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Armed (with Excel) and dangerous...

scottward

Member
Joined
27 Sep 2011
Messages
29
Hey guys,

I'm armed with a 500ml bottle of Excel, it arrived today.

I was thinking that rather than misting the plants etc, I might just try water column dosing first to see how that goes.

My tank is 100g, approximately 400L.

How does the following sound:
1. Do a 50% water change like normal.
2. Pour in 50mls Excel (5ml per 40L initial dosage)
3. The next day, and every following day pour in 30mls Excel (Triple strength dose, 5ml per 200L (standard daily dose) X 3)
4. Keep going until the bottle runs out (should last 450mls/30mls = 15 days), so this would last me the typical fortnight 'treatment'.

During this time I would continue everything else exactly as normal.

I don't have a UV filter so no need to worry about that.

I'm a bit uncertain as to whether to dose at lights on or at lights off? I'm really dosing this to knock out the red algae, not so much for the plants which are growing pretty well anyway. So I guess dosing it before I go to bed would be the best time so that it stays as strong as possible during the night without light weakening it?

Some pretty mixed reports on this stuff; some people see results within a few days, another guy didn't see any change at all. Perhaps some people have a dud (old) batch, perhaps some peoples circulation is very poor etc etc.

Scott.
 
Excel (and light time reduction) did rid my tank of algae, however I think it has caused some of my plants to "melt".

My elodia densa and another whose name I can't recall (long flat leaves) are having issues. All other plants, swords and anubias have lost their algae and appear fine.

Stopped Excel dosing a day or two ago and already the densa appears to be showing signs of recovery, but other plant might be a loss.
 
Hi Ian,

What was your dosing regime?

What types of algae did you have that the Excel successfully nuked?

Scott.
 
I did as per instructions of 5ml for 40l (did 4 caps for 180l) at first (after water change) then ran with 1 cap daily.

This (in conjunction with less light) has virtually removed all green, black and brown algea. Possibly slight bit of brown back on some rocks, but not on plants.

Stopped dosing couple of days ago after I read the Excel will cause some plants to melt and seeing plants melt. Not sure if this is melt due to Excel or melt due to large dose of Excel, however since stopping couple of days ago some plants looks like they are trying to recover.
 
Doesn't sound like you overdosed the Excel - 1 cap daily (5mls per 200L) is the regular daily dose for your tank I believe.

When you say black algae, are you referring to BBA?

Scott.
 
scottward said:
Doesn't sound like you overdosed the Excel - 1 cap daily (5mls per 200L) is the regular daily dose for your tank I believe.

When you say black algae, are you referring to BBA?
Yes BBA, all gone now, just a faint trace of brown dust algea on some rocks.

Fiddled with melted plants last night, since stopping Excel there are only a few cm long bits of elodia densa that survived that I have replanted and look might make a recovery.
 
Ok.

Was it just the Elodea that was affected? What other plants do you have and were they ok?
 
I bought some and the BBA went red in 2 days and its been BBA free since , untill 3 weeks ago (havn,t maintained the tank as often as i should have ) but will be doing more water changes etc now .

Anyway this excell stuff was not in stock at the LFS so bought the easy carbo ??

Is this as good as the excell ? , the first dose went in tonight 10 ml in 240 ltrs (loads of plants in there).

It will be interesting to see if it works aswell as the seachem excell .
 
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