A press release from HIQ-USA about their product re-launched.
Hi-Q USA, LLC has made the decision to re-launch and rebrand its “Zero Water Change” home aquarium system as the Hi-Q Complete Cycle Filter beginning January 1, 2009. After carefully reviewing qualified feedback and commentary from the aquatic community (including forums, blogs & industry publications), Hi-Q has determined that its promotion of the system as requiring “no water changes” has needlessly caused criticism from experienced aquarists. This perception is contrary to the company’s mission statement – to provide keepers of fish at all levels of expertise with innovative, reliable filtration products that assist in proper aquarium upkeep.
“Hindsight is 20/20, and we are a learning organization”, said Michael Rogal, Vice President of Sales for Hi-Q’s US Division. “Everybody agrees that people should do water changes – the problem is that statistics show 90 percent of people don’t do them – our message was, if this is the status quo, why not develop an integrated filter that picks up the slack and makes a less than ideal environment more bearable for the fish? We didn’t consider this to be going against the grain – if anything, we thought that the traditionalists (local store owners, fish room managers) were the ones going against it, you know, preaching the merits of water changes to beginners who tend to be devoid of time, patience, or attention span.”
By rebranding and re-formatting the system as the Complete Cycle Filter, Hi-Q seeks to distance itself from the controversial “No Water Change” tag and instead focus customers’ attention on the “accepted” benefits of the product – namely, its market position as the first integrated filtration system with full denitrification capacity, (the ability to reduce nitrate levels through conversion to gaseous nitrogen).
Also, in other news, MFT member TAL will be making an appearance on Blue Zoo Radio (bluezooradio.com) on January 12th, 2009 to talk about his review on the HIQ Complete Filter System. You can read his review here and also FroggyFox’s review on the same system.