why can't algae use Excel?

plah831

plah831

Am I mod enough?
Apr 29, 2006
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Monterey Bay, CA
"> Can algae feed on Excel?
No. I'm sure this may raise a few eyebrows ;-) since at face value
this would be a reasonable expectation. But, for reasons Uncle Sam
won't let us discuss, all I can say is that algae can't feed on Excel
and I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to deduce why this
is the case (big picture folks, no chemistry involved)"

Quote taken from http://www.aquabotanic.com/carbon.html

So why can't algae benefit from the carbon in Excel? Is there something really obvious that I'm missing?

Why is the author making it sound so mysterious? Legal issue or what?
 
Paula-

Read somewhere here on the net, that Excell has an algeacide in it. It's at low concentrations, but it's the same basic formulation thats used in the bilges of ships to clean them from algea.

Thats why OD'ing on Excell is a good way of ridding your tank from algea; it works (in my case), no more algea and I'm having to prune my plants every week during the water change.

Running out of room to replant cuttings!
 
Art, thanks for the reply. I've heard that too. Actually used Excel as an algecide to get rid of the spots of black beard algae on my older Anubias leaves. It worked pretty well! I actually saw the BBA first turn red, then get soft, then disappear.

However, I'm puzzled by his "big picture, folks, no chemistry involved" quip.

I feel like this is one of those puzzles where you just need to think "outside the box" and it's a really simple solution :duh: I never was very good at those :p:

I just know someone's going to have a really obvious answer, and I'm gonna go "Doh!"
 
Look at the active ingrediant and do a search, they used higher levels as a tissue fixer, it's a general biocide.

But like many things, it is highly dose dependent.

Caffine is very toxic also, but if you only take tiny amounts, you get the buzz.
Same with many drugs and chemicals.

So would a small amount hurt the algae or the much larger plant first?
Why does a bleach dip work to kill the algae and not kill the plants also?

Similar thing here, but unlike bleach, the product decomposes rapidly and gives off CO2 and the other plants seem not to have any issues making use of that.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Thank you so much Tom! :bowing:

you're totally right about caffeine, I just went to the doctor a couple weeks back from a caffeine OD.
 
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