Flourish Excel

I've been dosing Excel per bottle directions (5ml/10 gal after 40% water change and 1 ml/10 gal every other day thereafter) and half EI dosing of macro and micro's every other day in my non-CO2 tanks for about 3 months. Have had RCS for 2+ months now and they are multiplying like mad. I've lost about half of the 18 young adults I started with but the spawning is crazy. More than I can count and they bred again yesterday. I'm guessing about 150 shrimplets with some approaching breeding size.

I don't think I've lost a one to the chemicals but am not sure why I lost some of what I started with. They are tougher than I thought. I shut down one tank siphoning the shrimplets to move them. Washed the java fern on wood in hot water to remove the snails and put those in a different tank. Now I have five shrimp in that tank. How they stayed on the ferns in 120 degree water and survived amazed me.

No vals in my non CO2 tanks but the regular vals in the CO2 tank melted with the Excel. I think a couple will come back but it is slow right now. I'm guessing the light is restricted by the sword which is overtaking the tank.

The dwarf vals didn't melt but are doing better once I stopped the Excel in that tank.

HTH.

Greg

 

If Excel is just "bioavailable carbon", how is it worse for Vals than CO2? I had a massive val melt when I moved. We went from municipal tap water to a private well. Nothing else changed. The tank wasn't even 100% torn down, so the cycle wasn't even broken.

Curious what caused the melt...and continues to cause on-going val stunting in that tank.

I didn't, until two weeks ago, add ANYTHING to the water. Not even prime when doing the PWC at the city location. The plants looked great. (low-light, no CO2)

 

While Seachem won't share the exact chemical makeup of Excel, we do know that it is similar to diluted gluteraldehyde, which is a toxic disinfectant at the right concentration. Low concentrations are fine for most plants but some are sensitive to it, and if you up the concentration enough it will kill pretty much anything.

 

The only significant difference between the city water and my well water is the sodium ions from the softener brine and other lingering chlorides that the ion exchange resins can't remove. I haven't tested to positively identify the chlorides, but given my location, it's a safe bet that they are primarily sodium and magnesium. I know I've also got plenty of manganese.

It must be one (or a combination) of those three that's tough on vals....

 

How many ppm? You may need a desalination unit.

I'm starting to wonder when someone is going to start tearing apart excel and analyzing it. If I knew how, I would.

From everything I know, it's exactly like watered down glutaraldehyde in basic empirical observation. People in healthcare I've talked to describe it exactly the same way. And damn does it cause rashes on the skin; I found out the hard way a couple weeks ago after I ended up with a couple drops on my arm.

To be honest, I don't beleive, "trade secrets" should be allowed. Most of the time it starts to look like flat out lies, and usually reflects the values of the company.

-Philosophos

 

"Trade Secrets" also often seems to be a way to hide from liability. You can't be sued for using a really nasty chemical if people don't know it's in there. It's just a "You didn't follow instructions" response and they're off the hook until someone can prove they're doing something so blatently stupid it's not even funny. However, that might explain some of the itchy/burning skin on the arm from the other day since moving over to Flourish. My Ram also went downhill and died when I switched. For now I'm going to chalk that up to coincidence but I may need to rethink that at some point...

Same thing, if you have food allergies it's hard to know if you can eat something with "natural flavors" listed as an ingredient. Sketchy...

-
S

 

I've been using excel for about a week in a 24g nanocube. It cleared out all of my green beard algae. Which really helped in solving a growing snail problem. My Amino Shrimp are doing fine so far, along with all of my fish. I have been feeding more, since there is less algae for the fish/shrimp to pick at.

I guess more time will tell if it has side effects. So far it has been a great product to use. I bought it, tried it, and because I liked it so much I returned to the lfs to pick up some more of the flourish line to do more complete fertilizing.

 

I don't have a way to test for specific chlorides, but if memory serves, my TDS meter averages about 1100 ppm (post softener). If I leave a puddle of soft water on the counter to evaporate, it leaves a thin powdery residue that is salty to taste and dissolves completely and easily in water.

I would like to augment my current water treatment equipment to include some antibacterial (chlorine drip or UV) and chloride removal. Would also like to add a larger RO pressure vessel, but those will have to wait for some money in the budget.

I can't use the hard water in the tanks because it has toxic levels of iron (~5ppm using a home test kit). I've tried it. Fish die within hours. They don't mind the softened water at all.

But that's putting us pretty far off topic. Rather than risk using Excel on my low-tech tank, I'm setting up a yeast farm. Just need to finish off this 2 liter of Sam's Cola.

 

Tug, I'm going to test that one today/tomorrow. I've had alkalinity increases in my tank, despite using RO water. I've tested both food and substrate; neither are contributing. I'll go at it with a fresh API KH test kit (calibrated) and see what happens after excel sits for 24 hours.

-Philosophos

 

The test is done- 1.5ml in 3.5ml DI. I didn't feel like messing around with light doses

No KH rise. There's nothing hiding in excel that adds to KH in and of its self.

-Philosophos