[QUOTE=howie;268177]Diane Walstad hit upon the explanation in her book.
Algae get it's nutrients from the water. Stemmed plants get it's nutrients from the water and from the gravel bed or soil.
Diane's solution to algae growth is to limit free floating iron. This will force stemmed plants to get it's iron from the gravel or soil. Since algae are not rooted in the gravel, then their only source is free floating iron. If you limit it then algae will die.
Excel on seachem website states that it reduces free floating iron and that is the reason why algae and floating plants are affected.
QUOTE]

I occassionaly get BBA growing on individual pieces of Flourite. It's easy to control by plucking out the infected piece. I also had, at one time, thread/hair algae growing on the flourite. Flourite has lots of iron. So I don't think this is a very true statement.

Doesn't BBA grow on plants, glass, and virtually any surface in a tank that is expose to light? So what do you mean by it growing on flourite that my statement is not true?

I would think that if it was growing on the flourite then it is absorbing the nutrients from it and not just the water.

Well just to update everyone with my recent experience using excel at x2 the normal dose. The algae is all gone!! I mean ever single piece of it is gone or dead. I dosed excel for 10 days.

I used Excel at just less than twice dosage. Did wonders for getting rid of my algae. It also got rid of half of my shrimp! :sad: Now I just grow algae and plants...

Did you use the seachem advanced protocol x2?
In example for a 30 gallon tank you use on monday 25ml of excel and during the week every day about 5ml?

Re: Flourish Excel got rid of all my algae
 

a few cents worth:

I have a 37-gallon, about 3wpg, nitrates around 15, phosphates 2, iron 0.25, KH 7, GH 10, fermentation CO2 feed (small). Its moderately highly stocked, rather heavily planted with Limnophila and Hygrophila.

After upping my lighting to a compact tube system, green algae started going nuts. It would be all over the Limnophila on growth more than a few days old. I tried a 2x dose of Excel for 2 days, not much happened. I tried 3x dose for 2 days and the algae died back pretty good. However, the water got rather greenish/cloudy so I did a 50% water change. Unfortunately I had to leave on a business trip for 3 days so I thew in another 3x dose.

When I got back, everything was still in one piece :). The plants grew like crazy, but the algae was starting to come back. I'm on day 2 of another 3x regime, so I'll see how that goes. I have brigs and fish in the aquarium and they are all fine.

I did dose extra once when I had way fewer plants, and it ended up killing quite a few fish. I think either I had a very high bacteria population or the plants couldn't take in the Excel fast enough. Either way, the fish were quite stressed and a couple died just overnight. I'd suggest not going to overkill levels right away if you have low plant levels.

Kuhli loaches seem rather sensitive to Excel, they swim around rather agitated for me even when all the other inhabitants are fine with the dosage.

Re: Flourish Excel got rid of all my algae
 

Are you leaving the lights on? How much wattage?

Re: Flourish Excel got rid of all my algae
 

This is a great site and great thread and i've read it with great interest. The question I have is should you be performing any water changes during the week you are doing your triple dosage regimin? I usually change about 20% every midweek and have arrived at that point today. Do I do a water change now or should I wait until the weekend, at the end of the triple dosing regimin? My fish look great, but it seems like some people have sporadic fish deaths towards the end of treatment. Could this be caused by an untolerable build up of the excel in the sytem, relieved by a partial water change at that mid-point of treatment? Thanks.

Re: Flourish Excel got rid of all my algae
 

As far as I understand Excel breaks down pretty quickly in the tank, within 24hours. So there isn't a risk of accumulation (though I don't know what it breaks down into...). If you want to do the mid week water change, I don't see a problem.

I'd guess that the sporadic fish deaths are due to *over* overdosing (how's that for a term :) ) combined with the specific conditions in each tank.