[bharada]

I started a 20H last week as a low-tech tank. Plants are Java Moss, Fern, Anubias, and some Crypts. Lighting is via a 65w 10000K PC strip.

Now, I have a bottle of Excel collecting dust and was wondering if it would hurt anything to use it? I'm not planning on dosing anything in there, just fish food and waste as nutrient sources.

 

[trenac]

IMO, with over 3WPG that is not a low tech tank because with that amount of light you need to add C02 & ferts, even if you do have only low light plants.

Now to answer your question it will not hurt to use Excel, it is only a carbon source.

 

[mm12463]

I agree. 3 wpg is higher light and the plants will need nutrients along with stable CO2. Now if you went down to 2 wpg Excel would be fine. I use it on my 1.5 wpg 10 with no CO2 and similar plants. I guess it could be done but I am thinking you might have a struggle with algae in the beginning.

 

[bharada]

Well, it's coming up on two weeks with this tank, and aside from the initial baterial bloom things are going pretty well. No algae at all. Even the green spot that was on the A. coffeefolia is all but gone now.

I've now got the tank stocked with a bunch of Endlers, 5 pygmy Corys, 6 Blue Flame Tetras and 4 Cherry Red Shrimp. A Pitbull Pleco is in quarantine and will be added in a few days.

The only thing I've noticed so far is the coffeefolia's leaves yellowing. I added a small dose of TMG and have continued with light doses of Excel. I'm probably going to replace the 65W 10000K bulb with a 55W 8800K (or maybe a GE9235) so that will drop my WPG down to 2.75.

 

[Phil Edwards]

Your tank will be just fine with Excel. I've got a tank at work with over 3 wpg and it's never had CO2 in it's life, only Excel. As long as you don't try adding CO2 gas you'll be just fine. Things will grow slower with Excel than they will with CO2 gas, but the growth should be more robust.

 

[bharada]

Thanks Phil. That's reassuring to hear.

 

[gpodio]

I'm with Phil on this one, my HC tank is 7.2wpg and Excel as the only source of carbon. Growth is slower than with regular CO2 gas but carbon related problems have never occurred in this tank. Fertilizer requirements are also lower than when this tank had CO2 gas. The only thing though is to add it consistently, I add it every day, a perfect use for Eheim Liquidosers IMO.

Hope that helps
Giancarlo Podio

 

[mm12463]

Well cool I learned something new. Didn't realize it could be done. Ain't the net great!

 

[plantbrain]

I'd be leary of adding enough nutrients with fish waste alone, Excel or CO2.

If you can raise the light up some, that will help.
You can do it with Excel, It'll do better with less light though given your goals(no ferts)............

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[bharada]

I'll get the light up on legs and change to a 55W bulb and see how it goes from there.

 

[stcyrwm]

Any chance you could give us an update on this tank?

Thanks, Bill

 

[bharada]

Bill, doing a little archive surfing, are we?

Well, here's a picture of the tank as it looks today...

Lighting is with one 65w 10000K AquaLight set up on legs so that it'a about 3 above the water surface. I had a GE 9325 bulb over the tank for a while, but didn't care for the purple glow it gave off.

I've been dosing it using the PPS method for the past 7 or 8 months. Traces are through CSM+B. And Excel is still used as the carbon source.

For the past two months I've been using dosing pumps on this tank so I have one bottle for macros+Excel and another for the CSM+B (the bottle wrapped in the piece of paper)...

I have a quasi-journal of my tanks on my website (link in my sig line) if you're interested.

 

[stcyrwm]

Thanks for the update. I did a search under Excel. I'm currently doing 4 excel tanks and was just poking around to see what everyone else is doing...


Bill