I’m getting ready to use this for the 1st time today and notice it smells a bit like a fish tank. Is that normal or did I pick up some that’s extremely old? Sorry if this has been covered, I didn’t have time to search.
Irish moss is actually algae. I’ve never smelled it, so I just found mine and stuck my nose in. It does smell like algae - which is similar to a fish tank (at least a fish tank with algae in it).
I use Irish moss all the time. I have never noticed the smell of the unused moss transferring into my beers. Don’t worry about it.
I thought Irish moss was seaweed. not algae?
I forgot about it being algae. That’s a huge help!
seaweed = algae
Not necessarily…Are seaweed and algae the same thing?
it is both
I should point out, "algae" is a scientific classification, "seaweed" is not. Algae could be used imprecisely too of course.Which is why I said “not necessarily” 
Thanks for the quick posts! I will be adding it with no fears.
I’ve never heard of that Algae/algae convention and I am a marine biologist who studied too much seaweed in college. But I wasn’t quite correct since “=” is bi-directional.
Seaweed is algae, but algae is not always seaweed.
Yup, just trying to give a little more info. I think it is interesting that not all things people call algae are actually algae (ex. blue-green algae). 
Well, some people actually call Budweiser, beer…