Flourish excel

[Navfish]

I got flourish excel a couple days ago and I tried spot treating, and look at these leaf 3 days later after dosing! But not without some holes in the leaf thou

 

[Byron]

Do not use Excel for algae. The ingredient in Excel is glutaraldehyde, just look that up. At recommended doses it will kill some plant species and bacteria.

Having said that, I am not suggesting the holes are due to Excel. And there are members here with more experience than I have that will recommend it as a so-called "carbon" additive. Enough said.

In a planted tank, "problem" algae is caused by an imbalance of light and nutrients, and it is eliminated by re-establishing or establishing the balance. If you want to pursue this, please provide data on the light and any fertilizers. Also a photo of the entire tank will give us an idea of what may be needed.

 

[Navfish]

Do not use Excel for algae. The ingredient in Excel is glutaraldehyde, just look that up. At recommended doses it will kill some plant species and bacteria.

Having said that, I am not suggesting the holes are due to Excel. And there are members here with more experience than I have that will recommend it as a so-called "carbon" additive. Enough said.

In a planted tank, "problem" algae is caused by an imbalance of light and nutrients, and it is eliminated by re-establishing or establishing the balance. If you want to pursue this, please provide data on the light and any fertilizers. Also a photo of the entire tank will give us an idea of what may be needed.

Okay will do!

I will send a picture of the tank when I get home.

The fertilizer I use 2 times a week is flourish and I use to recommended amount.

My light runs from 10am to 8pm. The light is part of the top-fin 37 gallon starter Kit

 

[Byron]

Okay will do!

I will send a picture of the tank when I get home.

The fertilizer I use 2 times a week is flourish and I use to recommended amount.

My light runs from 10am to 8pm. The light is part of the top-fin 37 gallon starter Kit

I can see some issues already. The photoperiod (10 hours) is long, but can you post a link to data on the light? Type and spectrum we need to know.

If the Flourish is the Flourish Comprehensive Supplement, this is good fertilizer, though twice a week may be contributing to the algae issue. The photo will help here, along with the light data.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have used Excel for over 20 years without issue. I do not use it to treat algae, I do not overdose it and I only add it once a week after a water change. I also am not a big fan of Seachem ferts. I am a big fan of Tropica ferts and have used them even longer than the Excel.
http://tropica.com/en/

The two ferts. from Tropica are one which is comprehensive and the other eliminates the Nitrogen and Phosphorus.

Premium Nutrition has all the required micro nutrients and is recommended for all plant aquariums. Specialised Nutrition further has macro nutrients and is suitable for aquariums with many plants.

I would go a bit further with when to use what. Heavy planting with light stocking means I use the Premium because the fish do not make enough nitrogen etc. The same level of plants but with lots of fish means I only use the Specialized since the fish are making the macro nutrients. In some tanks I use a bit of both ferts.

Working with the two ferts you will get a pretty quick idea of what any tank needs. The only time I would consider adding ferts more than weekly is in a high tech pressurized co2 added tank with high light levels. I had one of these for 10 years and it was lots of work.

Here is a tale of fertilizing woe. I have kept clown loaches for many years. They stared out in a 75 gal. Not long after I had the tank going well, I developed an algae problem. Every week the plants would gather more algae. Nothing I did changed this. I did some nutty things to deal with the algae and nothing worked. Then the 75 leaked and I upgraded to a 150. I moved everything from the 75 to the 150 and added more of everything.

It was not long before the algae was even worse in the 150 that the 75. Over the years I pulled plants and bleach dipped them. I scrubbed anubias leaves to remove algae. Nothing seemed to help. And then a light finally went off in my head. This tank only needed micros added. I had underestimated what the fish contributed to the fertilizer needs for years. I stopped adding any nitrogen or phosphorus by eliminating the macros. And after 20+ years of battling red algae, it was mostly gone. It has been better for almost 2 months now.

Planted tanks have a learning curve just like everything else in life we have to master. And because of the huge variety of plants available to hobbyists, every tank is unique and it takes time to learn what the proper balance of ferts, light and co2 is for each tank.

A good rule of thumb is to start at the low end of dosing things and if that is too little, increase the dose some. The plants will tell you when they are happy or not. Also, it is important to research plants just as we do with fish to make sure they are a good fit in a tank.

 

[Uberhoust]

I have the same Top Fin light from a 37 gallon tank. I don't have the exact color temp of the light but compared to a Nicrew G2 light next to it I can say it has a stronger bluish cast to it than the Nicrew. I would say the light is closer to 6500 to 7500 kelvin. I will see if I can get something to measure it.

 

[Uberhoust]

Light is likely between 6600k to 9000k. Variable results with light meter.

 

[Navfish]

Light is likely between 6600k to 9000k. Variable results with light meter.

Do not use Excel for algae. The ingredient in Excel is glutaraldehyde, just look that up. At recommended doses it will kill some plant species and bacteria.

Having said that, I am not suggesting the holes are due to Excel. And there are members here with more experience than I have that will recommend it as a so-called "carbon" additive. Enough said.

In a planted tank, "problem" algae is caused by an imbalance of light and nutrients, and it is eliminated by re-establishing or establishing the balance. If you want to pursue this, please provide data on the light and any fertilizers. Also a photo of the entire tank will give us an idea of what may be needed.

Here is a picture of the tank

 

[Byron]

Are you using any plant fertilizers? Which if yes.

The light is a bit on the cool (blue) side if the K numbers are accurate. Plants need red and blue but primarily red to photosynthesize; adding green does improve plant response. This is likely because this light is closest to natural sunlight under which the plants evolved. Having used several tubes over the last 12+ years, I found the best results unquestionably from light in the 5000K-6500K range. I had dual tubes over a 90g for one year with a 6500K and a 10,000K and this resulted in poor plant response, and some algae. Blue is known to encourage problem algae.

I would also get some floating plants; the shade these provide will discourage algae below. And I would reduce the photoperiod maybe to 8 hours.

 

[Navfish]

Are you using any plant fertilizers? Which if yes.

The light is a bit on the cool (blue) side if the K numbers are accurate. Plants need red and blue but primarily red to photosynthesize; adding green does improve plant response. This is likely because this light is closest to natural sunlight under which the plants evolved. Having used several tubes over the last 12+ years, I found the best results unquestionably from light in the 5000K-6500K range. I had dual tubes over a 90g for one year with a 6500K and a 10,000K and this resulted in poor plant response, and some algae. Blue is known to encourage problem algae.

I would also get some floating plants; the shade these provide will discourage algae below. And I would reduce the photoperiod maybe to 8 hours.

Thanks for the help and I will follow ur advice!

 

[Byron]

You missed the question on plant fertilizer, this can cause algae too, both by using too much or by not using enough.

 

[Navfish]

You missed the question on plant fertilizer, this can cause algae too, both by using too much or by not using enough.

I answered that before I believe. I just use seachem flourish 2 times a week!

 

[Byron]

I answered that before I believe. I just use seachem flourish 2 times a week!

Yes, sorry. I would reduce this to one dose at recommended amount, following the water change. I had black brush algae when I went to two doses, and it disappeared when I went back toone. You just need to find the balance.