I've been fighting HA in my 125 gl for months now with no luck. It seems like a lot of poeple have had luck with AF. From all the post I read there really was no negative effects but there are a lot of pages so, my question is, has anyone had any bad side effects and if so what were they?

There have been few complaints. Some have reported coral were irritated. There have been a few complaints regarding lost sea hares and perhaps a few shrimp. It is difficult to isolate exactly what caused these losses considering other possibilities. All and all compared to other measures used to control pests like using antibiotics to control cyano, there are very few problems IMHO. ;)

I have an update: It's been about a week since I started treatment w/ AF (3 doses), and I lost my peppermint shrimp yesterday. This may not be due to the AF, since I've been doing other dosing, including iodine. All my other inverts seem ok thus far, and I think I will continue dosing since it seems to be working. That peppermint shrimp was a kinda a pain anyway :)

Thanks HR, I think we may give it a shot. Just like many others we've tried all the "normal" stuff and nothing seems to really make a difference. We're also looking into adding a reactor, right now we're just narrowing down which one we want to get.

Your welcome.

Good Luck. ;)

i have used so far 3 doses...i have noticed the hair algae recede probably 50%

i did lose a small maxima clam and just lost a spiny oyster...both of which have been in the tank for months and now died only 10 days after using af marine...

not sure if it is just coincidence or not... but the algae problem has definitely improved

larry,
i'm on dose 5 and no losses. small clams are notorious, so my guess is if you're dosing properly, it's something else.

I bought some for my fresh and salt water tanks. I've started dosing my freshwater for a different kind of algae and I'm on dose 2 and haven't seen any change yet. I started dosing my 75 salt tank but I'm only on dose one so of course I haven't seen a change but I'm not dosing for HA in that tank. As far as my 125 goes which is tha tank I actually have the HA in I haven't started dosing because I'm expecting some Trochus Snails and don't want to kill off all the food supply.

Based on my in coming snails I was wondering if anyone has losed snails due to lack of algae during or after using the algaefix?

did anyone experience a zoa loss? It was my fourth dose, three zoa frags melt.

So I plan to start using this product . How long should leave off each
Skimmer ?
GFO ?
Carbon ?

I would continue to keep your skimmer running, it is an important aspect for helping to remove dead or dieing algae. I would also continue to run GFO & GAC. :)

I've been dosing this stuff for about two weeks now... I haven't noticed any change in my GHA population. I've pulled the stuff out, and it just keeps growing back. I've increased dosing, to every other day in hopes that it will do something... None of my livestock have showed averse reactions....

Just so tired of this stuff....

Hello HighlandReefer,
Per your expirience with AlgaeFix Marine -
- Is it effective against dinoflagellates?
- I am somewhat concern about this product components, since it calim containing cancer factor... what do you think please?

So my update ,
I dosed once and also got a Starry Blenny .. I have to say the Blenny went nuts on all the hair algae ! With in one week it was all gone ( 180g) and I had one fat Blenny .

AlgaeFix does not kill all types of algae. The siphoning algae are tough and if you have this type of algae perhaps using Tech M to increase your mag level 300-400 ppm with no more than 100 ppm increase per day may work. Some hobbyists have reported this works. There have been report of snails dieing and other invertebrates like shrimp when increasing the mag level this much.

Dinoflagellates are not on the label for AF. I have no experience with dinos. It could work as well as not. Perhaps the manufacturer never tested for dinos with AF. Perhaps they did and it didn't work. If you decide to try it, please let me know the results. :)

IMHO, the cancer factor for the state of California only is a little excessive and is not a concern. I personally would follow the label without concerns. ;)

Good to hear you achieved control of your algae. ;)

i have been using the product for a month or so now..

all of my hair algae is gone and the rock looks great..

what i noticed on the sand..in the shaded areas there is almost like a yelllow algae on the sand... kind of strange color and only areas that do not get direct light from the AI fixtures

thoughts???

Could be the algae is getting less light or could be the algae is being effected by the AF and is loosing some of it color.

has anyone checked their alk while dosing with AF? I started dosing and it was working on the GHA but all of a sudden I lost 90% of all my inverts.

Checked my water and saw my alk was dangerously low (5) so I stopped dosing and treated my alk issues and now they're back to where they need to be but I'm affraid of starting the AF back up.

Any Thoughts?

I tried this product for a few months with no luck... actually made the algae growth worse.... best thing for me was water changes and feeding fish every other week. I will never use a quick fix product again....

I tried this on my saltwater tank but it didn't work. However, it's working wonders on my outdoors freshwater koi tank. I followed the direction and also used it together with more carbon. After 2 weeks, the water couldn't be clearer.

I started AF about four months ago at the recommended dose every three days. I cleared up all my HA after about two months. I am now just using the maintenance dose once a week.. I have lots of fish and coral in three tanks on the 200 gal system. No losses that I would attribute to AF.

Has anyone had trouble with their skimmers overflowing when starting AF ? I put in the reccommended dose for my 220 and 4 hrs later in the middle of the night my atb 840 went nuts and blew the collection cup lid off with clear water and bubbles, i now have the wedgepipe completly open and still it is overflowing continously...
any ideas...???

Wow, I'm kind of shocked by this thread. It seems that it is being suggested that this chemical is safe, because no immediate negative effects are reported? I wouldn't expect that kind of logic from this group, so maybe I'm missing something? As far as I can tell, this is a very powerful chemical. It seems to me there is good reason to be cautious with it and not assume it is "safe". From the data listed here:
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_...Rec_Id=PC34167

It's LC50 is less than 1ppm for 4 out of the 6 freshwater fish tested. I calculate the dose recommended results in slightly over 1ppm, assuming no accumulation. Granted there were no saltwater fish tested and there dosn't seem to be immediate death in saltwater fish, however, given the very high toxicity, it seems unlikely to me that it isn't causing some loss of fitness in marine organisms. Any loss of fitness could result in weakened immune response, loss of fecundity, etc... So, I wouldn't assume lack of immediate negative results means it's "safe".

There is no information about carcinogen effects, however, it is a powerful chemical and there is no evidence that CA is wrong either. It would seem that there is something about the chemical structure, or other hints, that leads them to suspect it is. Who knows maybe your fish will drop dead from cancer in a few years and you'd never have any idea, you'd just think it was old age or some other, completely unrelated illness.

Even if not at least slightly, directly toxic, which seems like a stretch to me, based on the freshwater data, there would likely be indirect negative effects. For example, it's moderately toxic to zooplankton and highly toxic to their food sources. I'd at least say wouldn't expect that to have a "positive" effect on the food web. For example, there is evidence starved corals are more susceptible to bleaching (e.g. Ferrier-Pagès 2010 or Borell and Bischof 2008). That is if there really is no direct effects on the zooxanthellae, which seems reasonable to think, if it did, would also lead to a loss of fitness.

So, I'm surprised you guys are so willing to promote this. What am I missing?