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ALGAEFIX "controls many types of algae in freshwater aquariums containing live plants and fish" that's what the bottle says.

30 gal long, HAD 8 female guppies, 4 platties, 1 powder blue Guarami, 4 female Bettas. Very Understocked tank and I'm a maintainence fiend so my tank was healthy I was just trying an easy way to get rid of algae on my plant leaves and the glass (rolling my eyes) there is no easy way, just the right way.
I put it in at just UNDER the recommended dose.
All guppies started acting odd with in a few hours. All were dead or dying the NEXT DAY. i removed all fish & did a 70% water change. The larger fish are recovering in another tank. All of the smallest or youngest fish died or are dying.
My advise, don't use this stuff unless you remove all fish first, treat the tank, do a huge water change then put them back in.

Last edited by Sand at 05-Dec-2004 10:53

Thats why i prefer not to use chemicals in my tank. Sorry about your losses but a valuable leason none the less thanks for sharing.

Hmm well with the full grown fish of each species you have about 35 inches of fish, I'm not quiet sure how you see that as understocked, unless the majority of your fish are still only small fry.

Most of us here encourage people not to use such products. I personally have not seen them work on the plants, and yes they can sometimes be detramental to fish.
I'm sorry for your loss

yes most all the fish were young and very small except one female betta and the gourami. and the platies are dwarf sunburst platies, they stay tiny & one of them was only 4 months old. luckily i have 11 fry of my dwarf platies in another tank
no more chemicals for me!
well maybe for ME, but not for my fish

So called "Dwarf Sunburst Platys" are what I bought for my 10g tank. After 6 months, I realized just how NOT DWARF those platys are. My so called Dwarf Sunbursts are now each over 3 inches and about an 1 tall or more from belly to back. The females get IMMENSE! Only the males stay small, they grow to about 6-8 months of age and then stay that size. The females like I said get huge. Prepare for that. I dont believe there are ANY dwarf platys. I think they just stock younger fish to fool people and then they get the home, start feeding them, and within a year, their dwarf platys are massive.
I think the reason the algaefix killed your fish was not the chemical itself, but the fact that as it is killing your algae, it causes a rapid de-oxegenation of the water. Espescially if you had quite a bit of algae. In essence, your fish would suffocate. Many of those algae gone products say on them not to use with fish in the tank. Like, remove your fish to an aerated heated bucket for a day or two, treat with algae gone stuff and then water changes and replace fish.
I know how frustrating algae is, my 10g is plagued with green hair and staghorn algae. Just keep pulling the algae off the plants, scrub the glass and ornaments, and keep doing small water changes every few days. This will help the algae to dissipate.
Also, consider trying an algae eater of some type before dosing chems- a bristlenose is a marvellous algae eater, and so are SAE's, some snails, some shrimp, Hillstream Loaches, Ottos, etc.


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did you do an ammonia test on your tank. Perhaps the stuff did work and didn't kill your fish. If you had enough algae in your tank, that the stuff started killing it, your getting an ammonia spike.

Not saying you did anything wrong, but thats why a lot of aquarists don't use chemicals. They may work, but they usually do something with something else.

I would never use chemicals for algae problem. Better to have algae eating fish even If yor tank is slightly overstocked. This has worked well with me. ... and you can have your own choice of algae eater ... but definately a big no! for chemicals.

Get a bristlenose pleco for your next aglea experience as he will do quite well imo and wont kill all your fish.

to Sneaky and Racso:
I've had those dwarf sunset platies well over a year & i've kept 3 batches of fry. they have indeed stayed very small. they are the cutest little bright orange fish! they never get ill either! every time i have a guest they say, oh your baby fish are so cute, hehe. then i tell them, nope they're close to 2 years old!
oh my gosh you must have been so suprised to have your platies grow to a few inches! they must have accidently mixed regular platies in when they stocked the tank when you bought yours.
it was definately the algae fix that killed my fish. truly i hardly have any algae, i was just thinking maybe if i tossed some in i would not have to clean the glass this month. i felt so terribly bad for the ones who died. i really love my fish. i will never do that again.
i checked all the parameters. they were fine. then i drove a mile down the road to where there's a water treatment facility. i had one of the engineers read the label and asked him what that stuff was. he said "it's all fancy names for what boils down to alcohol. in my opinion it can't be good for fish to be in it even at low dosages"
he said "the alcohol kills the algae".
truthfully the one five gallon that i allow to be filled to high heaven with algae (it's a fry rearing tank) is so healthy! the parameters are always excellent. when there are no fry. i will toss a few fish in there to keep it cycled. they DINE endlessly on the algae. there is no filter either, nor an airstone. just a lot of java ferns and tons of mossy on the glass. and the java ferns never get coated with algae either (which i find amazing). i can see why Europeans like a tank to be mossy!

I use to use the product Algaefix to. I had no problems with it killing anything(well, exept for the algae). I have no idea what is actually in the formula. You said it was alcohol, which would be very deadly to the fish. There is a very small warning on the bottle though " It has been proven by the state of California to cause cancer". This is Not the exact wording. Did you do a ph, nitrite, ammonia, etc. test?