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Green
Water is caused by:
Remedy---Patience,
along with good filter maintenance and light feedings.
Remedy--Think before you add any
chemical, food or more fish. Adding any of these will upset the ecological balance
of your pond. The more you add, the more time the balance will need to
recover. Learn to manage your pond system and it's inhabitants.
Remedy--
Intermittent use of a UV light, patience and lighter feedings.
Remedy--Small
frequent water changes, patience and frequent filter cleanings.
What about chemical algae destroyers? Here's the
skinny on one such product:
AlgaeFix
comments
I frequently am asked in private messages to repeat the data found
easily in the public PAN pesticide database on the tested aquatic
toxicity of the active ingredient in AlgaeFix.
So here it is in public to satisfy all those folks sending private
messages asking for it again.
This is why I recommend either sodium percarbonate or
Hydrogen peroxide as an Algaecide instead of AlgaeFix!
Before you start reading, the definition of the term LC50 is that half
the kind of fish die on average at this dose rate and time interval.
Just so you "get" the discussion.
From Toxicity Studies for Poly(oxyethylene) (dimethylimino) ethylene (dimethylimino)
ethylene dichloride (active ingredient in AlgaeFix) on Fish - Toxicology
studies from the primary scientific literature on aquatic organisms in
the PAN pesticides database, the primary active ingredient in AlgaeFix
is rated to have the following LC50 concentrations:
48 hour LC50 for channel catfish is 3
Ppm
96 hour LC50 for bluegill is 0.2
Ppm
48 hour LC50 for trout is 0.04
Ppm
AlgaeFix contains 4.5% of the active ingredient Poly(oxyethylene) (dimethylimino)
ethylene (dimethylimino) ethylene dichloride according to the MSDS
(Material Safety DataSheet) for AlgaeFix.
The recommendations for dosing AlgaeFix are to dose a gallon of AlgaeFix
for each 38,400 gallons of water to kill algae.
To dose one gallon per each 38,400 gallons is to dose the product at a
dose rate of 26 ppm, but the AlgaeFix is just 4.5% active ingredient, so
the recommended dose rate of the active ingredient in AlgaeFix is 26
Ppm times 0.045 = 1.18 ppm.
This is 40% of the LC50 for channel catfish, but is 6 times the LC50 for
bluegill, and is 30 times the LC50 for trout. So if AlgaeFix is dosed at
exactly the recommended dose rate, we should expect all the bluegill to
die, all the trout to die, and some of the channel catfish to die. Just
so you "get it".
And this is the RECOMMENDED dose rate, and we all know too well how
products are sometimes used in ponds.
So it is no wonder a lot of folks kill their pond fish with AlgaeFix.
Okay, AlgaeFix kills algae. So does either
Hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate.
Roddy Conrad |
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