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I was looking around for a cheap C02 source, when I found this product. I am a little skeptic, but I like the cost of 6$ for a 500ml bottle.(which is supposed to work for two months). So, has anyone used this, and if they have, were there any problems? Did it affect your fish at all?
Thanks

http://www.petsolutions.com/Flourish+Excel-I-10104560-I-C-41-C-.aspx

I use this stuff in my tank. It seems to work pretty well. I actualy use more than what they say to use. A guy from my lfs said that only some plants don't like it in a heavy usage.

The link above is where I get mine from. I buy it in 2 litters. It is the best deal I have found out there.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

I am using it as well, plus various other Flourish variations, like Iron, Nitrogen, Potassium, and Flourish itself. I am not sure that it helps as I use, but I hope so.

Overall, I would say that there are many other factors to consider that would making a blanket statement if Flourish … is good or not invalid. For example:
- Is the gravel mixed with (or pure) fertilizer?
- How much light is on the tank (if very low I doubt that the CO2 from Flourish Excel would do anything)?
- and maybe a few more that I cannot think of right now

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Flourish excel does what it says. It supplies the plants with organic carbon to use. This is mostly helpful in tanks where CO2 is not added as there will be very low levels of carbon.

Carbon is a plant nutrient and as such the plants need it. Plants prefer carbon as CO2 but most plants will appreciate carbon addition (some plants do not like excel -- seachem cites anachris -- elodea densa -- as one plant which doesn't) and will grow faster and healthier with addition of flourish excel, so in that sense flourish excel does work.

As for use of excel with other fertilisers, as plants will grow faster when using excel (although not as fast as they would with CO2), they will use more nutrients. In a normal tank with normal tank water it's very unlikely that with proper water changes they will deplete all the nutrients in the tank. Keep your eyes on the plants for deficiency symptoms (description can be found here and you can test your nitrate to see if it's depleted after a few days of using excel. Add fertilisers only if you feel they're needed.

As for lights, flourish excel will work perfectly fine in a low/medium light tank as plants still need carbon even in low lights. In high lights tank it is better to use CO2 and with CO2 excel becomes a bit useless as the plants will have enough carbon from the CO2.

Excel is not a magic potion at all and although some plants will like it more than others (and will show it), most plants will appreciate it.

I use it regularily in my low lights tank where I have no CO2 and I recommend it.

As Wingsdlc said, many people dose more than the recommended dose on the bottle. The best way to approach this is to start with the recommended dose and see if any of your plants doesn't like it, in which case Seachem recommend using it every second day. If your plants do like it, try to raise the dose up to two times the recommended dose which might get you better results.

P.S. Excel is not CO2 and has no CO2 in it. Just carbon, no O2.

Last edited by untitled at 27-Jul-2005 15:37

Last edited by untitled at 27-Jul-2005 15:37

i use it in my small tank which i dont use a diy co2 unlike my other 2 bigger tanks...so far...its doing ok. i dont do regular dosing just as what the instructions say...just do it when i feel i need to...just like my lfs (they recommend me that..like once or twice a week)

Great!! Yes my tank is low-light, and I may use some substrate ferts, so I think excel will work well. I was going to use the Jungel labs Fizz factory, but I like this better. I also like the fact that I can add as much as I want, and can add more or less. Thanks for your help, and I will buy some right away for when I set up my tank!

While you can adjust the amount of excel you want to add you should be careful not to overdose. There have been a few cases it's been suspected of killing fish and the bottle does say in bold letters not to overdose. However I've added twice the recommended amount without problems. It does help most plants grow and it seems to kill off some forms of algae. It just gets too expensive compared to co2 to dose it to a larger higher light tank but does work well in my 29g 1wpg with crypts and apongeton.

For a small low to med light tank Excel is a good product and will help plant growth. With bigger tanks, however, it's just not cost effective. I keep some on hand for my little tank and because it really does help get rid of some forms of algae, most remarkably the strand algaes like thread, beard, and hair algae. I had a bad infestation and double doeses of excel every other day wiped it out within a week.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

It can help to get rid of algea? I can use some in my infested 10g, then!

"help" in a way that ur making ur plants healthier...thus, they become more efficient utilizing the nutrients in the water which in turn deprive the algae... ceasing them to bloom.

I'm relatively new to plants and don't use co2 in any of my tanks. I started using Flourish but after having algae issues I switched to Excel. Plants are doing quite well and no more algae problems

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Yeah, my plants are just getting by in the 10, so maybe it'll help Thanks everyone, and I'm so happy I found something to make my life easier

Excel doesn't just get rid of algae by helping plants grow. Added to a jar meant to grow algae for otos it stopped growth instead. There were no plants in this setup. In a jar with the exact same water and other nutrients but no excel the rocks got coated in algae. Also in a tank of very few plants and none fast growing it will still stop algae growth. Even Seachem has noted this side effect of using excel. It seems to work best on hair algae but I've also seen a reduction in spot algae.