Anyone think Algae-eradicating chemicals are a good idea?

When I was a brand new fish keeper, actually when my girlfriend was doing the fish keeping, we had a pleco and she dropped 2 wardley algae tabs in the 10g and left them there and the pleco didn't touch them, the next morning the water was opaque brown. We didn't know d--k, and the fish experts we were talking to worked at petco. Yeah if we had known what an accpeptable product was it would have been great, we ended up with some fizzing thing that worked well then the algae came back in 2 hours as badly as before, even after cleaning the glass and changing all the water and vaccuming it kept coming back within 12 hours(we were also giving it indirect sunlight, that algae crisis is when we learned that one :) ), but having starved it for light we still only got rid of it by completely breaking down the tank(at least thats what we did, being total noobs who knows exactly how well we did what ;)

I don't know what the moral is exactly except that there's too much crap out there, it was an emergency at least we thought(I mean this water was like mud, it had to be bad for the fish). I think they have a place but yeah its generally going to be newbies who end up needing them and its a shame that they run the risk of picking or being sold some crap. Its like so many of those chemicals out there, I really feel for the panicking people who they're being sold to. Of course removing the cause of the problem is the only real solution, it would be nice if there were some organization that endorsed products so people could know they were buying something real, and if there was informative easy literature required to be included with endorsed products, so you could get a break from the problem and make it not come back.

Of course I think putting chemicals in your tank should be avoided almost completely. I would never add anything without asking here first. That chemical adding newbie phase makes me shudder to remember.

This actually makes me think about a post I want to ask a question about.
 
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I tried ap's algea fix. It was not something that I would recommend. While it did kill off the algea it took some plants too. But I found my problem phosphates in my tap water. I would tell anyone who has an algea issue that there is something in the tank causing it.
 
You know, I was wondering the same thing but figured it was a dumb question and didnt' ask it ....hehe
 
I happen to have a bottle of AP's algea fix also. I've used it in my community tank before with mixed results. While it does get rid of the algea for a short (very short) time, it also doesn't go well with fishes. Moments after adding it to the tank, one of my neons started floating on his side. After a few minutes he was able to 'right' himself again, but it scared me. I haven't used it since. I don't have much algea problems, but when I do, I simply leave the light off. I have an abundance of various algea eaters nowadays, and they take pretty good care of it while the lights are off. Also, they can get ahead of the bloom while the light is off (the algea stops growing, but they keep eating). I have to agree with locust though, we do add all sorts of things to the water already. So i think it all comes down to what you want to do with your tank. I personally like the little bottom feeders and algea suckers and whatnot, so I tend to go heavy on those. Some people have all plastic plants, so a chemical (providing it doesn't harm the fish) might be a good way to go so long as your aware that most of them don't work, or only work for a brief time. Hence, you're always buying more. Some peope leave the hood light on 24/7...sure, they're gunna have algea. In part I think it might be personal preference. The other part being how well people want to troubleshoot and problem solve. And the amount of effort/time/money they're willing to put into solving the problem.
 
Okay, the arch conservative will chime in...BLTN, right?

(Better Late Than Never)

If for some reason I had to use copper at algicide levels in one of my tanks, or if someone else added such, I would follow up with tossing the plants, the substrate, the filter media, possibly the filter, and the tank. Copper is forever. it plates out in the substrate and on the plants and even the tank glass. I keep inverts. Copper is deadly poison for them. I have no use for any copper-contaminated material in my life.

Yes, copper is a required nutrient at trace levels, and as such is in Flourish and similar products which are added routinely to my tanks. But the levels are tiny, true trace amounts. Algicides, even most non-copper based ones, skate the thin line between killing molluscs and crustaceans and killing fish and plants - there is no real dividing dosage, they overlap widely.

As for adding chemicals, that is a hollow argument - everything you feed your fish (or yourself) is a chemical, or more accurately a complex mixture of chemicals both organic and inorganic. Your tap water is a dilute (hopefully) chemical solution. I do not add anything to my tanks that I do not understand to at least some degree. I have some advantage over most folks there as I was a lab scientist for many years, but lack of background information is to me not an excuse for falling for marketing hype to the detriment of you tanks. Karlsbad's comments were valuable on that - mistakes were made, but lessons were learned.

Quick fixes without understanding do a great deal more harm than good. And they rarely are lasting.
 
btw my 'girlfriend' let indirect light shine on my tank for about 5 hours the other day. 2 water changes and gravel vaccuumings, 1 hose cleaning, 2 glass cleanings, 1 full maintenance of all my filters, 3 media cleanings, and 1 diatom runs ago, and the filters are still backing up albeit less and not as quickly. I think tomorrow will be the last time I have to do all that until its gone. Today was the first time I saw that slime crap on the gravel.

On the day she did it I was like OH F--K but the water was clear all day, the next morning it was like someone had mixed it with 25% milk and there was hair on the glass.
 
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