chemical for protection.
You see, that is the choice the aquarists have :
A chemical : which can only fight symptoms.
The completely natural product Easy-Life : which fights the cause of the
problems.
It's a simple choice.
I'm familiar with the Weiss-story. Well if the product shows bad results,
than the shops have problems with the repeat sales to their customers. Shops
who sell Easy-Life have good repeat sales : apparently most people are
satisfied with it.
We don't have the opportunities to do the advertizing campains like the big
boys can do. So we have to rely mostly on mouth to ear, and this way we
build a steady growing base. It's as simple as that.
Finally : if you want to know what the 'average aquarist' thinks about
Easy-Life or what they have experienced, then there are some forums you
could check out. They are however in the german language. For example :
http://www.meerwasserforum.com/
The German message board for marine aquarists. Just type the word 'easy' in
the search box (suchen). Then will get numerous messages from german
aquarists about Easy-Life.
You can also visit the message board at www.diskusbrief.org, that's all
about discus.
I hope I wasn't too strong in my words. But then we did receive some
aggressive questions from a Mr. Hieber, who did not reflect our answers to
his questions very well in his second posting about the product. Then again,
there is freedom of speech...
If you want to use my answers, then that is okay by me.
I really believe we have a good product. It's a completely natural product,
can be used for freshwater and marine tanks and ponds. Overdosages are
harmless. Unlimited shelf-life. It is at the same a complete water
conditioner, destresser, tonic, breeding promoter, a plant fertilizer (you
can reduce the normal fertilizing products by 50% or more, except the Iron
fertilizers .... and it can be used next to the CO2 if you use that),
prevention of bacterial diseases, protector of slime coat, etcetera.
When we see our customer, an exporter of shrimps and other water creatures
in China, who uses Easy-Life to put in the transport water in order to lower
the DOA in most cases to zero during shipments to Europe and America, then
that is very gratifying. They used to have DOA of 10-15%, and they have
tried everything (conditioners, medications, etc) to keep the mortality rate
down. With Easy-Life they succeeded.
Easy-Life provides an excellent, natural and effective alternative to what
is on the market today. And we have good references, that everyone can check
fi they are willing to make that effort.
Wow... that was a mouthful! Would someone who understands German be willing
to check out http://www.meerwasserforum.com/ and
www.diskusbrief.org to see if these people's claims are correct? At least
these sites are for hobbyists and we can get some unbiased opinions and
anecdotes on this Easy-Life product.
Don
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My webpage:
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San Francisco Bay Area LFS Review page:
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