Green hair algae- the constant battle

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What is the original purpose of excel? Is it harmful to fish/plants?

It's a liquid source of carbon for plants. Not as effective as CO2, but still pretty good. In fact, I'm having very good results with it. (y)

It has a side benefit of killing many forms of algae. I was inadvertently overdosing it and thus had *no* algae problem. Luckily I didn't harm my plants or fish, either. :whistle:
 
There are some plants that cannot tolerate it and may basically melt from its use (notably anacharis and valisneria).



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That explains why most of my anacharis died off. Oh well, wife never did like the anacharis anyway.
 
Do you need to overdose to get rid of algae or use the recommended amount? Also, what size should I buy? I want to make sure I don't get too little or too much. The Walmart options are 250 mL, 500 mL and 2 L.


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Do you need to overdose to get rid of algae or use the recommended amount? Also, what size should I buy? I want to make sure I don't get too little or too much. The Walmart options are 250 mL, 500 mL and 2 L.


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I was inadvertently overdosing 2.5x the recommended level. No harm to fish and plants, and no algae. I wouldn't recommend that as a long-term plan, though. :eek:

What you could do, if you want to spot-treat an infestation, is turn off the filters and then use a syringe to spray excel over a clump of algae. Let it sit for 15 minutes, then restart the filters. I did that, and it worked quite well.
 
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Excel can get expensive. Metricide 14 is more concentrated and a fraction of the cost. I dilute to 1:1 with water and use/dose it as I would excel.


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Is metricide the same stuff?


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It's glutaraldehyde which is essentially the same product in most commercial liquid carbon sources. Only you pay less money for more volume (and presumably) a higher concentration when purchasing metricide 14


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