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APT Fix

DaveWatkin

Member
Joined
26 Oct 2020
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223
Location
Aberdeen, UK
What are your opinions on this?

I recently bought some and used it to get rid of some BBA and it worked great, best product I've seen/used, but is there any drawback? The BBA was on some rocks which also had green algae which has also completely vanished, rocks look brand new, although I wasn't bothered about the green algae.

I know it's a bandage method using chemicals but in my particular case the BBA was not actually taking hold, I had fixed the underlying issues, but there were constant baby tufts popping up here and there trying to start. The APT Fix killed them off once and for all and nothings come back so far.
 
APT Fix - D Wongs latest tank treatment to get beautifully algae's free plants.

When I first started Hobby D Wong gain much respect from me as he had some great Vids/advice and the 2Hr aquarist wasn't selling products. Times have changed and he has a complete fert line up for sale and now APT fix. We all have rent /bills to pay but if your selling products your advise/products recommendations may be bias.

To me the product sound like Liquid carbon (LC), which can be purchased from many LFS/websites. Excel is regarded by some folk as the best, however others use other LC products with success also. Spot treating plants and hardscape with LC is nothing new and can be a very useful tool to combat outbreaks, whilst the underlying root of the problem still needs resolving which can often be light/maintenance/ CO2/ Flow related
 
Entirely possible that one formulation is more 'concentrated' than the other and hence appears more effective. If the price is the same, then you are getting 'more' for the same price.

For example, I recently managed to get a source of 6% Hydrogen Peroxide that an online seller was importing from India at the same price as my local pharmacy 3% H2O2. When I apply the 6% it bubbles more vigorously than the 3%. It's not magic, its just the difference between 3% and 6% :)
 
I didn't realise it was the same as Excel to be honest, it came with no safety cap and has no warnings on it so didn't realise it was glutaraldehyde based. I've just looked now and it says 3% epoxy aldehydes, guess that's just a sales friendly name for glut then? I assume glutaraldehyde is an epoxy aldehyde
 
I had a look and it appears that if it is an augmentive additive to standard Glute and not as a simple byproduct of Glute production then the most simple to produce form of Epoxide is Ethylene Oxide, made by reacting ethylene gas with air. It’s a Volatile compound so it will gas off from the water column when used so it shouldn’t have the same permanence as Glute in the water column.

For those that don’t know Ethylene is a signalling molecule within plants that triggers cascading local cell apoptosis radiating outward from the initial trigger.

I can imagine the percentage used at 3% is likely below the threshold limit for higher order plant structure to trigger widespread senescence compared to Algae if uptaken.

It appears that Ethylene Oxide will react quite vigorously with water, the most basic reaction product being monoethylene glycol.

More Carbon than standard Glute so it is a stronger liquid carbon.

:)
 
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More Carbon than standard Glute so it is a stronger liquid carbon.

:)
Most of that went over my head but it sounds like its an actual good product compared to easycarbo or excel then?

How come they are advertising this as a spot dose fixer rather than a daily doser / liquid carbon? Am i right in thinking it could be used as one?

As i said, its algae killing results were better than any other product I’ve tried and the only thing i noticed that could be taken as a downside was that it killed the flower on my buce. No other effects to fauna or livestock though.
 
How come they are advertising this as a spot dose fixer rather than a daily doser / liquid carbon? Am i right in thinking it could be used as one?

They are advertising as a spot doser because you absolutely don’t want lots of free ethylene in the tank if used as a source of liquid carbon, there is more carbon in this product but the carbon comes from ethylene. The use of epoxide is likely to augment the effectiveness of the Glute as an algaecide, likely hoping to trigger cascading cell apoptosis within the algae thus tricking it into taking itself out.

Food producers take great care in not allowing ethylene gas to build up around picked fruits and vegetables because it causes premature spoiling of the product and short shelf life. It’s a natural hormone released from plants but when the concentration in tissue reaches a certain threshold it causes cascading destruction radiating out from the initial trigger.

I absolutely would not use this as a liquid carbon supplement!

:)
 
Most of that went over my head but it sounds like its an actual good product compared to easycarbo or excel then?

