Overdosing Flourish Excel Long Term

[Miss Wiggle]

been using flourish excel on my little tank as an alternative to Co2. I've been really pleased with it, virtually no algae, everything's healthy but not such rampant growth that I have to prune it every 5 minutes.

My little bottle was running low and Ian had a big bottle so I just filled mine up from his. However after I'd done so we looked at the bottles and realised the dosing quantities are much different, the little bottle must have been designed for easy dosing of small tanks and the big bottle more concentrated for dosing bigger tanks. sooooo I now have a mix somewhere in between the two and no way of working out exactly how much i should dose. Currently I've dosed a massive 1ml each morning then about 5ml after a significant water change.

So aside from never getting black beard algae what effects should I expect if I am overdosing all the time? What should I do?

 

[Underwurlde]

Q.) Are you:
a.) Concerned about your fish?
b.) Concerned about your plants?
c.) Concerned about inducing Algae?
d.) Concerned about the cost of continually dosing the stuff?

Andy

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Q.) Are you:
a.) Concerned about your fish?
b.) Concerned about your plants?
c.) Concerned about inducing Algae?
d.) Concerned about the cost of continually dosing the stuff?

Andy

a, b, c and any other effects.

the stuffs already paid for (by Ian) so it's not the money thing, when it runs out I'll get some more and can dose correctly again. But i've enough to keep the tank going for 9 months so it's a shame to waste it!

 

[Underwurlde]

OK, hopefully others can back me up / dispute / discuss...

I think your fish will be OK.
I think your plants will be OK - they can take quite a wide range of dosing (and hence the basis of EI). What they don't need they store.
I do not think that the dosing of trace induces algae per se.

If I were you therefore, I would dose (what, 1ml??) twice a week: Monday & Thursday, assuming you water change on a Saturday.

Andy

 

[Miss Wiggle]

OK, hopefully others can back me up / dispute / discuss...

I think your fish will be OK.
I think your plants will be OK - they can take quite a wide range of dosing (and hence the basis of EI). What they don't need they store.
I do not think that the dosing of trace induces algae per se.

If I were you therefore, I would dose (what, 1ml??) twice a week: Monday & Thursday, assuming you water change on a Saturday.

Andy

i don't mean dosing trace, it's flourish excel not flourish i'm on about, it's the Co2 alternative stuff to get carbon into your plants.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Could you explai what is the difference in suggested dosing between the two bottles ?

As far as I can see the recommended dosage levels for Flourish excell are:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIRECTIONS: On initial use or after a major (> 40%) water change, use 1 capful (5 mL) for every 40 L (10 gallons*).
Thereafter use 1 capful for every 200 L (50 gallons*) daily or every other day.
Dosing may be slowly increased in high-growth aquariums.
For smaller dosing please note that each cap thread is approximately 1 mL.
DO NOT OVERDOSE!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Those suggested doses are listed on Seachems web site for their bottles ranging from 100ml upto 20L

Al

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Could you explai what is the difference in suggested dosing between the two bottles ?

As far as I can see the recommended dosage levels for Flourish excell are:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIRECTIONS: On initial use or after a major (> 40%) water change, use 1 capful (5 mL) for every 40 L (10 gallons*).
Thereafter use 1 capful for every 200 L (50 gallons*) daily or every other day.
Dosing may be slowly increased in high-growth aquariums.
For smaller dosing please note that each cap thread is approximately 1 mL.
DO NOT OVERDOSE!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Those suggested doses are listed on Seachems web site for their bottles ranging from 100ml upto 20L

Al

i'll have a look tonight and see, at work now and the bottles are at home.

in fact Ian read them out to me last night while I was on the pc and told me they were different, so if they're not then i absolve myself of any responsibility for a silly post!

 

[MoreCoffee]

No problem .... I'm just a little confused as I used to dose one of my tanks with the full range of Flourish ferts
and am not aware that there are differences in how concentrated the excel is .... or any other reason why the
bottles should have different doses listed.

The only reason I'm aware of to dose different amounts is the volume of water in the tank.

If it's of any use, there is a link in my sig to an MS excel spreadsheet dosage calc for all the flourish ferts that can be used to check the dosage for any tank size (or upto 4 different tanks).

The calculations are based on the doses suggested by Seachem (that's what got me thinking about your post), but these levels can be adjusted as required.

Al

 

[Miss Wiggle]

No problem .... I'm just a little confused as I used to dose one of my tanks with the full range of Flourish ferts
and am not aware that there are differences in how concentrated the excel is .... or any other reason why the
bottles should have different doses listed.

The only reason I'm aware of to dose different amounts is the volume of water in the tank.

If it's of any use, there is a link in my sig to an MS excel spreadsheet dosage calc for all the flourish ferts that can be used to check the dosage for any tank size (or upto 4 different tanks).

The calculations are based on the doses suggested by Seachem (that's what got me thinking about your post), but these levels can be adjusted as required.

Al

cool thanks, i'm pretty happy with what i've been doing, well i'm pleased with the results therefore see no reason to change anything!

the more i think about it i think the 2 figures Ian read me were 1 capful for 40L on the little bottle and 1 capful for 200L on the big bottle...... which leads me to believe he's just got confused when reading the instructions.



I'll double check it when I get in

sorry and thankyou for humouring me!!

 

[Underwurlde]

This question intreagued me, so I dug a bit more. Just for the record then:
5x overdose seems OK: http/www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumap...c-problems/3806
But then again: http/www.arofanatics.com/forums/archive/...p/t-183380.html

There is confusion between the added 'CO2' and reduced levels of algae and the fact that excel contains Glutaraldehyde / Polycycloglutaracetal which cited as being a sporicide.

Andy

 

[xing]

[

the more i think about it i think the 2 figures Ian read me were 1 capful for 40L on the little bottle and 1 capful for 200L on the big bottle...... which leads me to believe he's just got confused when reading the instructions.

does this not just mean the larger bottle has a larger cap?