I have a 30gal freshwater community tank, with an Eheim filtration system. My fish and plants were doing extremely well for several years on Spectrum Thera. Then I switched to New Era Mini TropicalGrazer. Worst mistake I ever made. First, the fish barely touched it. I used it for over a month, assuming some acclimation time was needed -- as recommended by their man in the colonies. This meant that I had alot of uneaten food at the bottom of the tank, all slimey and decomposing by the end of the day. No other changes were made to the tank: temperatures were constant, same livestock, same water chemistry (discounting what changes were made by the food, as you'll see).
Then my plants started dying off. All the Anubias lost their leaves within two weeks. The rhizomes literally rotted away. The swords fared barely better. There was some fish die-off.
Water changes removed most of the residual particulate matter but I ended up having to dismantle and clean out the Eheim every week. The media were filthy and the ceramic tubes on the bottom were clogged with black solid material. Likewise, the hoses were clogged.
It has taken me four - six months -- and more Anubias -- to get the tank healthy again. There is a greyish residuum on top of the substrate (not seen before I switched food) but that's vacuumed at each water change. I've gone back to Spectrum and everybody's happy again.
I suppose the New Era grazers would be very good for huge tanks with enough fish to eat each day's disk before it disintegrated, but in my home system it was an unmitigated disaster.
the catfish pellets especially, they are fantastic quality, little waste (if you dont over feed) as they hhave better nutritional value and less waste products!
