Flourish Excel wiped out the hair algae!

When I started using Excell to treat BBA I lost all my Corkscrew Val and Riccia. Both plants were doing great. The Vals had sent of runners in all directions and I was throwing out cups of Riccia with every water change. Now both are gone and the BBA is managable but still not totally eradicated. I lost 3 Panda Cories as well when I started dosing with Excell. Don't know if it was a coincidence or not.
 
When I first dosed my 128 g aquarium with Excel to get rid of the hair algae, I followed the directions. The directions state that you should use one capful per 10 gals for the initial treatment and thereafter use one capful per 50 gals every couple days. Since the tank is 128 gals, I used 13 capfuls for the first treatment and didn't treat the tank again for about a week. The shrimp died within a day or so of the first treatment. I later asked the local aquarium shop about that and was told that the chemical in Excel that acts as a algacide will kill inverts. I read the label of another product that is an algacide that is meant to be used in planted tanks. The label warned that it should not be used if inverts are present in the tank. I've now treated the tank 3-4 times using the 13 capful dose to make sure that all the hair algae is gone and the tank is crystal clear, the plants have loads of new, bright green leaves and are growing like crazy. All the hair algae died, decomposed and fell off the plants or I removed what remained easily by hand. No fish mortalities and my tank's back to normal again. I also noticed that I'm getting only very minimal growth of the green algae that grows on the glass and even that is very slow and needs cleaning only about once a week. That's what I had in the past when I used Excel - that stuff really does the trick with the hair algae! I now going to start the 2-3 capfuls every couple days to keep things under control and encourage plant growth. Perhaps doses of Excel at that level would be tolerated by the shrimp and other inverts.
 
I dose a full cap of Excel into my 33G once a day, although I tend to forget once in awhile. I have an asian filter shrimp, amanos, ghosts, and RCS in the tank and they handle the Excel just fine. Two of my ghost shrimp are even carrying eggs.

On the downside, my tank is still lightly infested with hair algae. Maybe I should stop feeding my shrimp and make them forage for algae for a while.
 
I just dosed excel for the first time lastnight, and the baby snail I have in there is just as alive as ever.... this thing is a racing snail man, he has been bombing all over the tank doing whatever the heck it is he is doing, and he seems to be growing quite fast.

I also did a half dose of aquarium salt too.
 
My experience with Excel is that it does help control algae, and helps most aquarium plants grow well but not all aquarium plants for example I could not keep hornwort alive in any tank treated with excel, but it grew just fine in tanks without it. I'm sure there are other species of plants that are effected like this, but hornwort is one I know for sure is.
 
i have hornwort thriving in a tank that i use excel in.

however, flourish excel chewed one of my cherry shrimp in half. yes, i blame the excel. not my fish. lol.
 
I have a hornwort too that seems to be doing very well, even more so with the addition of excel.
 
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