Simpte 27

Well I finally found a local source of Flourish Excel. I was in the process of adding it into my tank when my little girl ran into me from behind. Needless to say I dumped quite a bit in. At least 5 times the recommended doseage. 2 days later my bba, spot, and green fuzz algae is gone. No sign of it anywhere. I think I like this stuff!

TomE

How about the rest of the life in the tank? Did they die too? Hmmm... Maybe my tank needs a little o.d. too

trenac

I would not intentionally dose five times the recommend dose, but I'm glad it got rid of your algae (I'm trying to figure this one out). Make sure to keep the tank in-balance so the algae dose not reappear. I hope none of the fish was harmed.

niko

I should say that I got a similar experience.

I have a non-CO2 tank that has been clean for ages but the last 2 months or so I started adding Excel in a dose about 5 times the recommended about every 3 days.

Things were great no algae with the exception of very few bba spots.

After stopping the Excel bba, bga, and hair algae appeared.

I started dosing again and all 3 algae disappeared, only the bba is still there but less than before.

--Nikolay

plantbrain

So was it a "lack of carbon" or the Excel cured the algae issue?
Like adding enough CO2 to prevent algae by allowing the plants not to be carbon limited..........

Regards,
Tom Barr

gpodio

Hi Tom,

In my tests it appeared it was the Excel which had a direct effect on the algae. I've since used it even in tanks with plenty CO2 to help get rid of unwanted algae, after having fixed the cause of course. I've also noticed that not all plants seem to react to Excel in the same way, some such as rotala wallichii didn't seem to react to it at all while Hemianthus callitrichoides in the same tank took off like a weed.

In a little "play" tank I tried having plenty of light, little nutrients and no CO2... a recipe for disaster... once the algae took off I dosed excel in varying doses, in the end using 3-4 times the regular dose the algae was on it's way out and the plants were in the same poor shape they were before, so I doubt they had any effect on the algae itself. Eventually I got to the stage where both plants and algae were dead

You're asking the right question though, it's not the cure for all algae problems, it can certainly solve problems caused by a carbon deficiency but at the same time it can also help eliminate algae that is there for other reasons. Obviously in that case it is not providing a solution to the problem itself, just helping clean out the tank in much the same way one can do so with H2O2 with apparently less effort and perhaps less risk.

Giancarlo Podio

Gomer

I was trying normal dosing of excel in my algae scape tank...it was effecting the cladophora as well. Now that I plan on trying moss instead of the clado, I'll be using excel to "clean up" the tank LOL.

Its_only_me

Glad to hear this. I thought it was just my imagination. I have some kind of algae that I wanted to keep on my mopani wood because the otos graze on it. But if that has to go to get rid of the other nuisance algaes, then so be it.

I started adding just a regular dose of excel to my non-co2 20 long. Plants are growing better with it (especially my tiger val which dies off without it).

However, I noticed that my beautiful green, velvet algae that the otos like, is dying off and going black/grey. I need to start scrubbing off those dead spots as it is quite unsightly.

Has anyone had problems with their fish and Excel? I know that Flourish recommends a higher dose the first time, then a single dose therafter.

I would like to up it, but would like to know if anyone has had trouble with their fish.

Simpte 27

The fish are fine. Nothing too sensative in there though. Cories, danios, a few white clouds. I added some rudolph and ghost shrimp (all we have in this area) and they are doing well also.

MantisX

Doesnt beat up on thread algae does it?