Hey folks, Nickmock 007 here again and today I wanted to talk to you about liquid carbon. That's right, call it what you want but it's pure liquid gold for your aquarium. But before I do that, I have something serious I need to discuss with you, the YouTube community. It's the comment section. Come on guys, you gotta write legibly. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming. So most folks know liquid carbon as sea kems flourish excel, but in fact there are many other companies making many other versions of it, but I'm not really going to focus on specific products today. But what it is and how it works, that's what I really want to get into. So what I'm going to try to answer in this little mini series is in this first part, I'm going to tell you what liquid carbon is. And then in the next episode, I'm going to get a little bit more into and how it works and try to sort through the information so we can actually understand what it's doing in our tanks. As always, my advice is if you're going to add a chemical to your tank, you really should know what it is, how it works and what it's doing to your fish and plants. Okay, first up, what is liquid carbon? Well, it's glutaroldehyde and I'll put that up on the screen. But what the heck is glutaroldehyde? No, that's de-cambé matambo. Glutaroldehyde is a saturated dialed to hide that's used as a high level disinfectant and chemical sterileant. It's a colorless, oily liquid and in addition to disinfecting medical and dental equipment, it's also used for industrial water treatment and as a preservative. Oh, and you can also get it over the counter. There's a version they sell to remove warts. So if you're ever on jeopardy and the answer is, this chemical is used to grow a quadruple product, plant and remove warts, I got you covered. All right, now the great thing about glutaroldehyde or glut, which is also relevant to us, is that it's non-corrosive, meaning it's not harmful to metal, glass, rubbers or plastics. So that means everything, you know, all the equipment in your aquariums, heaters, filters, whatever else you get in there will not be damaged. Now, aqueous solutions of glutaroldehyde, that's the way that we typically get it, are acidic. Now, if you've ever bought the bulk glutaroldehyde, you know it comes with an activator solution. The reason for this is that in an acidic aqueous solution, glut is not sporesidle. Now, not so important for us, Aquarius, but if you're trying to disinfect things. So that's where this comes in handy. Once you activate it by adding this alkalinating agent, it pushes up the pH to about 7.5 or 8.5. The solution then becomes sporesidle. And that's also why we get rid of this activating solution, we don't need to do that. Now, on the other thing about it is, if you bought it in bulk, you know that it comes in different versions, a 7.14, a 28, a 30 day version. Again, for us, Aquarius, this doesn't matter. The days actually are referred to how long the solution will stay activated once you add in that alkalinating agent. So again, we're getting rid of that, so it doesn't really matter to us, but in case you ever wondered about that. Now, in short, the disinfectant activity of glut results from its alkylation of sulfhydrohydroxyl and carboxyl in amino groups of microorganisms. Okay, but in more plain language, what it does is it alters the RNA, DNA, and protein synthesis of the bacterias and different things we're trying to kill off. Now, not us, but if you're using it as a sterile. These activities are vital to life and reproduction. Thus, it disinfects things. Okay, let's briefly talk about safety when handling it. Now, first, let me say that although gluteraldehyde and formaldehyde belong to the same chemical class, Aldehyde, their chemical and toxicological properties are significantly different. Now, gluteraldehyde does not contain formaldehyde, nor does it release formaldehyde even after prolonged storage. It is not carcinogenic. Let me repeat that. There is absolutely no evidence that it causes cancer, mutations, genetic mutations, or anything of the sort. In fact, products containing less than 50% glut are not classified as dangerous to the environment. And even in its concentrated form that most of us are getting, we're getting like a 2.5 percent solution, 50 percent, 2.5 percent. Now, I'm going to throw up a quick chart showing the relative safety of gluteraldehyde versus formaldehyde. All right. As you can see, in very dilute conditions, it's relatively safe. All right. A few other points to consider. It is not dangerous to the environment, in part because it biodegrades very quickly, which is part of the reason why you have to dose the liquid carbon every 24 hours in your tank. Biodegrades very quickly. But all this doesn't mean that you should be careless with it. Now, when you use glut, especially if you bought a more concentrated solution, you should take precautions. Now, these precautions are pretty simple. This means use it in a well-ventilated area to avoid breathing in the vapors and avoid getting it on your skin or your clothing. Now, if you do not take this seriously, you can actually end up with skin irritation, dermatitis, mucous membrane irritation, or even pulmonary symptoms. But the good news is it's really simple to take these precautions. All right. So, just do it. Now, if you have a concentrated version that you're working, you know, working with, and a lot of folks had diluted, just go outdoors, step out on your porch, throw on some disposable gloves, and pair of goggles. That's really it. Now, I think some of you are probably saying, well, that actually sounds kind of scary. You're telling me to put on goggles, gloves, you know, is it even safe to put in my fish tank? Well, remember, it's readily biodegradable in both fresh and saltwater, though. I don't think folks are adding this to their saltwater setups. Immigration results in the mineralization of the compound to water and carbon dioxide, hence, we often refer to it as liquid carbon. And it's extremely unlikely to bio-ekimulate in the fatty tissues of aquatic organisms, plants, fish, you know, it's the things that live in our tanks. Now, it also does not inhibit the reproductive success of fish or crustacea, again, important to us keeping fish along with our plants. It also is degraded by a reaction with UV light and oxidation by hydroxyl radicals. And there is no available data indicating that glute acts as an endocrine modulating chemical to wildlife. The point is, it's safe for our animals. Oh, and another tip is if you ever do have to dispose of it, hopefully your city has a hazardous waste disposal program. But if not, sodium bisulfate can actually be used to neutralize glutear aldehyde and make it safe for disposal through the sewer system. All right, I know so some of you are probably going to run over and check your Excel bottles and try to look at the ingredients. And unless you've got a really, really old bottle, I don't think you're going to find much. I used to list, and I cannot say this word, so I'm just going to put it up on the screen. Polly's cycloglu to recital that didn't get that right. But now C-CAM keeps it all very secret. But with a little bit of investigation, you know, Google, you can easily find this information. All right. That's it for the Science lesson. In the next episode, I'm actually going to look at more closely how does glutear aldehyde work. And remember, please write allegedly in the comments. Don't forget to hit the like button if you did like the video. And you know, if you didn't, please hit the dislike button. It wouldn't be YouTube if I didn't get at least one dislike on this video. All right, guys, catch you in the next one.