Cali Kid Corals

Fluorish Excel...in a reef??

Gomer

Gomer

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Anyone here who is fairly active in Fresh Water Planted tanks, knows about the wonders of Fluorish Excel and "red" algae (black beard/bush/brush, staghorn) and to a lesser degree, other algae. Has anyone been brave enough to test out what it does in a saltwater tank?

I wouldn't dare try it in a normal reef, but if I had a little 5g experimental tank, Id be tempted to "contaminate it" with various algae...heck, even stuff like flat worms, pods (not that they are a contaminate, but want to know if they survive ok), RB, AEFW, Nudis etc, and see what Excel does in there.

Just a snipit from wikipedia (from gluteraldehyde)

A polymerized isomer of glutaraldehyde trademarked as polycycloglutaracetal by Seachem Laboratories, Inc. is the active ingredient in a product called Flourish Excel, a fertilizer for aquatic plants. It is claimed that it provides a bioavailable source of carbon for higher plants that is not available to algae. Though not marketed as such due to federal regulations, the biocidal effect of glutaraldehyde kills most algae at concentrations of 0.5 - 5.0 ppm. These levels are not harmful to most aquatic fauna and flora. Adverse reactions have been observed by some aquarists at these concentrations in some aquatic mosses, liverworts, and vascular plants.
Click to expand...

Some people have used "raw" gluteraldehyde as a "poor mans" Excel and report sucesses as well.


People have dosed all sorts of odd things in their tanks from vodka to vitamin C...so who knows.
 
two very different chemicals. You could do the test, but you shouldn't be expecting the same thing.

Calcium gluconate
Calcium_Gluconate.gif


Gluteraldehyde
200px-Glutaraldehyde_structure.png
 
Yes, however what you are trying to achieve is to drive another competing plant or animal to out compete the pest algea. Gluconate can do that by driving bacterial growth, flourish with higher plants, if it were me I'd want the bacteria.
 
Not entirely. You can consider gluteraldehyde to effectively be an algaecide. infact, gluteraldehyde is used in hospitals etc as a disinfectant.
 
"It is claimed that it provides a bioavailable source of carbon for higher plants that is not available to algae"


That statement mislead me then...

You should try it, see what happens.
 
Heheh... running errands, labeling containers, last minute frags, making a batch of salt water, need to set up a temporary holding "tank". Patrick/Nukeproof just dropped off 2 big buckets of frags for the swap :D

Remember this one? Setting it back up, minus the jar, for frags and quarantine.

incubator.jpg
 
i've tried excel and other seachem fw additives when i was propagating macroalgae. i had a few coral frags in there also. out of all the corals that were in there, the clove polyps flourished. the growth was incredible. growth for algae was "decent" nothing impressive. had a diatom bloom when there was too much iron.

for the setup, nothing special.. 90g aga, 2 powerheads and 2 lights of america flood lights. residents of the tank were fish, snails, hermits, algae, crushed coral.. no mechanical filtration.. (ghetto i know, but it worked) ;) no casualties when dosing those seachem fw additives.
 
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