Sunstar

How is the Excell on the Staghorn? That might be my problem area. I've been giving the tank initial dose for two days. How much longer?

gpodio

Never tried it myself on staghorn, however I've always been able to beat staghorn by raising NO3 and keeping them from hitting 0ppm.

Hope that helps

Sunstar

Fertilising then?

toddbe2007

When people say double, triple dose is that?

*Double the initial 5ml for every 10 gallons, or
*Double the daily dose: 1 capful for every 50 gallons

Big difference here...


Thanks,
Todd

gpodio

Never double the "initial" dose! We're all talking about the daily dose...

Giancarlo Podio

quatermass

If you do the initial dose twice you'll kill most of your fish/invertebrates.

I did that once. Never again. The fall-out was horrible.

davemill

I use Excel at the recommended dosage in a 72 gallon, high-light, injected CO2 tank in conjunction with EI ferts.

I have a large piece of driftwood that's been in there for four plus years that was covered with BBA. A few months ago, I pulled it out of the tank during a water change, and slowly dripped the higher, water change dosage of Excel all over the BBA. The BBA completely disappeared within two weeks.

I have a small terra cotta pot inverted in one corner or the tank for Apistos to breed in. It was covered in BBA. I took it out, and drew a smiley face with a circle around it in the algae using a Q-Tip dipped in Excel. A week later, I had smiley face of clean terra cotta showing through the BBA, except the dots for the eyes had smeared where the excel flowed down from where I applied too much Excel.

Another breeding tank was mainly algae free, except for some nasty BBA on some anubias leaves. Same Excel treatment killed the BBA within about a week.

The Excel has had no negative effect on plants or fish. I have apistos (5 species), discus, cories, banjo cats, angels, and tetras. Plants do very well, although this would be expected without the Excel. I use the dosage recommended on the label, low dose every day or two, high dose at water change.

This treatment works best if you keep the algae out of the water for a minute after dripping on the Excel. I do all the Excel treatments above the tank, so that the Excel drips into the tank after flowing over the algae. As far as I can observe, snails and fish eat the BBA starting a few days after the Excel bath.

quatermass

I've been adding 5ml of Excel daily to my 50L planted tank and noticed some BBA growing on the red LED lamps near the surface.

I upped the dosage to ~8-10ml a day and the BBA started to wither. Then I noticed my 2 Amano shrimp have disappeared.

So I'm back down to 5ml a day. Certainly makes my Frogbit grow.

Seattle_Aquarist

I used double the initial and double the daily dose of Excel to rid my tank of algae problems in about 8 days. I did not lose any fish. See Permalink #193, page 20 this thread for the play by play details.

quatermass

Yes but I wasn't talking about fish was I?