# Excel Dosing



## _noob (Oct 30, 2016)

I have a Fluval Edge 6 gallon stocked with RCS, and for plants:

Xmas Moss, Flame Moss, Weeping Moss, Staurogyne repens, Marsilea hirsuta, Marsilea crenata, Eleocharis acicularis and Utricularia graminifolia. All of the plants have been tropica 1-2 grow cups and are healthy, but fairly new additions.

The UG has been a recent addition, everything else seems to be doing well. I plan to start dosing with Excel, but slowly to prevent any issues with the RCS colony.

Are you supposed to only dose early in the day when the lights are on? Should you avoid dosing at night when the lights are off? After my planned initial dose of 1.5ml (I did less than the suggested amount) I plan to dose .5 ml every other day. Does anyone have a similiar size set-up and use Excel? Any reason not to use it? Reading online people don't seem to have issues with RCS as long as you don't overdose.

Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions!


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## troutsniffer (Dec 10, 2015)

You should be ok if you don't overdose, I'd be hesitant with a tank that small. But I have to ask, why not just do a diy setup with citric acid and baking soda? that tank is nice and small, 1 mix would probably last you over a month easily. Excel does not work as well as co2, and it does harm some plants. You gotta be careful with that stuff in general, glutaraldehyde is not good for you to even be touching.


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## Gaia (Jun 20, 2016)

troutsniffer said:


> You should be ok if you don't overdose, I'd be hesitant with a tank that small. But I have to ask, why not just do a diy setup with citric acid and baking soda? that tank is nice and small, 1 mix would probably last you over a month easily. Excel does not work as well as co2, and it does harm some plants. You gotta be careful with that stuff in general, glutaraldehyde is not good for you to even be touching.


Interesting! I've never heard of that.

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## Tropica North America (Jun 19, 2016)

There are a couple of items to touch on.

First, the Fluval Edge is not designed for Advanced plants such as UG. The lighting is simply not adequate to support that type of plant. Part of the reason why Tropica labels all of our plants with the care categories is for the hobbyist like yourself to identify which plants are suitable for the tank that you have. With that tank, I would recommend plants predominantly in the easy category and with the addition of CO2, you may be able to be successful with our medium plants.

Second, as ts indicated above, there is no substitute for CO2. As Excel is made by a competitor I don't want to speak negatively about it. The active ingredient in that product is glutaraldehyde which is an algaecide. It does a great job in keeping algae at bay in an aquarium which as a result will assist in the growth of plants, but there are questions as to how it actually works. There are rather inexpensive intro CO2 systems on the market (Tropica produces one) that you may consider.


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## _noob (Oct 30, 2016)

Excellent I really appreciate the advice from Tropica and everyone else. I have to say all my plants are Tropica after getting plants with snails and pests before. I am really impressed with the quality of your products!

I agree as most of my plants are the easy / green variety. The UG was more of a whim to see if I could get it to grow. I should add I replaced the stock fluval edge lights from the six gallon to the brighter led lights that are used in the 12 gallon fluval edge as an upgrade.

Which co2 package do you recommend? The tropica system nano or the system 60? It's primarily a shrimp tank so I don't want to risk the rcs colony being a first timer with co2.


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## Tropica North America (Jun 19, 2016)

My suggestion would be to go with the System 60 to start with. It's inexpensive and will allow for a more constant source of CO2 than a DIY setup. It's really easy to use and with the passive diffusion, it's a little bit more difficult to gas your tank.


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## _noob (Oct 30, 2016)

I picked up the Tropica 60 .... set up looks easy. I will have to tinker with it, because the diffuser is large and takes up alot of room in the corner of my tiny fluval edge (which is my fault lol). With the diffuser set up inside the tank it's basically sitting on top of the the stratum. Are there any other bell diffusers that are smaller that I can use with the Tropica 60 system? Since my dosing is only 20 ml ... I don't need such a large diffuser.


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## NPKstyle (May 20, 2011)

Hello, related question to Excel and SeaChem's Iron supplement. I did a water change on my 40gl the other day and added 1 capful of excel per 10 gallons changed as per the instructions. I think added .5 of a capful of the iron supplement as well. After filling my tank back up with water I noticed my amano shrimp were swimming around erratically and it got me kind of worried that I'd nuked them with stuff they don't like. They're all fine now, a couple days later, but after the change and swimming around like crazy they seemed to find a place to hide and didn't come out for a while. 

Do you suspect this a reaction to the excel? maybe the iron? or maybe a large water change just triggered them to hide and molt?


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

NPKstyle said:


> Hello, related question to Excel and SeaChem's Iron supplement. I did a water change on my 40gl the other day and added 1 capful of excel per 10 gallons changed as per the instructions. I think added .5 of a capful of the iron supplement as well. After filling my tank back up with water I noticed my amano shrimp were swimming around erratically and it got me kind of worried that I'd nuked them with stuff they don't like. They're all fine now, a couple days later, but after the change and swimming around like crazy they seemed to find a place to hide and didn't come out for a while.
> 
> Do you suspect this a reaction to the excel? maybe the iron? or maybe a large water change just triggered them to hide and molt?


If you have adult Amanos, It was probably a reaction to the water change. Shrimp often moult after a WC (it can also induce spawning behaviour). A shrimp that moults will hide as it's exo-skeleton hardens. Amanos are pretty bomb proof and if unhappy with their water conditions, they will escape (this is not to say that if your Amanos escape, they are doing so because of poor water quality). I hope that helps.

Best regards,

Stuart

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