Switch from CO2 to Excel??!?

Timmain42

Disturbed Quasi-Genius
Jan 4, 2002
662
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0
D/FW, TEXAS
www.xmenclan.org
Well, I planted my 55 as a farm tank last week (3.75WPG, Excel-only), and moved a bunch of lobelia from my big tank over (2WPG, 30ppmCO2).

And don't you know, every single one of the lobelia plants up and melted, stem first. A big surprise for me, luckily I had a lot of bacopa to replace the lobelia as an algae buster, but DANGIT! I've seen crypts melt before, but never a stem plant. Very weird.

That is all.
 
Could it be the reaction to the higher light? Or the drastic move from co2 to none? I'm going co2 -less now on my tank too, using excel. I'm waiting with dread to see what will happen. But, lobelia is difficult anyway n'est pas?
 
Might be the light, but I've grown lobelia under similar conditions before (it's not as "fruitful" with Excel, but it still grows). And I've heard stories of lobelia's difficulty before, but this is the first time I've ever experienced an issue with it in the 2+ years I've been farming the stuff.

I think it's the swtich that did it. I transplanted a few stems of Excel-grown lobelia into that same tank, and they are doing okay, if not "wilting" a little from the increased light density. We'll see how it goes.
 
I know in my own experience, Crypts can melt going from lower to higher light, though I've never seen actual melting with other plants I have seen them react - for instance, yesterday I moved some Bacopa australis from low-med light into my high light tank, and it's looking a little... droopy. Plants that do this seem to perk up in a few days in my tank, but there is often a definite reaction to the change. I've got a book that has an interesting explanation for Crypts melting, see what you think:

The following is a quote from Ines Scheurmann's 'The New Aquarium Handbook', ISBN 0-8120-3682-4, published by Barrons in 1985 - obviously it's not really a 'new' book any more!

"...Cryptocoryne rot. It manifests itself first by holes in the leaves and around their edges that look as though they had been nibbled by snails or fish. Then, within a few days, an entire plant or Cryptocoryne grouping may collapse and rot. [...] Cryptocoryne rot is caused by an excess of nitrates. Our tap water contains much more nitrates than the tropical waters that are the natural habitat for Cryptocoryne. Leftover food particles, decaying pieces of plants, and fish excreta continually add nitrates to the aquarium water. Plants that naturally grow in water high in ntirates can break them down into ammonium, which is a plant nutrient. Cryptocoyne and other tropical plants, however, are used to living in water with plenty of ammonium and thereofre have not developed the ability to break down nitrates. They take up nitrates just as they do other plant nutrients, but store them with other unusable waste products in their cells. When there is a sudden major change in the aquarium environment, these plants cannot tolerate the shock. (Such a sudden change occurs, for example, when the aquarium hobbyist finally changes the water - a chore long overdue; or after a long time, adds fertilizer; or replaces and old, worn-out fluorescent tube.) To overcome the shock of the sudden change, the plants reactivate nutrient substances that awere stored as reserves and thereby release stored nitrates at the same time. the tixic nitrogen compounds then formed kill the plants."

Interesting theory, not sure if there's any merit to it at all, just thought I'd throw it out there as food for thought :)
 
What's excel ?

Oh, I had a few crypt plants that "rotted" right after I planted them in my tank...I just let it be and soon I had some new shoots coming up and they've been fine since. I think it was the change that threw them off, but they got over it ok.
 
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Emg said:
What's excel ?
In a word, polycycloglutaracetal - it's a source of bio-available carbon, used either in conjunction with or as a substitute for CO2. Flourish Excel is made by Seachem, and it's got a reputation for killing off certain algaes. I just started using it in two of my tanks to ward off the dreaded hair algae, it seems to be helping :)
 
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