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SeaChem Paraguard is Excel + Malachite Green

tiger15

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Joined
14 Mar 2018
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858
Location
USA
I recently had a bout of ick and administered Paraguard. Seachem is not transparent about its products, but I tracked down the ingredients from this CDC web site:


The ingredients are Glutaldehyde (Glutarol) 25mg/ml, and Malachite Green 0.04 mg/ml in the bottle, which I calculated to be 3.125 mg/l Glut and 0.005 mg/l MG if dosed according to instruction. The MG strength is weak, about 1/10th of that in API Super Ick Cure or Kordon Rid Ick remedy (0.05 mg/l MG). The Glut strength is 30% higher than initial dosage of Seachem Excel, and it is dosed daily, not just after water change as per Excel.

So Paraguard is essentially Excel plus MG, but I believe the therapeutic effect came primarily from Glut due to weak MG strength. Here is my evaluation of its safety and efficacy.

Safey: Seachem claimed that it is unsure of Paraguard 's safety to plants and invert. In my experiments, it is safe for ramshorn snails, nerite snails, and all my plants, but I do not have Vals, Mosses or Hornwort that are known to be Glut sensitive. I actually observed an explosion of new green growth in my Anubias, and my nerite snails laid eggs everywhere. As for fish, It wiped out my baby Ancistrus but grown Ancistrus were unaffected.

Efficacy: In my experiments, Paraguard is not fast acting and has lower efficacy than other higher strength MG remedies I used before. It took over 10 days for ick to slowly fade away, and it didn't save my bleeding heart tetra that were too far gone. But the low efficacy is compensated by greater safety as Paraguard does not require water change before repeated dosage, as opposed to other higher strength MG remedies. Glut is known to degrade in 24 hours, but not MG which is slow to degrade and can bio accumulate in fish tissue.

I have previously posted this subject. Glutaldehyde for ick treatment
 
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