# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Flourish Excel as a carbon supplier ?



## Anthon (Feb 26, 2004)

Hello

I have a project of a 10 liters Amano like tank.

As the volume of the tank is really weak i think a DIY CO2 won't be good to have a quite stable pH. I think i will try to use Flourish Excel as a carbon supplier but i'd like to know more about the real efficiency of this product before importing it.
What do you think about it ?

_____________________________
Sorry for my bad english ...


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## Anthon (Feb 26, 2004)

Hello

I have a project of a 10 liters Amano like tank.

As the volume of the tank is really weak i think a DIY CO2 won't be good to have a quite stable pH. I think i will try to use Flourish Excel as a carbon supplier but i'd like to know more about the real efficiency of this product before importing it.
What do you think about it ?

_____________________________
Sorry for my bad english ...


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## George Willms (Jul 28, 2004)

I used Flourish Excel on a 29-gallon tank for a while before switching to a Hagen co2 system and had some good luck with it. Growth was slower than it is now with the hagen, but faster than it is in my other tank which recieves no kind of carbon supplementation.

George


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

I used it for a while in a very low light tank and was pleased with the results. Not only did it promote more growth, but the growth it induced was more robust and with better color than I got without it. I switched the tank from Excel to CO2; that produced more growth but the growth was not as attractive as with the Excel.

You do need to be careful dosing with Excel, because overdoses can kill fish.


Roger Miller


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## Anthon (Feb 26, 2004)

Thanks a lot for the answers.

Do you know a product of an other company which is equivalent to excel ?

Do you know what can kill fish in excel ?

_____________________________
Sorry for my bad english ...


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

I don't think Excel is toxic. Bacteria can use the main ingredient in Excel and when they do they also use a lot of oxygen. If Excel is overdosed then bacteria get the excess and the oxygen levels in the tank can drop to critical levels. It's the low oxygen levels that are dangerous to fish.

There is another product on the market that works like Excel, but I can't recall its name. I expect that it would have the same risk from overdose.


Roger Miller


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## Anthon (Feb 26, 2004)

Thanks Roger

My question about an other product wasn't because i am afraid by toxicity but because i can't find Flourish products in France. If i want some i have to import it from Germany









_____________________________
Sorry for my bad english ...


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## ckll (Jun 20, 2003)

I was told the best way to use Excel is to add it to the tank just before lights come on.


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## Phil Edwards (Jan 22, 2004)

Excel is really good stuff for a non-pressurized CO2 system. I'm using it in am 80g with 4c65w PC overhead and I have to say I'm very surprised and pleased with the results.

Like Roger mentioned, the growth is indeed slower but more robust. I think this is more a factor of the plants having to work harder to get a like dose of Carbon from Excel vs. CO2 gas. As an aside, it seems that Ammania gracillis and Didplis diandra really like Excel. I've had to trim that stuff back twice already whereas the Luds and Hygro corymbosa in the tank grow very slowly.

Roger, can you give us a deeper explanation on how the bacteria use Excel? I've been told that overdoses of Excel can bind up the O2 in a system but I never knew how.

On an anecdotal note, a number of Excel users have found that it helps retard the growth of certain algaes. It does a real number on BGA and has noticable effect on others as well. Some of the maintenance guys at the store use it as a prophylactic treatment in African Cichlid setups. This is purely anecdotal, even the Seachem reps can't tell me exactly why it happens, it just does.

Check out this thread for more info on the Seachem line.

http://aquabotanicwetthumb.infopop.cc/groupee/forums?a=tpc&s=4006090712&f=9156020792&m=7206037643


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## DaveStall (Feb 14, 2003)

Hmm .. that is interesting about the algae Phil. I have a bottle of Excel lying around and plenty of BGA to test it on. Perhaps a test is in order.

Contrary to other's experiences here, I never had any luck at all with Excel for some reason. I actually get better results in my 75g aquarium with a single two liter DIY (yeast) bottle than I ever did with Excel.

Dave


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

well duh







DIY is actually adding CO2, much easier for the plants to use, and if you are able to stabilize the DIY output, it's a much better system. excel is good for people who are too lazy (or unable) to add CO2 (pressurized or DIY). i have been slowly upgrading. first, nothing (bad growth) then excel (satisfactory). then did the yeast thing with slightly better results, but i just splurged and bought a pressurized system so i'll be hooking that up later this week, and i'm expecting even better growth. excel isn't really meant to replace CO2, it's just a product that is "better than nothing and easy to use" although, it would be interesting to see if it did anything to BGA (or other types of algae for that matter)... i might do a little testing too...









JP


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