# Effects of overdosing excel?



## Jah410 (May 12, 2019)

Hi, I wanted to know what the effects are on the aquarium when you overdose flourish excel. I know it is common to slightly overdose the aquarium (1.5-2x) but what happens if you overdose like 5x?

I ask because I'm curious if the plants would benefit or be damaged by the concentration as I know excel can be used to spot treat (kill) alage.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

You'll kill fish if you overdose too much as well. Some plants are more sensitive than others like Val and moss. They'll turn transparent and melt.

Glutarahyde, a component in excel is a poison/biocide in high concentration.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Seachem recommends dosing 5 ml/10 gallons after every water change. That is really an overdose, and it will kill back vals and other sensitive plants. It accomplishes nothing to dose that much, when 2 ml/10 gallons dosed daily works fine, and doesn't kill any plants, unless it is some I have never tried or heard of it killing. Dosing more than 6 ml/10 gallons is likely to harm more plants and possibly some fish or shrimp. Yes, glut is a chemical that can kill life, but so are most salts when greatly overdosed.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Oh, the fumes from it when you greatly over dose is not good for you either.


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## schale (May 22, 2019)

Bettas hate the stuff. Killed off most of my female bettas with a normal dosing. Vals really don't like it either even at normal dosing.


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## tiger15 (Apr 9, 2017)

1x daily for liquid carbon, and 5X after water change for algae control as per Seachem instructions. Algae control is effective only if higher 5x dosage is used, but there will be collateral damage on sensitive plants such as Vals, Hornwort and mosses. Toxicity studies have shown that Glut is non toxic to fish and shrimp below 10X dosage. 

I once dosed 5x daily for a week to combat ick, as Glut is an ingredient of Seachem Paraguard. No collateral damage on plants or fish was observed, but collateral benefit to eliminate fugitive mosses I had trouble getting rid of once for all. I have no other sensitive plants.


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