Flourish Excel and fish

livingword26

AC Members
Dec 5, 2006
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Kansas, USA
www.aquariacentral.com
I read a post where a guy said that he thought that Flourish Excel was hurting his fish, so he stopped using it. I would like to have a fairly well planted tank with several fish in it, and I was planning on using Excel. Has anyone else had any positive or negative experiences using it with fish? Also, does it cause any fluctuation in Ph like Co2 does?
 
Used excel dosing every other day alternated with other fertilizers. Never caused a problem with any of the fish.
 
I have read quite a bit about excel. I don’t recommend you use it in high doses because from what I have read they don’t recommend you use it in high doses. Used according to the directions on the bottle it will do what people want it to do it just takes more time. I have seen very few claims that it bothered fish at all but I have read many warnings about the fact that the chemical itself polycycloglutaracetal is very closely related to glutaraldehyde. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutaraldehyde

Just be a little careful and it will be fine. Or use CO2
 
My personal experience:

I dose 9ml of Excel a day in my 10 gallon tank - this is twice the recommended "after water change" dose on the bottle and nine times the recommended daily dose on the bottle. I have been dosing like this for 7 months and the slow-growing low-light plants are REALLY happy and need trimming every week.

The tank contains 3 dwarf puffers and an oto, all of which I would categorize as "sensitive" fish (the puffers are scale-less and otos in general are pretty fragile). The fish are thriving and seem pretty happy.

I am trying to reduce my daily dose to 6ml simply because it's getting to be expensive to buy the Excel!
 
Been using Excell for 4-5 months now (on my 3rd bottle; this one was the 2 liter size). Plants growing almost too fast, trimming every week (lots of cuttings to replant!)

Fishies also doing great-no problems!
 
I use twice the recommended dosage on all my tanks with no issues. It helps with algae and plants eat it up! Buy it online and its so much cheaper than in the store too if you get a big bottle.
 
I have a bolivian ram that is sensitive to it. Recommended dose every other day and he couldn't handle it, so I stopped using it. For the most part I think it is fine, none of my other fish showed stress from it. So, I always warn people when using anything to watch for individuals that may not handle it well, because that is what I have.
Take care,
Mary.
 
water sprites jumped in growth... needed to trash some :(. Now, if only I had Java moss...

the directions are crazy. 5mL for 10 gal after major water change or first use, 5 mL for every 50 gallons..

:eek:

heard it will melt crypts... or is that flourish?

my tall crypt is fine, my little one kept "disentegrating" so I just trashed the little one :(
 
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