Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 1:49 PM
Subject: RE: Marineland Lab's Bio Spira shortage and Fritz-Zyme TurboStart
Thanks for your interest in Fritz Industries and our FritzZyme Live
Nitrifying Bacteria products. Fritz Industries has been developing and
studying nitrifying bacteria for over 20 years. The original formulation
for FritzZyme was first developed in 1976 and we have been improving the
cultivation and packaging techniques ever since. FritzZyme was originally
developed for the professional aquarium and aquaculture industries. Our
FritzZyme products have been used by Sea World, The new Oklahoma Aquarium in
Tulsa, Dallas World Aquarium, Ripley's Aquarium, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Sea
Worlds to name a few. In fact, Marineland was purchasing bacteria from
Fritz throughout the late nineties and as recently as a few months ago.
Before I answer your questions let me breakdown Fritz's FritzZyme products.
FritzZyme #7 and FritzZyme#9 are bacterial blends with concentrations that
have an un-refrigerated shelf life of 6 months. FritzZyme #7 and #9 will
greatly speed up an aquarium's natural cycle-usually cutting cycling time in
half or less. We recommend be used when the aquarium's bio-filter takes a
hit. For example after medicating, changing filter media, changing gravel,
aggressive cleaning, or adding new livestock loads. FritzZyme #7 contains
freshwater species of true nitrifying bacteria and #9 contains saltwater
species of true nitrifying bacteria.
FritzZyme TurboStart #700 & #900, our concentrated nitrifying bacteria, are
15X concentrated blends of FritzZyme. TurboStart is our premier 5-day or
less cycling product, has a 3-month shelf life and must be refrigerated.
In truth, there are several companies that carry only true nitrifying
bacteria-Marineland is one, I've heard rumors that Novalek is releasing a
new product that contains true nitrifying bacteria. There may be others,
but these are the ones that I'm aware of. Also be aware that there are
about 50 companies that carry spore based bacteria that are actually
non-nitrifiers. These companies usually claim that they are nitrifiers.
You know the ones, they do not carry a lot number or expiration date, they
are never refrigerated, often they are dry blends of bacteria or claim to
work in salt or fresh water...this one kills me-try taking a freshwater
biofilter and placing it on a saltwater system and see what happens!
Nitrifying bacteria are very fragile and cannot last long in a bottle since
they do not have a spore stage like non-nitrifying bacteria. This is why
all FritzZyme products are dated and have a strict shelf life. Most
products that claim to be "cycling aids" actually contain species of
heterotrophic bacteria from the genera Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Escherichia,
and others. These species are very hardy and protect themselves from harsh
conditions (like being in a bottle, frozen, or dried) by forming a spore.
These bacteria are not nitrifiers, they are in fact "sludge eaters" and do a
great job removing organic waste, which clears the way for true nitrifiers.
Fritz's product FritzZyme #360 Gravel Cleaner contains these sludge eating
species.
Some benefits of FritzZyme are that we ship directly to the dealer. The
product is packaged and shipped as ordered; it does not sit in our warehouse
or a distributor's warehouse as it loses it viability. Every bottle is
dated to ensure fresh viable product. Fritz stands behinds our products.
- What species of bacteria is specifically in Fritz-Zyme TurboStart?
Fritz Industries does not have a patent on our individual nitrifying
bacteria since you can't patent a living organism that has been around for
years and years. Our exact species are company confidential, I can however
tell you that our freshwater formulation contains species of Nitrosomonas
and Nitrobacter and our saltwater formulation contains species of
Nitrosococcus and Nitrococcus. As far as these not being the "correct"
species of bacteria responsible for cycling new aquariums (according to
Hovanek's studies), our original plan was to grow only the best and most
useful nitrifying bacteria obtained for the aquarium community. There are
literally dozens of fresh and saltwater nitrifying bacteria (most discovered
in the early 1900's) and we obtained as many as possible, painstakingly
cultured and evaluated which organisms were a "best fit" for aquarium
enthusiast in and developed production techniques that would allow for
commercial growth of these animals. It took several years but in 1976, we
were ready for commercial release of the nitrifying bacteria formulation
that is still considered by many professionals to be the best formulation
available today. In fact, we have been doing this for so long; several
studies have centered around the use of our nitrifying bacteria cultures.
- If it is different than Nitrospira and Nitrosospira, how to you respond to
Marineland's claim that only their product contains the "correct" species of
naturally occurring bacteria in aquariums?
Marineland is a much larger company than Fritz. Because of this they have a
greater advertising and marketing budget. The claim that they are the only
product to contain the "correct" species is simply that, marketing. We
stand behind our products with years of research, independent lab studies
and thousands of satisfied customers. Fritz Pet is a small division of
Fritz Industries, Fritz's products and marketing are primarily aimed at the
aquaculture industry and professional aquariums. This is the reason the
name "Fritz" and "FritzZyme" seem new to individuals in the aquarium hobby.
- If your product does contain Nitrospira and Nitrosospira, aren't you
violating Marineland's patent? Is your product in danger of being
discontinued as a result of Marineland being granted the patent?
Nitrospira marina and Nitrospira moscoviensis are not newly discovered
species, possibly reclassified but not new! FritzZyme does not contain
species of Nitrospira and Nitrosospira. Marineland's patents are for
methods of counting and isolating their nitrifying bacteria, not on the
individual organisms. You cannot patent non-genetically modified organisms.
Do a search on the United States Patent and Trademark Office Homepage
(
http://www.uspto.gov/) for their patent numbers and read the patent
abstracts.
Again, Fritz has been producing our FritzZyme fresh and saltwater blends for
over 20 years. Fritz was the first nitrifying bacteria sold in the United
States. The species in our bacteria are the same we have been selling for
the past 20 years and work extremely well. We stand behind our
formulations.
As far as Marineland not being able to keep up with production, I personally
feel this is a spin. Larger companies like Marineland need their products
in the large chain stores like PetsMart and PetsCo. to make it worthwhile to
produce. The numbers these stores order and sell annually pay for the full
page ads and fancy packaging. Neither PetsMart nor PetsCo have picked up
BioSpira, more than likely because of the shelf life and need for
refrigeration. If Marineland does begin to ship BioSpira again, do not be
surprised if it suddenly does not need refrigeration and has a year shelf
life so that they can get large quantities of the product in the large
chains. This is the bean counters decision to get the product in the chain
stores.
I recently went and read several posts that involved nitrifying bacteria.
* One poster reported that TurboStart will only work with Fritz brand
carbon, this is not correct. We simply state that carbon is an excellent
choice of media for nitrifying bacteria to colonize one. Activated carbon,
Fritz or any other brand is not a necessary component to cycling an
aquarium.
* FritzZyme TurboStart is expensive if you purchase 1 bottle from an
online vendor. This is because you ate tacking on overnight shipping (must
be shipped overnight on ice). FritzZyme's MSRP is currently less per ounce
that Marineland's BioSpira (and is more concentrated). Fritz offers free
shipping to dealers who order cases. To get TurboStart at an affordable
price convince you local dealer to carry the product.
Feel free to post this response on your website. I would also like to offer
a free sample of TurboStart (fresh or salt) to the first 5-requests I get
from your forum to try out our product out. Make the request directly to
me. Please try and find folks that will actually keep track of their
individual chemical results so that those results can be shared amongst
others. I will also be happy to answer any questions the participants of
your forum may have about nitrifying bacteria or any Fritz Pet Products.
Thanks,
Mike Noce'
Mike Noce
Fritz Industries, Inc.
230 Sam Houston Road
Mesquite, TX 75149