Hey, I have read about Flourish Excel being dangerous and killing certain types of plants? I heard there was a thread on here somewhere about this with a list of these plants but couldn't find it. Does anyone have a link to this thread or know simply which plants regular excel dosing might hurt? Thanks.
Excel dangerous?
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I think Vals are the main plants that excel will melt. But in a high enough quantity Excel will wipe out all your plants and animals i the tank and cause your tank to go through a cycle (from killing all the bacteria too). So its best to not go too far over the recommended dosing sugg from Seachem.
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Honesly Excel is OK with Vals ONCE they've acclimated. Do have doses for a month. Then you can probably attemp full, if you notice any yellowing hault the full and stick with the half.
Nothing I can think of comes close to looking like Vals.
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Glad I saw this. I just started dosing excel about a week ago while I'm waiting for my new ferts and co2 parts to arrive and my anacharis aren't looking so hot.
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I have several different types of Val. I have always done full Excel dosages. They cling to life for the first week and then stop complaining and grow like crazy. I've never lost any.
All mosses inc. Christmas moss are fine unless you use 2x dosage or apply directly to the moss.
Anarcharis won't survive, ever. But seriously, who likes the look of these anyway? They suffer badly in warm tropical tanks anyway.
All mosses inc. Christmas moss are fine unless you use 2x dosage or apply directly to the moss.
Anarcharis won't survive, ever. But seriously, who likes the look of these anyway? They suffer badly in warm tropical tanks anyway.
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Never tried vals but I do double the recommended excel dosage and most everything grows like weeds. Livestock has never seemed to mind either. Shrimp breed like crazy also.
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Just for a FYI. I decieded to OD Excel in my mini-m when I wanted to switch from RCS to snowballs to kill any if the RCS that I may have missed to completely negate any chance if xbreeding. Well there was nothing but Anubis,java fern and other hardy plants in the tank. I probably dosed 10x's the recommended amount and within a day or two the tank got very cloudy and within a week about 80% of all the plants melted.
Make no mistake, Excel is no joke and if overdosed the onlything that can right the situation is a very large WC and by the time a problem is noticed it is probably too late.
Make no mistake, Excel is no joke and if overdosed the onlything that can right the situation is a very large WC and by the time a problem is noticed it is probably too late.
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C. nurii doesn't like but I was dosing 1ml per 3 gallons, as well as Cryptocoryne crispatula var. balansae, but my Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis and V. nana wer ok, I dosed at these levels for 15 days and lost a bunch of leaves on the Crypts but it also encouraged some new growth but I felt I should stop while ahead.
Yep all my livestock was fine including RCS
Yeah it will kill everything if taken too far, but if you get it right everything grows like crazy and your tank gets really clean. I plant to let a couple of water changes go by and let everything grow out a bit then I'll burn through another 500 ml bottle, it works good for cleaning an old tank.
My Taxiphyllum sp. peacock was growing too and looking clean, temp can be key with mosses 75 to 77 but 80 and up you may see problems.
Yep all my livestock was fine including RCS
Yeah it will kill everything if taken too far, but if you get it right everything grows like crazy and your tank gets really clean. I plant to let a couple of water changes go by and let everything grow out a bit then I'll burn through another 500 ml bottle, it works good for cleaning an old tank.
My Taxiphyllum sp. peacock was growing too and looking clean, temp can be key with mosses 75 to 77 but 80 and up you may see problems.
so obviously most of you use excel regularly, any thoughts on what would be better for a 55 gallon tank, excel dosing or a DIY CO2. Also i have 54 watts T5HO, if i dose excel do you think i can add the second bulb and do 108 watts???
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Either one would be an exercise in futility IMO. With DIY co2 you would need 3-4 3L bottles to get a good level of co2 in the water and with the levels fluctuating so much there is a good chance that you cold cause more algae woes than if you didn't to it at all.
With Excel it cold work but not that great and it would get expensive real quick. You can piece together a really nice Dual stage regulator system with a good needle valve, Burkert solenoid 6011 and a co2 bottle for $250 or under.
For tank your size you would easily burn through 50ml/week or a 500ml bottle/10 weeks or 2500ml/year. If you bought 500ml bottle from online that would be about $75/year in just excel. It would only take ~3.5 years for you to get your money back from the cost of a great Co2 system. What you can not put a monetary value on is how much better your plants will look and how much more algae free your tank will be using a pressurized co2 system.
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Pressurized isn't a one time investment either. Refilling my tanks when I did that was 20 a pop and it was a hassle to find a place that would do it on my off hours. 75 a year is cheap, easy and you get good growth. Pressurised by the time you get a tank, regulator, diffuser, and thing in the tank to check the levels you're talking 3-400 dollars. I used it on my 75 and was not happy when I switched to pressurized. Not due to growth just due to the extra hassle.
Both can be great. Its just a matter of Goals and your preference. I prefer excel. If I lived in a metro area where there was a lot of places to fill co2 I may be more inclined to go that route.
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Both can be great. Its just a matter of Goals and your preference. I prefer excel. If I lived in a metro area where there was a lot of places to fill co2 I may be more inclined to go that route.
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I dont normally say things like this but, you are CRAZY!!!
To actually be more pleased with Excel over pressurized co2, that's madness.
Im about 50% joking and 50% serious on your comments.
I use a 5lb tank on my 37g and have it set to 4-5 bps (too fast to count) and that 5lb tank will last me ~4 months. So I end up shelling out ~$70 per year. The company I use to swap out tanks (CeeKay) will fill 10lb tanks at the same price as a 5lb (I dont have room for a 10lb tank in that setup) so theoretically if I had a 10lb tank I would only be spending ~$30 on gas a year.
ALWAYS GET AS BIG OF A CO2 TANK AS YOU CAN FIT!
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Using Metricide instead of Excel, dosing a 55G comes out to about $0.02 per day.
I add it to my CO2 tanks as well, at a normal (non-algaecidal) dose. It may help in some small way. I have no idea if it actually does, but at that price, who cares?
It won't let you add a second T5HO to a 55G though.
I add it to my CO2 tanks as well, at a normal (non-algaecidal) dose. It may help in some small way. I have no idea if it actually does, but at that price, who cares?
It won't let you add a second T5HO to a 55G though.
I have read a few things on Metricide, it looks intriguing...i might give it a shot after this bottle of Excel. But regardless, dosing excel definitely wont allow me to do 108 watts T5 HO, thats way too much huh??
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Glutaraldehyde is the (only) active ingredient in Excel. The rest is water. The same can be said for Metricide and Cidex, and both have a stronger concentration than Excel. And they're cheaper. I have a gallon of Metricide I spent $28 for. And it's 72% more potent than Excel, which means that it's equal to around 1.7 gallons of Excel.
I'll never use it all.
Anyway, yes, Excel is dangerous, because glutaraldehyde is dangerous. Even at the concentration in Excel (1.7%, I believe), it's a good idea to avoid getting it on your skin. Metricide and Cidex are sold as sanitizing agents. Their function is to kill stuff.
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