So what difference is the extract vs the straw?
I've used both. Neither did anything to BBA, Hair or BGA.
We used it for awhile. Several folks used it and reported the same things back when ALS started selling it several years ago. Shawn Prescott(nice guy BTW) wanted to tell me all this jazz about it etc, bottom line: it did not do anything and algae grows not because of of a lack of Barley straw, rather, because of the lack of good growing conditions/nutrients etc.
This is why no algae cure will ever win favor. They do not grow the plants which is why we get in the hobby, not to kill algae. It side steps the real issue and root cause.
Hey, if I thought it was useful I'd say so for planted tanks, ponds, lakes etc, but bales of rotting straw in my pond is not my idea of a decent pond or is the extract for 20$ for 16oz. I've never suggested it to a client and they have tried it in the past to no avail.
Then they call me to fix the real problem, not some snake oil method.
If you look at the research, about 1/2 of the papers fund it to be inconclusive, and those that found it worked, tended to have no plants in their ponds and lives in northern climates, researchers in the US have not found similar results.
The amount of research has also curiously trailed way off after an initial spurt.
There would be more research if they had found more to it? I think so, but like myself, they didn't not find the claims to be valid. If you did, bully for you, show how and why. They explain and how and why I nor the researchers here in the USA did not either.
Or perhaps it was something else going on?
I have no answers there and no results to show for the treatment.
The test I as well as several other did was pretty good and we had decent algae cultures growing, as well as what? 5 years of marketing and sales have produced very little results for success on the web. A pond owner using UV or some floating plants can easily achieve the same if not better results.
Pardon the suspicious attitude, but I've been reading algae cure alls from hucksters for 20+ years and none of them really address the right issue nor show any definite cure other than : copper, Excel, both of which are nutrients at least.
A new comes down the pipe every year. Or an old one is revived by folks who were not around the last time the folks on the web tested it. Steve Dixon used it 6 months on BBA and never saw anything.
To rule out your own difference in tending your tank: induce the algae of choice on purpose, then when in full bloom, add the herbicide/algicide.
This addresses the cause of the algae to begin with and allows you to experiment with a control, an algae infested tank.
Since that is what this product is to be tested upon is it not?
But if all you have are folks suddenly trying things, often many things, and have algae issues they cannot resolve at the root to start with, nor are willing to do the test, then a few of these things are by chance alone, are bound to appear to correlate, but it is impossible to proscribe cause to them.
Regards,
Tom Barr