# Is this any good ?



## Ace (Dec 10, 2003)

Don't use it if you don't see any.If there is hair algae,buy some algae eater fish and they will do the trick.


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## lanstar (Nov 29, 2002)

This product may be perfectly safe - it's hard to tell without knowing what's in it. I wonder if it's some kind of barley straw extract? Although I've never tried it, I've read about a couple of other algae control products that use a compound extracted from barley straw that also claim to be safe and effective. 

The story (which may be apocryphal) goes: A farmer had a pond in his barley field. He was making hay bales and one of them fell in the pond and he left it there - since it was ruined anyway. Days later he noticed that the algae in the pond was less prolific. Later on, the algae was all gone. The fish and pond plants were not bothered. ...and that's how the idea to use barley straw to control algae was born.

Take all of that with a big grain of salt until you find someone who has really used it. 

I think most of us just let Nature take its course and wait out the algae outbreaks. That's what I did.

Take care...

Tim


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## Minders (Aug 1, 2003)

I used a barley straw bale in my pond last year and still got string algae. I assumed it didn't work. I didn't use one this year and TONS OF STRING ALGAE. I'm wondering now if it worked, but only in that it kept it from going totally rampant like it did this year. Who knows? I'll have to try another bale next summer and see how it goes...


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## GulfCoastAquarian (Jul 30, 2002)

Minders, try using a bigger bale or several smaller bales. I thought the principle behind this was microrganisms lived in the barley that consumed green algae. Maybe it's something different.


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## tombsc (Nov 24, 2003)

I'm going to try it when I get my new lights, wipe out the hair algae and hope the plants use the increased light before the algae comes back.

When I was growing my algal cultures for my thesis _Porphyra leucosticta_ (a marine red alga) I managed to kill a whole batch as I touched the sporangia with my fingers after having a cigarette - the nicotine completely killed it. Would this have any affects in the freshwater aquarium - on algae or plants ??


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## Minders (Aug 1, 2003)

Nicotine is very bad in an aquarium. Just as it hangs in layers in the air of the room where someone is smoking, so also does it dissolve in the water of your tank (despite a hood/cover). It's toxic and builds up over time. Bad news... I have a friend who said he had a friend 'round once, who sat next to his tank all night smoking a cigar and apparently, it wiped out his whole tank. Who knows... I read a post on another forum recently where people were discussing this very topic, i.e. Is smoking bad for my tank? There were a lot of varied opinions.


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## tombsc (Nov 24, 2003)

I know smoking near the aquarium is dangerous, and I don't let anyone smoke near my tanks....but surely thats mainly from the CO and nitrosomas that saturate the water and cause asphyxiation. I was thinking more of the affects of nicotine resin, would it affect higher plants, or just algae ?


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## tombsc (Nov 24, 2003)

Tried the Interpret Anti Hair algae. Gave the tank 3 doses and voila..all the hair algae died and could be rubbed off the plants very easily. I still can't afford a light upgrade to fit in my existing hood so I know it will come back in a day or two, but at least I know it works.
BTW all the palnts seem OK, so do all the fish inc. discus + clowns


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## g8wayg8r (Dec 24, 2003)

GulfCoastAquarian said:


> Minders, try using a bigger bale or several smaller bales. I thought the principle behind this was microrganisms lived in the barley that consumed green algae. Maybe it's something different.


Free oxygen
This site claims that free oxygen is released when it decays. It acts like peroxide. I can't say it's right or wrong.


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## Minders (Aug 1, 2003)

Well, I need to do SOMETHING. I go in there and try to pull out every strand I see... and within a few weeks, it's all over the place again. :x


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