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Benny,
before you go running out to buy this stuff... try reading this article by neil frank...
There are many products on the aquarium shop shelves which are sold asCode:Chemicals to Control Algae The Use of Simazine (Published in Vol 4 no. 6 (1991) of "The Aquatic Gardener," Journal of the Aquatic Gardeners Association) Neil Frank
products to control algae. You will probably find that all of them have the
same active ingredient: simazine. This is short for 2-chloro-4,6-bis
(ethylamino)-s-triazine. These products are found in liquid, tablet or wettable
powder form, which the consumer puts into solution within the provided
container. Regardless of the company name, package size or price, the
products are all the same. But do they work, do they affect vascular plants
and can they harm the fish?
Some History
Simazine was introduced as an aquatic herbicide with application to control
algae and submerged aquatic vegetation in lakes and ponds in the late 1950's.
Studies during the 1960's showed that this chemical was effective in
controlling algae and certain species of aquatic plants with no "apparent"
harm to fish. The chemical was subsequently federally registered as an
algicide for use in aquariums, swimming pools, as well as farm and recreational
ponds.
Simazine was first registered for aquarium usage in the multi-ingredient
tablet, "Algae Destroyer," by Aqua-Biotics in 1967. This registration was
supported by the results of a few phytotoxicity studies in actual aquariums.
It was not until CIBA-GEIGY (the producer of the chemical) registered its own
product under the brand name Aquazine in 1975 that simazine appeared as an
active ingredient algicide on its own. Within a few years, several aquarium
products containing simazine as its single active ingredient were similarly
registered by EPA and started to appear on the retailers' shelves. Now, it
appears that all of the multiple ingredient products are gone and even "Algae
Destroyer" only contains simazine.
Efficacy
According to available literature, simazine is effective at controlling
unicellular and attached filamentous algae at a concentration of 0.5-1.0
milligrams per liter (mg/l), or parts per million (ppm). The recommended
usage of aquarium algicides containing simazine as the single active ingredient
yields a value in the middle of this range. Based on studies in lakes and
ponds, blue-green algae are the most sensitive to treatment by simazine while
diatoms and flagellates are the least sensitive. As a group, green algae are
only moderately sensitive to simazine at recommended concentrations. Thus,
the efficacy of the product depends on the type of algae present. Published
studies as well as CIBA-GEIGY literature point out that submerged aquatic
plants including Myriophyllum, Ceratophyllum and Cabomba, as well as
duckweed and Wolffia can be controlled with simazine at twice the
aforementioned concentrations. Vallisneria is also reported to be sensitive to
the chemical.. These plants were field studied and are of interest in pond
management because they are considered to be nuisance weed. Unfortunately,
the use of these plants is different for the aquarist. Due to the sensitivity of
these reported species to simazine, aquarium plants can be either killed or
have their growth stunted by use of this algicide. Although CIBA-GEIGY's
Aquazine contains this information on their label, no aquarium algicide product
provides this warning. Some products do mention, however, as does CIBA-
GEIGY, that caution is needed with water lilies and hyacinths, of interest to
pond users. Based upon my experience, plants such as Amazon swords and
Crypts are not affected, so the plants to be concerned about may be limited to
Vallisneria, bunch plants and some floating plants. Fortunately, the latter
tend to be easier and less costly
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