Gluteraldehyde

excuzzzeme

excuzzzeme

Stroke Survivor '05
Mar 29, 2007
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100 miles from water and 2 feet from Hell
I bought a gallon of 2.6% Gluteraldehyde as it was fairly cheap and only because I had the money available for once. Most ppl seem to prefer 2.7% and use 1.5% dosing. After I cut this I will have 2 gallons of 1.3% to dose with. I feel that since I can find so little and most articles are anecdotal "evidence" rather than hard fact I wanted to be safer with my plants. It also means I can dose more often.

If anyone uses it, please share your experiences.

Thank you
 
Fish and particularly inverts are much more at risk than plants.
1.5% dosed at 5mls per 10 Gal yields about 2ppm.

Toxicity curve is at about 4ppm for critters and drops fast.

So double dosing, thinking that more is better..... are BAD ideas.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
I saw that on your site and understand the risks. I wasn't going to dose high but rather on the low side as I don't want to risk plants or wet-life. More like 5ml per 40 gallons 1x a week.
 
plantbrain said:
Fish and particularly inverts are much more at risk than plants.
1.5% dosed at 5mls per 10 Gal yields about 2ppm.

Toxicity curve is at about 4ppm for critters and drops fast.

So double dosing, thinking that more is better..... are BAD ideas.

Regards,
Tom Barr
Click to expand...

I think you may have misunderstood the OP. He wanted to check about decreasing the concentration from 2.6% to 1.3% (adding 1 gallon of pure water to 1 gallon of 2.6% resulting in 2 gallons of 1.3% from which he will dose his tank). So dosing 5 mL of 1.3% per 10 g of tank water should put him safely under 2 ppm.
 
Maybe you are going to become the entrepreneur who starts selling DIY bottles of Excel to us scaredy cats here at AC who don't want to mess with it ourselves? ;)
 
Because is cost the same buying the lab stuff, so why would anyone buy it from another hobbyist?
Folks have long used 1.5% at 5mls per 10 gal for the 2ppm range for some 7-8 years and more tanks than I could count.
Seems fine for all if you use it as directed. I've dosed it 2ppm per day for a few months on most plant species, even my Vals mini twister does just fine, no melt.

For so called sensitive species, you start less and then ramp up to 2ppm.

I would dose daily, not once a week FYI.
CO2 runs short daily, not weekly.
Which is why you add it to begin with.

It's 1/2 life is about 11hrs and total degradation is about 20-24 hours under aquarium conditions.

Wanna buy glutaraldehyde test kit and measure your own tank?
Yep, I do have an extra one for sale, new, you need hot plate also.

Then you can watch the decay over time.
Take samples once every hour and freeze them right away, then thaw and measure all at once.
Record the readings etc. If you use Red Cherry shrimp(RCS) etc as "the canary", and their breeding for good behavior, then fish and plants will have a test to indicate any dosing issues since they are much less sensitive than RCS shrimp.
RCS breed like flies, so that behavior is fairly easy to look after.

Hope this helps.
 
Lab_Rat said:
I think you may have misunderstood the OP. He wanted to check about decreasing the concentration from 2.6% to 1.3% (adding 1 gallon of pure water to 1 gallon of 2.6% resulting in 2 gallons of 1.3% from which he will dose his tank). So dosing 5 mL of 1.3% per 10 g of tank water should put him safely under 2 ppm.
Click to expand...

"1.5% dosed at 5mls per 10 Gal yields about 2ppm."

Sort of said it fairly plainly there, whether they chose to dose that or not is up to them, that is the directions and the label off Seachem as well.
Most have already looked this up given the OP's questions and ideas. Either way, more clarity never hurts. Particularly when dosing something as potentially toxic as CO2 or Excel.
 
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