Frog Safe Additives

The chemical ferts used in the EI recipes are safe for frogs when used in the levels indicated, and that is a luxury amount. You could easily cut the EI recipe in half, or even a lower dose.

I am not sure about Excel, but a 1 gallon tank is so small that you do not want the plants overgrowing, anyway, so it may not need a carbon boost anyway.

Try a little bit of fertilizer. Not much. See how it goes.

They should be fine. IME, it was all okay.

Just as an FYI, ADFs are social. Yours might appreciate a buddy. He'd also definitely appreciate more space.

Technically the tank is more then 1.65 gallons and it does share it with 2 cherry shrimp. While I question the intellectual prowess of an animal who's brain is the size a capital letter O, it does appear to 'play' with the shrimp. This raises interesting question. I am in the process of upgrading my 55 gallon to a 75 gallon planted. Could an ADF do well in that setup with CO2, fertilizing and much farther to swim to reach the surface?

No, that's too big for them. They are nearly blind and struggle to locate food in really big tanks. I think that about 10g is perfect.