# Read before you use flourish excel for hair algae



## CHFIII

I gave up after a month of extra water changes, extra filtration, aeration.... the hair algae just loved everything I did until I stumbled on a thread somewhere about overdosing Excel to kill it.

You guessed it - 3 Cory cats, a clown loach and a couple tetras bit the dust and the other fish were kinda sluggish for a week.... 

Hair algae is quite dead but I would caution everyone to start out using as directed and be very careful about overdosing it. That warning is out there, I was just careless....


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## totziens

It's advisable to remove all your fishes & shrimps when you want to overdose Excel. It will even hurt human. If you don't believe me...try sniffing it or peep into the Excel's bottle with one of your eyes. I won't be responsible for any injury though :rofl:


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## Skizhx

I smell my excel everytime I use it (smells good, what can I say), and I've looked into the bottle plenty of times (dropped a syringe in there once), so I had no reservations about being the guinea pig here...

For those curious, smelling did nothing... And I didn't cheat with little whiffs of it either.

It stings a tiny bit if you look into the bottle and squeeze to push the vapours out. Not terribly, but I wasn't going to keep doing it to find out if it got worse.

Anyways, that's my adrenaline fix for today.

In the name of science.


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## Bert H

Using double the amount of Excel has been used many,many times by many, many people (including me) with good results. Other than the known plants that do not do well with Excel, it should not cause problems.

As far as the toxicity of it, the active ingredient is either gluteraldehyde or a form thereof. Check out this long bunch of threads: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...iasts/31615-glutaraldehyde-instead-excel.html


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## pweifan

I sprayed some (full-strength) in an emersed setup to combat algae one time. The burn in my eyes reminded me of spraying bleach or something equally strong. It also killed my HC  I use it in my tank almost daily though. The only plant that doesn't seem to like spot treatments is S. repens.


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## totziens

"The burn in my eyes reminded me of spraying bleach or something equally strong." - yup, that's how I felt when I peeped inside the bottle of Excel without knowing it would hurt my eyes


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## Tex Gal

Just be smart people! You should not experiment to see IF it will hurt you! That won't help your tank and no one EVER recommended such a thing. If you killed your fish overdosing excel obviously used too much. There is a thread somewhere with an experiment with excel killing algae. Gahanzfar Gori did the tests. He found that lessor overdoses were more effective than straight excel. He did not have live animals in his experiment. Since your goal is to kill algae you only want to use what is necessary.


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## totziens

Yes, you can remove fishes/shrimps to overdose the tank with Excel to kill algae. It's more effective this way. I've done it to my friend's tank quite successfully.


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## Zapins

You can't triple the initial dose. You triple the daily dose. The difference is extremely important.


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## totziens

By the way, I also find using a syringe for shooting Excel at algae very useful. Turn the filter off when shooting Excel at the algae. It's more effective than dosing using the cap of the bottle.


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## Michael

I used to work with gluteraldehyde when I was a lab tech years ago. We were instructed to only open it under the flume hood because the fumes can cause permanent eye damage.

Granted, we were using much stronger concentrations, but PLEASE DON'T BE STUPID! Sniffing Excel, or putting your eyes close to the open bottle, is an extremely bad idea. And keep it away from your children and pets!


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## pweifan

totziens said:


> By the way, I also find using a syringe for shooting Excel at algae very useful. Turn the filter off when shooting Excel at the algae. It's more effective than dosing using the cap of the bottle.


Exactly my experience as well.


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