Excel: Should I?

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naturestee

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Nov 6, 2003
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Hi all!

I'm looking at rescaping my 29 gallon. Mainly just rearranging, adding a few new plants, etc. I've been neglecting it for a while and am getting back to paying more attention to my plants again. Specs are 1.7 watts/gallon (one Hagen Life Glo 2, one Flora Glo tube, just changed this week), no CO2, plants are mainly Anubias and Java Fern with hornwort and some crypts that melted a while back and are starting to grow back again. Oh, and I threw in some new Vals just to see if they'll grow. They're half dead (yay PetDumb) and were pretty much given to me. I add a micronutrient fertilizer after weekly water changes, just bought Flourish today as my old no-name stuff ran out.

Fish: Mollies, platies, and a krib.

I've noticed that the leaves of my Anubias and Java Ferns stay pretty small. I'm not sure what's causing this. My Java Ferns were given to me as babies from a friend 2-3 years ago and their leaves are only 3-4 inches long. They're bushy though. I didn't change my lights for a year and a half though...

My question is, would Flourish Excel be a good idea for my tank? Does it work and would it make a difference with my lower light levels? Would it harm anything in my tank?

I'd have to mail-order it or pick it up when I go on a plant run to a decent store in Milwaukee, probably not till after the holidays. Is it worth the hassle?

Thanks!
 
jpappy789 said:
People have noticed their vals melting with the use of excel but occaisional dozing to get some carbon probably wouldn't hurt..
Click to expand...

Kills moss also...
 
Try using root tabs instead of liquid excel.If the vals and everything seem to be doing better with the tabs,then you might want to try liquid excel at half,or less than half of the full dose.My vals did start to melt when I started using excel,so I lowered the dose for a few weeks and slowly worked up to full doses.Now I do not have any problems with excel and vals,and the vals grow like crazy.
 
Jag, have you experienced Excel killing your moss? I don't ask to be a jerk or anything, I just have never heard of this. I personally use it in both my tanks with no ill effects on my moss (or crypts, for that matter) with normal or even 2x dosage. I have only had moss die when I poured excel right on the moss..
 
I have 4 species of Moss in my tank and was nice and green.

I dosed with excel for a few days and my moss looked like it was covered in brown looking fish waste stuff, after tanking a much closer look, it was actually dead parts of the moss.. I stopped dosing with Excel and my moss is coming back to normal after about a month.. I still got brown tips on my from it...:headshake2:
 
Interesting discussion, guys. I might try it after the vals (and my other upcoming plant purchases) settle in. I do plan on using Flourish root tabs too, but the only store here that carries them was out. I never used them before because the vast majority of my tank is anubias and java fern which don't really have much roots. My substrate is normal cheap gravel so there's no nutrients for rooted plants to get there.
 
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