rs79

"I've read a lot of writings/interviews with the Seachem founder about Excel (as well as the FAQs on their site), and he always dances around the "algaecide" topic for legislative reasons."

I can address this. I talked to Greg@seachem and he was indeed evasove. "Will Excel kill algae". "Excel is not an algicide".

The problem is this. "Algicides" are regulated by the US government and you have to go through a lot of testing to qualify your product as an algicide. Read that as millions of dollars and years.

If you sell something as an "algcice" or even claim your product is an "algicide" without guvmint approval, you're in trouble.

So the question to ask of Seachem is "will this stuff help grow cladophora moss balls" which leads you to the answer "no, they do poorly and die".

(Ans when asked you can learn about the algicide regulatory issues).

Excel is the only decent aqarium algicide on the market IMO, despite what the USG thinks. The other algicides casue utter havoc with plants.

As Tom Barr (plantbrain) points out, if you have algse you're doing something wrong, probably not feeding your plants correctly and while regular application of Excel will nuke all algae (Tom's observation it won't kill thread algae don't agree with mine - whatever) it's probbaly better to address the root causes of your problem, ie feed your plants properly.

However, Excel in the *normal* dose should kill all algae. If not, that is, you have a slightly worse case, try double dosing. I keep lots of shrimp and have taken some doses to the extreme and it doesn't seem to bother shrimp, snails or fish.

What also works very well is an 80% water change two days in a row, followed by a good dose of Potassium Nitrate. This alone has killed outright some staghorn algae in one tank here.

Algae likes stable conditons and is easily "shocked" to death.

jazzlvr123

i did not read most of the thread, but all i have to say is when i get algae problems, just upping my co2 levels physically removing as much as i can (pruning in some cases) and a huge water change usually takes care of the problem pretty easily.

fish_4_all

Well I have had this experience with it. I used to have DIY CO2 for my 10 gallon tanks. I stopped becaus ei could never keep thelevels consitant and this caused really bad BBA and string algae. I then went out and got Excel and started dosing it. Within 2 weeks all of my algae was gone and my plants thrived.

As for it's algacide properties, it is a plantacide to boot. I dipped my X-mas moss into it for 3 minutes and it killed it all in 2 days. I dipped an anubias in it for 30 minutes and almost killed the plant. The solution was 10 parts water to 1 part Excel.

The best I can see is that it replaces CO2 injection with a useable Carbon source that the plants can use to outcompete the algae. As far as algacide, crank up your CO2 ppm to 2-300 and see how fast the algae dies as well as the rest of your plants.

quatermass

I accidently put in the 'inital' dosage twice in the same day to a 50L tank and within 24 hours most of my Corys were dead, all my mountain minnows were dead and I lost a few zebra loaches.
My glowlight tetras were fine though.
So I'm extra careful of dosages of Excel.

black_lung

I've recently had a horrible outbreak of cladophora algae in my tank and double dosed Excel every other day for a week, regular dosed on days in between (2ml for a 10 gallon tank on double days). On the plus side, nearly all the cladophora has died. On the negative side, it also took out a huge portion of my HM, Taiwan moss and caused a bit of die off in the dwarf sag. Rotala indica and wallachi were unphased. I was attempting to spot treat the algae with a eyedropper, and since the majority of the algae lay in the sag, HM and Rotala indica, they got exposed to the full blown effect of it. I assume the R. indica wasn't effected due to its hardier nature. Words of advice- don't spot treat near or on delicate plants. I'm happy with the algaecide results, but if I ever need to use it again, I won't be dosing anymore than the recommended dosage and won't be spot treating anywhere other than equipment.

fish_4_all

I would agree with that. The normal dosing, although it will take a little onger will get rid of the algae over a period of 2-3 weeks and maintain a healthy tank. It is a great alternative to CO2 injection but you do need to keep using it because just like CO2 injection if you quit you will likely cause worse problems that you had before.

fish_4_all

I also wanted to add one thing about CO2 injection. I prefer Excel because when I was using DIY CO2 I could never keep regular constant levels and I had algae worse than I had before I added CO2. The Excel allows for fairly constant levels. The plants may not use it all but with regular 50% water changes the levels should stay below lethal levels just like EI dosing works.

quatermass

Excel is short lived in the aquarium (24 hours).
So dosing every other day is usually OK.
I put in one cap worth into my 250L tank and the plants seem to like it.

It's far too expensive in the UK to put in 2x dosages!

Noddy65

Just a heads up...some people in Aus are trialling glutaraldehyde (which is what excell is derived from) as an alternative (and much cheaper) use to excell.
So far algae control and plant growth enhancment has been promising.
This stuff is toxic so shouldnt be used without knowing what your doing.

Mike

Zapins

There is a thread on APC that is focused on gluteraldehye. Pretty interesting read. I will be trying it out soon.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...ead-excel.html

We are way ahead of those Aussies