How come they are advertising this as a spot dose fixer rather than a daily doser / liquid carbon? Am i right in thinking it could be used as one?

As i said, its algae killing results were better than any other product I’ve tried and the only thing i noticed that could be taken as a downside was that it killed the flower on my buce. No other effects to fauna or livestock though.

Dennis doesn't believe that gluteraldehyde is a legitimate source of carbon and is also more of an algaecide than anything. That might provide a hint as to why he doesn't label his own product as liquid carbon.
 
Has anyone else tried APT fix? I'm going to give it a try and see if it kills BBA on some of my fixtures, heated etc.
 
Well I can give you an update, it worked perfectly to kill off what I wanted gone and nothing has come back. Had no ill effect on plants or livestock.

As previously stated, I didn't have a full outbreak, the BBA was trying but could never get a good foothold, just lots of constant sprouts. Once they were killed off there was nothing left to try and reproduce. For a big outbreak, this will kill it but you also need to fix whatever caused the outbreak in the first place.

Think I used about 10 ml out of the 500 ml bottle I bought, will last me a while haha
 
Well I can give you an update, it worked perfectly to kill off what I wanted gone and nothing has come back. Had no ill effect on plants or livestock.

As previously stated, I didn't have a full outbreak, the BBA was trying but could never get a good foothold, just lots of constant sprouts. Once they were killed off there was nothing left to try and reproduce. For a big outbreak, this will kill it but you also need to fix whatever caused the outbreak in the first place.

Think I used about 10 ml out of the 500 ml bottle I bought, will last me a while haha
Did you have any mosses and were those affected? That would be my main concern if I ever have a serious outbreak and wanted to use this, wouldn't want to accidentally kill my fissidens or other mosses.
 
Sorry no mosses. Tank it was used in has buces, anubias, java ferns, hygrophila siamensis 53b and red root floaters.
 
Well I can give you an update, it worked perfectly to kill off what I wanted gone and nothing has come back. Had no ill effect on plants or livestock.

As previously stated, I didn't have a full outbreak, the BBA was trying but could never get a good foothold, just lots of constant sprouts. Once they were killed off there was nothing left to try and reproduce. For a big outbreak, this will kill it but you also need to fix whatever caused the outbreak in the first place.

Think I used about 10 ml out of the 500 ml bottle I bought, will last me a while haha
Thanks. I haven't a full outbreak as such. I neglected my tank for a couple of months, and now it's been tidied up wanted to hit the residual BBA on heaters etc.
 
Well I have to say the effect on BBA has been quite spectacular. I only had a few tufts on plants as I chucked all the badly affected. But my heater was covered in it. 4 or 5 days of spot treatment, and after a week it's gone. Just a few bits of dead and dieing remaining.
 
Well I have to say the effect on BBA has been quite spectacular. I only had a few tufts on plants as I chucked all the badly affected. But my heater was covered in it. 4 or 5 days of spot treatment, and after a week it's gone. Just a few bits of dead and dieing remaining.
Great news that it worked! Any mosses or plants lost/suffering?
 
Great news that it worked! Any mosses or plants lost/suffering?
Not obviously, however I had previously dumped my mosses. My Vallis was a bit ropey to start with as it was a few rescued bits. But it doesn't look any worse than before I started the APT. Hygrophila, crypts, blyxa, rotala and Java Fern all look fine.
Excel always causes Vallis to melt for me, but as I say it looks OK with APT.
 
How do you spot dose hair algae?
BBA is not hair algae, it grows in tufts. I use a syringe to target the tufts. On hardware I just syringe it all over as the tufts tend to form a carpet.
It seems to have been more successful than my usual Excel/peroxide treatment.
 
BBA is not hair algae, it grows in tufts. I use a syringe to target the tufts. On hardware I just syringe it all over as the tufts tend to form a carpet.
It seems to have been more successful than my usual Excel/peroxide treatment.
Per the instructions...Especially effective for BBA, hair/string/fuzz and most forms of filamentous algae. Ive had fine hair algae which i manually removed, and couldn't imagine how you would go about spot treating it.
 
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