# Salicylic acid



## George Farmer (21 Dec 2011)

Apparently this is the active ingredient in the relatively new anti-algae product, Easylife Algexit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salicylic_acid

It makes interesting reading.


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## clonitza (21 Dec 2011)

This one is better 
http://oas.uco.edu/01/papers/lfimple01.htm


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## Emyr (21 Dec 2011)

Does anyone have any experience with Easylife Algexit? How effective is it?


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## clonitza (21 Dec 2011)

If you have patience and dose it regularly it works agains most green algae.


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## JohnC (21 Dec 2011)

interesting read.

vitamin s 

i've never heard of anyone using it thou. Does it work on BBA?


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## Ian Holdich (21 Dec 2011)

at least if you're plants get dandruff, here's the answer!

goodbye Head and Shoulders.


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## andyh (21 Dec 2011)

been using it for 6 months, very good on hair algae, fuzz algae and spiragoya (can't spell). 
Doesn't do anything to BBA BGA

Andy


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## Tom (22 Dec 2011)

To be honest I've not noticed any difference since getting some...

Tom


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## plantbrain (22 Dec 2011)

clonitza said:
			
		

> If you have patience and dose it regularly it works agains most green algae.



So does vinegar, also an acid.


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## clonitza (22 Dec 2011)

plantbrain said:
			
		

> So does vinegar, also an acid.



Actually I prefer lemon juice.


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## Mark Webb (22 Dec 2011)

plantbrain said:
			
		

> clonitza said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



What dosage should we use for vinegar?


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## clonitza (22 Dec 2011)

Mark are you planning to make a salad?


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## Mark Webb (22 Dec 2011)

clonitza said:
			
		

> Mark are you planning to make a salad?



I might have to, my stems are growing so fast I wont know what to do with them


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## plantbrain (2 Jan 2012)

We use 100% acetic acid to kill aquatic weeds(See Spencer and Ksander), I'm sure there is a similar dose response curve for algae vs plants for MANY chemicals.

Realize the Acetic acid will "pickle" and is used as a tissue fixative, much like Glutaraldehyde.
SA should work fine also with the same dose response curve.

So does copper which is widely used as an algicide.
For algae, about 0.4ppm and for aquatic plants; about 1.0 ppm.
This is for general algae and weed control, some of the species we keep will be sensitive, same with Glutaraldehyde also.

Acetic acid will also destroy KH => strong enough acid to break HCO3+H+ => CO2 + H2O.
So it will soften the water in the tank.

If you take 5% distilled vinegar..........spray it on a weed outside, it will kill it.
Then add some to your fish N chips at the pub, or if you are more healthy, on the salad.


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## Aquadream (5 Jan 2012)

Today I have applied Salicylic Acid with concentartion 0.01% to one of my nano tanks. There are only traces of algae there, nothing serious or to bother me, but I am curious about the effect of this acid. As soon as I see any changes I will report them here.


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