[plantedtankfan]

I rescaped and replanted my tank with brand new plants two weeks ago. Three days after I rescaped, I started dosing seachem Excel everyday, 30 ml of NPK everyother day (6 tsp of Postasium Nitrate, 2 tsp of Postassium Phosphate in 500 ml of water) and Seachem Flourish every Tuesday and Thrusday. Last week I started to notice some long, stringy, brown algae growing on a few of the plants. I did a 40 % water change and dose Excel. I have also added four oto catfish. The tank has 2 T-5 HO (39watts each) and 1 T-8 SO (30 watts) for light. Should I continue to dose NPK but in a lower dosage or stop for a week or two?

 

[Darkblade48]

You mentioned your lighting and your fertilizing regimen, but what about CO2?

With that much lighting, CO2 will be a necessity for good plant growth/health as well.

While you mention you are dosing Seachem Excel, in my experience, it will not work that well in a highly lit aquarium like yours.

 

[puopg]

+100000 on that CO2.

IF you have good CO2, then keep dosing EI. You can always do more WC if you are afraid you are overdosing but you would need to dose a crapload for that to happen.

 

[plantedtankfan]

Can i over dose with the excel? My budget is limited, iam a student.

 

[@[email protected]]

yes.
excel is glutaraldehyde, and while plants can use it as a carbon source, it is also toxic. it can kill algae when spot dosed on it (which is very useful), but an overdose can also melt plants.

 

[puopg]

Excel is great at killing so plants like mosses, hornworts, etc. I think you can dose up to 3x recommended, but bear in mind some plants are more sensitive to it than others. I think also too much and you can kill your fish, though don't quote me on this. If i understand correctly, excel is glutaraldehyde and studies on its affects on mice at very high concentrations ended up killing a few of them. I mean, it is a sterilizing agent...

There is simply no substitute for actual CO2 and if you really wanted to, you could try the DIY method as its pretty cheap, might run you $20 for a cheap diffuser, some tubing, yeast + sugar is cheap as hell. You could even shove the co2 into the canister filter if you are using one (though most don't recommend as it may damage the filter, dunno heard mixed thoughts on it and i never had issues, but only did it for a few weeks then went diffuser since i liked the bubbles) . Problem is, you get fluctuations and no control over it. I did it for 2 months without much issues but i had really EZ plants. I would suggest lowering the light if you aren't going to run CO2. You will run into a lot of algae issues when CO2 is not up to par with the amount of light you have.

You can always run low tech for now, then later when you have the capital, invest in a good CO2 system and go high tech. There's no need to rush things. Also low tech would probably work great if you are a student since you get more time to study, chillax with friends, drink, you know the drill.

 

[plantedtankfan]

Excel is great at killing so plants like mosses, hornworts, etc. I think you can dose up to 3x recommended, but bear in mind some plants are more sensitive to it than others. I think also too much and you can kill your fish, though don't quote me on this. If i understand correctly, excel is glutaraldehyde and studies on its affects on mice at very high concentrations ended up killing a few of them. I mean, it is a sterilizing agent...

There is simply no substitute for actual CO2 and if you really wanted to, you could try the DIY method as its pretty cheap, might run you $20 for a cheap diffuser, some tubing, yeast + sugar is cheap as hell. You could even shove the co2 into the canister filter if you are using one (though most don't recommend as it may damage the filter, dunno heard mixed thoughts on it and i never had issues, but only did it for a few weeks then went diffuser since i liked the bubbles) . Problem is, you get fluctuations and no control over it. I did it for 2 months without much issues but i had really EZ plants. I would suggest lowering the light if you aren't going to run CO2. You will run into a lot of algae issues when CO2 is not up to par with the amount of light you have.

You can always run low tech for now, then later when you have the capital, invest in a good CO2 system and go high tech. There's no need to rush things. Also low tech would probably work great if you are a student since you get more time to study, chillax with friends, drink, you know the drill.

I was thinking about DIY CO2 with DIY diffuser. I was planing to change the sugar and yeast every two weeks to reduce the fluctuations. But will the fluctuations in CO2 cause algae or harm?