The Twinstar is an interesting, yet headscratching, product we recently encountered. The product hails from Korea but a lot of what the product does exactly seems lost in translation. From pictures, a YouTube video and reading through the company website, this product uses some sort of electrical reaction to emit a mist of fine bubbles that destroys green algae spores and other harmful pathogens (stronger than a UV sterilizer they state) — all while enhancing plant growth and fish health without harming the beneficial bacteria in your biological filter.

These are being sold for planted aquariums and there are positive before and after photos on numerous blogs as well as the company website, but it is hard to get a deeper understanding of the product through online language converters such as Google Translate.

The company website describes the Twinstar as:

…Inhibits green algae effectively without a harmful influence on aquarium ecological environment, and keeps aquarium clean by eliminating spores from the initial propagation.

Sterilizing factor with microbubbles destroy cell wall of green algae to inhibit growth, and it is nontoxic so harmless to aerobic bacteria. Promoting aquatic plants growth by inhibition of green algae on plants, those plants can elevate absorption of excess nutrients to block nourishment of green algae growth. Therefore it makes Virtuous Cycle ecological environment.

While we don’t understand the entire process behind the product, it does show some potential. We’d love to see if any of our readers in Japan or Korea has any first hand experience and can share with the rest of us. Until then, we will definitely be intrigued and to see if we can find more information on this product.