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glutaraldehyde instead of excel

156689 Views 258 Replies 78 Participants Last post by  Aquaticz, 
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Hey guys

Last week I have been using glutaraldehde in place of excel.I'm using a 2.8% solution.It's suppose to be about the same as excel but alot cheaper.I paid $16.95 a gallon.

I tried it in two tanks,a 10 gal. planted and a 60gal. planted.
It had a different effect in each tank on some of the same plants.Below I'll list each tank with the dose and effect I noticed.


60gal.,192 watts,11hours lights on,co2 injected,ferts daily,plants are red tiger lotus,rotalia indica,sword,ludwigia,anubias,hair grass and crypts,34 fish.

I dosed 30ml 9/23/6 after a water change then 10ml daily.
On 9/25/6 the angelfish spawned so it seems to have no effect on the fish.
9/27/6 the sword plant started growing fast.3-4" growth of new leaves daily.this plant has not grown much in the last 3 weeks.

It's been a week so far,water is clear,plants are growing fast and the little bit of algae I had is gone.

riccia is ok.

Now for the 10gal.,30 watts 8-10 hours,no co2,ferts daily,plants are sword,red tiger lotus,ludwigia,and bolbitis,tiger barb fry,cherry shrimp and alot of hair algae.

I dosed this tank heavier to see what would happen.
5ml daily.
9/23/6 dosed at 10:00am and by 7:00pm algae shows signs of dying.fish and shrimp are fine.

9/24/6 riccia is dying off.All the algae dead.fish are fine.water is a little cloudy.

9/25/6 water is clear.I have a few strands of moss in this tank.I think it's java moss.It is growing very fast.

9/30/6 moss has grown around 10" this week.this moss has been in here for 8 months without much growth.The bolbitis is a little darker green and the leaves have widened.Looks healthier then it ever has.

Other than the riccia dying and the water turning cloudy one day it seems to work well.

If I notice anything else I'll add it to this post.

Allen
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Hi Matt

I did a search for glutaraldehyde and found a number of places that sell it online.The solution i ordered is 2.5%.There are other concentrations out there.The higher level of glutaraldehyde the more expensive it is.I chose this one to experiment with because of the price and it is diluted enough that I could dose straight from the bottle.

This is only the first week of using it so I not sure if there will be any problems with long term expose for the fish or plants.
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MatPat said:
Assuming Epicfish's calculations are correct I think it is funny that the Riccia in the 10g had issues while the riccia in the larger tank did not. Do you think this may be because the gluteraldehyde was diluted more in the large tank due to the tank's height? Did yo add the gluteraldehyde directly over the Riccia in the 10g?
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I added the glutaraldehyde into the flow from the filter and the riccia was on the other end of the tank.It may be the level was to high.I'll move some riccia back into this tank and see.
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All the riccia is dead in the 60g also.It took longer,must be the lower dose.
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Matt,do you have any riccia i could have to try with the excel.All of mine is wiped out.

Dennis,that is not the same brand but the discription is the same(28 day glutaraldehyde,activated diadehyde).I beleive the 28 or 14 day formula refers to how long the solution is good for after you mix in the activator that comes with it.That is for sterilization of medical equipment.What I did was not add the activator and dose the glutaraldehyde straight from the gallon jug.
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MatPat said:
I think I have some mini Riccia still, I will check and let you know later on. Do you want me to mail it to you or wait until the Auction?
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When is the auction?The weekend of the 14th is the only time I can't make it.If it is that weekend maybe you could mail it to me.LMK.
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Update

When I first started with the glutaraldehyde it seemed to kill all the riccia.But I just found a few small 1/2" pieces in the 10g.
MrSanders,thanks for the offer.

Also the bolbitis has grown 1" or 2 and the leaves are wider.this plant has done nothing in the last 6-8months.
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Hey guys,

Sorry for not posting sooner.
My riccia has come back and is doing fine.After that first dose i thought it was dead.The red tiger lotus,ludwigia,bolbitis and sword are all growing with the best growth in the lotus and bolbitus.

The tiger barbs have been moved and now there are around 75 swordtail fry in the 10g.The fry are fine but the last of the shrimp has died.

There has not been any sign of algae in this tank since I started using glutaraldehyde.

I stopped using it in the 60g.It is co2 injected and I wanted to see if there was any ill effects using the glutaraldehyde with co2.Everything was fine except for the riccia to start with but it came back also.

I'm happy with the results.plants respond well and I save a few bucks over excel.Good luck to all that try this and please post any problems you might have.

Allen
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Hi everyone

I haven't posted anything here for awhlie because I've been playing around with the glut.

I've been adjusting the doses and found that 1ml to 1 gallon of water at a water change does not seem to hurt the fish,plants or bio filter along with a 1:2 daily dose.This will slowly kill the algae.
For a more severe algae problem I can add 1:1 three days after the 1:1 at water change.
A 1:1 daily dose seems to stress the fish.Plants are fine but it will destroy the bio along with the algae.
A 1.5:1 will kill the fish.
Once the algae is gone I reduced it to 1:5.The plants are growing as fast as they are in the tank with co2.
This is what has happened in my tanks and it might be different for your setup.

I haven't tried a dip for new plants yet but it might be a way to kill the algae and those #%@* snails & eggs before placing them in the tank.
Eric,I should've tried this with that red rubin I got from you.Oh well,the loaches are happy,their bellies are full.

Has anyone else tried this stuff?What kind of effects has it had on your plants?I'm sure others would like to here about it.

As with all chemicals please use with caution and if you do a search it's easy to find the MSDS for glutaraldehyde.
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I bought mine here Protech Medical Imaging Supplies & Equipment
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Eric
Since I posted that,most of the snail eggs I'm finding are on the glass.There are some on the red rubin but I don't want to take it out.That plant is like a snail magnet.
If you have a small plant with alot of eggs on it could you bring it to the meeting and I'll setup a 10g to try this.I'll use all new substrate,filter and heater so no snails from anywhere else.
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