# Email from Seachem Laboratories Regarding the effects of Flourish Excel



## Jag1980 (Aug 1, 2008)

Email response from Seachem:

" To be completely honest with you, the only plant that we have come across that reacts negatively to Flourish Excel is Anacharis. Anacharis is a particularly sensitive species (known to be sensitive to high temperature, trace copper, formaldehyde etc.). Though there is no copper or formaldehyde in Excel, one person did notice that his Anacharis did not respond well to the product. I'm not sure if you have any of these in your aquarium, but if you do then perhaps try dosing the Excel a little less often. We actually have only received this complaint one time regarding the Excel, as most notice tremendous effects on their plants. Did you notice these negative effects only after beginning to dose the Excel? I ask only because some products that are on the market to re-mineralize RO water are sodium chloride-based and tend to melt the leaves on plants(Equilibrium is not). There are no plans to re-formulate the Excel, as we typically receive positive comments and also experience extreme benefits from Excel in our tanks here in the office. This is a completely unique product, in which the active ingredient mimics photosynthetic intermediates, thus minimizing energy output by the plant to take in a carbon source. If you could possibly provide us with the species that are not responding well to the product, then perhaps this will be useful information that we can pass on in case others have similar experiences. We appreciate your taking the time to provide us with this info, so that we may keep a list of particularly sensitive plants in order to help others. "

I heard of a few types of plants that do not do well with Excel, so I wrote them a email asking about this. 
If anyone knows what species of plants do not do well with Excel please post here and give a description on how you know that it is from Excel and not just the plant condition itself.

If no one complains then it will never get changed for the better of "ALL" our plants.

If anything it would be nice to have a small list of plants that do not do well with Excel. Not every product is perfect, but this might help the product get to that point.


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## ray-the-pilot (May 14, 2008)

*I stopped using it in my tank*

The people at the plant geek site seem to think that all Vallisneria species are negatively affected by Excel.

http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_viewer.php?id=193

My experience was that my val did not do well with Excel. I stopped using it mostly because I was getting toxic symptoms typical of glutaraldehyde. My opinion is that it really isn't worth using it based on the possible negative effects on the user.

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/glutaraldehyde/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutaraldehyde


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

*Re: Email from Seachem Laboratories Reguarding the effects of Flourish Excel*

Hi Jag1980,

I agree with Ray-the-Pilot that Vals seem to be sensitive to Excel. I have Vals and dose with Excel. When I dose per the Seachem schedule the Vals seem to do well and thrive with large plants with lots of runners. I also use Excel to help control algae issues. http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/algae/3806-flourish-excel-got-rid-all-my.html When I dose Excel at 2X the Seachem recommended dosage, which is a good dosage for algae control, the Vals experience some leaf "melting". The remainder of my plants so not seem to be affected by the higher dosage.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

*Re: Email from Seachem Laboratories Reguarding the effects of Flourish Excel*

I have Vals and they also show signs melt when I dose excel OVER the recommended rate. But, when I stick to the recommended dose, there are no problems. I even have fissidens (which I have read will die if excel is used) and it does not suffer from the normal dose...it only begins to melt when I over-dose. (Hence, the label warning, "Do not overdose".)

-Dave


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