Would Flourish excel from Seachem work in Reef Systems?

[Psyops]

I used a bottle of the Flourish Excel in my planted freshwater aquarium in my office last month and it works really well. From what I read, it is a plant carbon nutrient source in aquariums and used in water treatment facilities. What I really used it for was to get rid of hair algae recommended by my LFS). I know this does not make any sense but it worked. The bottle claims it is a carbon source for plants. My plants flourished and my hair algae in 2 weeks is totally gone. I am assuming my bacterial numbers are higher also.

The actual chemical is polycycloglutaracetal.

Do you guys think this could be used in reef systems to enhance the growth, hence nutrient uptake, of our macroalgae in our sumps? Or maybe another type of carbon source? I think vinegar and vodka are going to be a lot cheaper and available, but I thought this might create some interesting conversation.

Alex

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

We generally do not need sources of CO2 for seawater systems, which is the intent of this product. Unlike freshwater systems, there is a lot of bicarbonate in seawater, and marine algae are often able to extract CO2 by taking up bicarbonate and releasing hydroxide ion.

So I would not expect it to be very useful for boosting macroalgae (vinegar and vodka don't either), but it may drive bacterial growth like vinegar and vodka do.