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One side effect of this in the fw aisle is the pulling of carbon products to kill algae, i.e. Easy Carbon, Seachem Excel, etc. At least Aqueon and Aquarium Co-op have pulled theirs. Maybe Seachem is big enough to pay for the EPA studies.
This is quoted from what the op posted:Iv would settle on stating what it is correctly. If the government had to verify effectiveness of products, prices would be astronomical
API is not doing anything sneaky in a legal sense. Those statements and ingredients on the label are explicitly EPA approved. I do not know what data they based that approval on, but it is not publicly available data.The algaefix website boldly claims it will not harm fish corals snails or inverts. And we know that this chemical has caused tank crashes in the past. Why isn’t api under some form of review for falsely stating it’s product as safe and for hiding it’s ingredient from the packaging
I went hunting to see if I could track down the basis for the claim on Algaefix Marine labels.
"When used in saltwater aquariums, Marine AlgaeFix will not harm snails, clams, scallops, shrimp, anemones, sea cucumbers, feather dusters, coralline algae, soft corals, hard corals, and other invertebrates."
This statement is EPA-approved, but the EPA documentation on Polixetonium chloride (linked in 1st post) doesn't provide a basis for this.
And it seems a gray area - there are people who use it and find no harm (it's obviously less toxic than in freshwater), but there are others who find it probably did cause harm to inverts in saltwater under some circumstances. (my observed losses with heavy algaefix: 4 out of 4 peppermint shrimp, 4/5 urchins, 2/2 turbo snails, 1/1 montipora, 1/1 sand sifting cucumber, 2/~dozen hitchhiker bivalves)
I found this interesting document from 2004 where EPA denies API's request to say it's safe for reef inverts.
"General Comments:
Toxicity Studies in Saltwater and Reef Aquaria
While the submitted data did indicate no mortality from treatment with AlgaeFix, several things make the study of questionable scientific validity. Given the concerns in the attached review, the Agency cannot draw any scientific conclusion from the submitted data. Aquatic studies submitted according to OPPTS Guideline requirements have provided sufficient data to characterize Busan 77 as highly toxic to freshwater organisms, ranging from highly toxic to slightly toxic to marine organisms. Since the concentration of the test chemical was not determined in the study submitted with this package, it is unknown whether the level achieved during application according to label directions will approach levels shown to be toxic to marine invertebrates in the Guideline studies. If you wish to be protective of aquarium organisms such as marine crustacea, further analyses of the concentration of Busan 77 in the water during treatment with AlgaeFix should be conducted to ascertain that it does not approach the levels shown to be toxic to marine invertebrate species in the submitted studies [Mysid, LC50=13ppm (95% confidence interval of 9.1 - 16ppm) NOEC < 7.8 ppm; Quahog clam, LC50 = 350 ppb (95% confidence interval of 0 - 710 ppb), NOEC =230 ppb. Data from published scientific literature may also provide toxicity endpoints for additional species of interest, some of which may be more sensitive than the species tested in EPA Guideline studies."
That was in 2004, but by 2007, apparently additional data had been submitted that satisfied EPA's concerns. The product label documentation in 2007 contains the familiar approved claim of saltwater safety for inverts.
I say that it must've been additional data, because the EPA still (in 2020) has basically the same low 48hr LC50 for quahog clams - 0.21mg/L.
It's unclear to be how the recommended dose of Algaefix being ~1ppm of active ingredient can square with that unless they showed data that must've said it bonds very quickly and disappears from the water.
Curious if anyone else has seen any data that sheds light on the degree of "safety" for this ingredient in saltwater.
It is my understanding that the 'side hustle' video, posts on this board, facebook, letters/emails to suppliers, etc. that were all used here. Could be RICO type of things with an organized effort if somebody wanted to prosecute it this way. There are r2r posts back to 2015/2016 where at least I state that this product is an algaecide and the lengths that UWC went to deny this and try and trash just me are kinda unbelievable.
...That individual signed up here and only ever posted on that comment extensively, then left...
Hello Everyone,
As everyone knows Vibrant has been wildly popular. We stand by Vibrant 100% and we are not taking these accusations lightly.
At this time, we have samples of Vibrant out to Labs for independent certified testing dating back to batches from 2016 to current to compare them to see if there have been any changes in the production of Vibrant.
We are hoping to have these results back by the end of this week and we will post everything that we have.
I know this post will not please everyone, but we want to have as much information as possible for the community before we make any official statements.
Thank you,
Jeff
UWC
Interesting that that individual joined on March 6, 2022. UWC's last post was this on February 28, 2022:
That individuals last post was on March 24, 2022. The inspection of UWC by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture was on or about March 23, 2022.
All a coincidence?
Has the product been 'removed from shelves'? I still see it on Amazon and a bunch of other sites.
Well it has been 3 years since the owner wrote me this. I am still waiting....
Going one step further….It really did not seem like someone searching for the truth, but someone wanting to cloud the issue.