As aquarium keepers who are always concerned about the health and stability of our tanks, we are constantly looking for products to boost our filtration. Whether we fight major nitrate or phosphate issues, or just want to get the water a little “cleaner” to prevent potential algae growth and better promote coral calcification, additional products are often needed as water changes and mechanical filtration don’t always get the job done. Answering this call is an interesting pair of new products from Blue Life USA, called Clear Fx and Clear FX Pro. Please note, these products were first introduced under the name Clear Blue Pro, but have since had a makeover and a name change.
Much like the bagged media already offered to hobbyists, this particular brand comes tucked away in a fine mesh bag, with the Clear Fx consisting of both activated carbon and an organic removing resin. It should be noted that the Clear Fx Pro contains a phosphate absorbing resing to further reduce phosphate concentrations. While many different brands of media can perform these same functions, there’s one major aspect that sets the Blue Life media apart.
We got to spend a good deal of time playing with this media at MACNA, and upon first encountering this media, we were encouraged to put a little in our hands and examine it close up. We immediately noticed that our hands were clean. There was none of the black residue on our hands that we would typically find when handling normal activated carbon. The Blue Life Clear Fx almost completely lacks carbon dust, which means the media won’t need to be rinsed hardly at all and there’s no worrying about the potential for head and lateral line erosion (abbreviated HLLE).
