[Sunstar]

I just bought a bottle and dosed my aquarium as per instructions. 25 Gallon. Anyway. I do intend to upgrade to a pressurised c02 in future.

What are your experiances with it?

I am using it in conjunction with two DIY yeast reactors (changed alternating weeks)

I am just looking for imput and experiances.

 

[davemonkey]

I had fair results in plant growth when used alone (per instructions) and great results when used with DIY CO2.

When I overdosed, it was good for getting rid of algae, especially when squirted directly on the problem area. I noticed that Vallisneria was affected by the overdose, but when used according to Seachem's directions, the Val was fine. I even have Fissidens doing just fine and I use excel daily (not overdosing anymore).

-Dave

 

[Sunstar]

what's an overdose? And to sound like a real n00b is what does it do exactly?

fighting algae is part of my reason for using it.

 

[davemonkey]

By overdose I mean dosing 3x or even 5x the recommended on the bottle. It actually says to do that on the first dose and any time you do a 50% or more water change. Some people will dose 3x for 3 - 5 days in a row to kill off certain algae. It can work like an algacide because it is similar to formaldehyde in that it will bind proteins together (or something like that) .

Anyway, it's intended use is as a carbon source. The chemical make-up of it breaks down in water to become "bio-available carbon", basically it converts to CO2 over a period of hours. But it is a less efficient source of carbon than straight CO2. (Any more detail than this is over my head. )

-Dave

 

[Sunstar]

How is its effect on staghorn or BBA

Not sure which of those it is I have. likely both

 

[davemonkey]

How is its effect on staghorn or BBA

Not sure which of those it is I have. likely both

If you use a syringe to squirt directly on them, excel will kill them. Otherwise you'll have to use that increased dose (overdose) for 3 or more days. Once the algae are gone, it will do a good job ( ...excellent job since you are using DIY CO2 as well... ) at keeping the plants fed with carbon so they can out-compete the algae for nutrients.

-Dave

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi Sunstar,

Excel worked great for me on most algae types with the exception of green spot algae (GSA) and green dust algae (GDA). Here is an excellent thread on APC with describes members' experiences.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/algae/3806-flourish-excel-got-rid-all-my.html

 

[Sunstar]

The three days of OD put the vals at risk? What of riccia and Monosolenium Tenerum? I have a syringe iwth a spouty thing that is great for aiming.

 

[hoppycalif]

I have mixed feelings about Excel. It does kill BBA when it is squirted directly on it, but unless that BBA is a very small colony, you still need to remove the stuff from the tank or the BBA just comes back. When plant leaves have BBA it almost always kills the infested leaves, and dead plant matter is like a 4 star hotel to algae. I have never found Excel to come anywhere close to CO2 in its effect on plant growth. I use it only to get rid of or try to avoid BBA.

 

[Fortuna Wolf]

I find CO2 works better for plant growth too. I've never had BBA (knock on wood) but I've had other types of algae. ODing with excel doesn't help too much with green water but it helps for other types of algae. I use it especially to wipe out cladophora (of course it also wipes out a decent amount of my plants too).

 

[Sunstar]

Okay, I will try not to destroy my tank. I do want Co2, so this is a stopgap until such time as I can afford a system.

 

[The old man]

I've been using excel for quite awhile now and the squirting on infected leaves did get rid of the BBA. I had it bad on Anubias and just took them out of the tank with the small rocks they were attached to and sprayed them. Also my other stem plants had it and I just overdosed for a couple days and had it beginning to die within a short time. My swordtails, mollies and bristlenosed pleco seemed to get rid of any sign of it after it died. None has returned yet. The Anubias were a bit stunted for awhile, but think I sprayed to much on them. I'm using it probably till Christmas when hopefully I'll get pressurized, but will then even keep some on hand.

 

[Sunstar]

Its definately staghorn, although there is some bba. Mostly staghorn.

 

[jusu]

Hi Sunstar
Since you're collecting Excel experiences - I think it killed my singapore moss. I was dosing according to the instruction - not overdosing - the whole tank. The moss never grew - it actually looked it it was drying up.. Also, I've heard about some cases of toxicity for shrimps.
I thinks it is difficult to predict what is going to be the effect of excel in ones tank - looks like it depends on actual water conditions - for some it works just fine, for others not quite.
As for spot treating for getting rid of algae - it works great! But as said, for carbon supplementation I think CO2 would do much better.
Good luck.

 

[jusu]

Oh one more thing Sunstar, how old is your set up?
I got both staghorn and BBA initially in my tank - it got pretty bad, and that is why I started with excel. Yeah, I killed it, then it got back, I killed it again etc.. but looks like after about 2 months things in the tank got settled, and algae never got back..
What I'm trying to say is: yeah, ok, try to spot treat it because you don't want it to take over completely lol, but I would just concentrate to get the CO2 going, get the plants growing, and eventually it should go away after you tank will get balance. Hope that helps!

 

[Sunstar]

The tank is 5 months old

 

[jusu]

Hmm, actually if I remember well both staghorn and BBA (well, BBA for sure at least) are also indication of CO2 problems.. since you have DIY running there, the CO2 might be fluctuating and that causes them to grow? Seems like algae respond much faster than plants for CO2 jumps.
Well, just my 2 cents here hehe, I would make sure I have a good water circulation in the tank, I would spot-treat the algae (I guess I would not got for whole tank dosing): switch off the filters/pumps if you have, take a syringe and squirt a bit on the algae, wait 5-10min, and start the filter again. That's what worked for me.
Hopefully your pressurized will help solving the problem.

 

[Sunstar]

I thought that might be the problem. That's why I was running two DIY bottles alternating weeks. I can't get to the root of the problem until I get the system. The other algae don't bother me much at all. Well not when my zebra nerite was alive. she was an old snail when she was given to me. I need to get a new nerite.

 

[chagovatoloco]

I have a spray bottle filled with excel, I use it to spray plants infected with bba. It dose a good job of ridding the plant of the infection but it dose take a small toll. Growth is stunted for a week or so but then things go back to normal.

 

[Yokomo99]

I had a green water problem for about 6 months. When I started using Excel the water cleared in two days. This was in a 40G with DIY CO2 and 65W PC light.

Matt