I post this reluctantly, as its from self-operational error, but hope it prevents someone else from following in my poor footsteps:
I read quite a few posts on this general theme in the last week about fertilizers and the need for them in a planted aquarium. We put live plants into our long established 72g bowfront a couple weeks ago, and noticed the amazon swords were browning and not doing so well. It led to a new light purchase (already described in detail in other recent posts) and the use of fertilizers.
I chose to do Flourish tabs for the micros as I've put quite a bit of money into the aquarium of late and liked the simplicity. They say they treat 4-6" (10-15 cm) per tab, so I put 3 tabs in near each of the 3 planted areas. They should be replaced every 3-4 months, and the package had 10 tabs in it.
I chose Flourish Excel for carbon, largely based on posts in this general thread.
I'm guessing this doesn't cover everything based on my readings (macros) but this particular LFS didn't have any other products besides the regular Flourish and figured it was too similar to Flourish Excel.
I have not seen any additional growth on the plants, but certainly see a reduction in the decay of the amazon sword. I figured I was on the right path and would do further research if growth didn't exhibit itself in the sword or other two (golden lloydiella and red wendtii).
Yesterday was supposed be the day 2 treatment of Excel if going by an every other day EI type rotation. I didn't read the directions carefully enough and OD'd on this 2nd dose, it was less than the initial use but far more than it should have been. Shortly thereafter, one of our favorite fish, a 4-5" Boesemani Rainbowfish, was dead upside down at the bottom. The other fish seemed fine so I didn't think much of it. A couple hours later, went out to check on them and saw the water fairly cloudy and fish near the surface gasping. I did a PWC and added some NovAqua Plus to monitor things....when they didn't improve within a couple hours, I did a larger 40% WC before going to bed. Shortly thereafter, no fish were near the surface gasping and water was clearer. I didn't check the water parameters as I felt time was more of the essence overall.
Got up this morning and while some of the fish were near the top again, though it may have been hunger, but noticed the older Siamese Algae Eater was dead at the bottom corner, though he had been acting rather peculiar of late (even before Excel OD). I determined another large scale 50% WC was probably needed....the filters were never touched during any of this process. I will check parameters at some point today and again tomorrow but won't be doing any large scale PWC's unless they show high levels.
Will follow up later if anything presents itself good or bad, but felt it important enough to get the word out and there hasn't been too many topics on AC about it, probably because most that use Excel aren't novice idiots learning a hard lesson.
I read quite a few posts on this general theme in the last week about fertilizers and the need for them in a planted aquarium. We put live plants into our long established 72g bowfront a couple weeks ago, and noticed the amazon swords were browning and not doing so well. It led to a new light purchase (already described in detail in other recent posts) and the use of fertilizers.
I chose to do Flourish tabs for the micros as I've put quite a bit of money into the aquarium of late and liked the simplicity. They say they treat 4-6" (10-15 cm) per tab, so I put 3 tabs in near each of the 3 planted areas. They should be replaced every 3-4 months, and the package had 10 tabs in it.
I chose Flourish Excel for carbon, largely based on posts in this general thread.
I'm guessing this doesn't cover everything based on my readings (macros) but this particular LFS didn't have any other products besides the regular Flourish and figured it was too similar to Flourish Excel.
I have not seen any additional growth on the plants, but certainly see a reduction in the decay of the amazon sword. I figured I was on the right path and would do further research if growth didn't exhibit itself in the sword or other two (golden lloydiella and red wendtii).
Yesterday was supposed be the day 2 treatment of Excel if going by an every other day EI type rotation. I didn't read the directions carefully enough and OD'd on this 2nd dose, it was less than the initial use but far more than it should have been. Shortly thereafter, one of our favorite fish, a 4-5" Boesemani Rainbowfish, was dead upside down at the bottom. The other fish seemed fine so I didn't think much of it. A couple hours later, went out to check on them and saw the water fairly cloudy and fish near the surface gasping. I did a PWC and added some NovAqua Plus to monitor things....when they didn't improve within a couple hours, I did a larger 40% WC before going to bed. Shortly thereafter, no fish were near the surface gasping and water was clearer. I didn't check the water parameters as I felt time was more of the essence overall.
Got up this morning and while some of the fish were near the top again, though it may have been hunger, but noticed the older Siamese Algae Eater was dead at the bottom corner, though he had been acting rather peculiar of late (even before Excel OD). I determined another large scale 50% WC was probably needed....the filters were never touched during any of this process. I will check parameters at some point today and again tomorrow but won't be doing any large scale PWC's unless they show high levels.
Will follow up later if anything presents itself good or bad, but felt it important enough to get the word out and there hasn't been too many topics on AC about it, probably because most that use Excel aren't novice idiots learning a hard lesson.
