Seachem Excel Vs Co2 Injection

[nino]

What's the general consensus, is Seachem Excel any good for tanks, seeing as how it is a source of Carbon? I'm interested in making a CO2 generator but don't have the time to really commit to the project and making sure everything goes ok with it. I've got loads of work to do with school right now (Organic Chemistry anyone?). Anyways, I've heard a couple good things, but it'd be nice to hear more pros and cons from someone knowledgable on the matter. Thank you!

 

[zig]

Excel can be very effective for lower light tanks under 2 WPG, for highlight tanks its not that effective, although in both cases CO2 is preferable, if you had a lower light tank Excel would definatly help if you didnt want the trouble of useing and making up DIY mixes, so for somebody in your position its probably ideal if you use the correct lighting and preferably a smaller tank, with larger tanks dosing Excel daily can get relatively expensive.

 

[nino]

I've got a ten gallon that I want to experiment with (not ready to tackle the 20 or 55). Not sure what the WPG is since they are mini-compact flourescent bulbs. They say 20W each, but they are not made for aquariums (99cent store!) so I'm not entirely sure if it is the same.

 

[zig]

Its hard to know what to advise nino, those little CF bulbs dont have great light distribution but they can have great local intensity directly under which you could easily grow highlight plants.

The problem you may have is knowing what spectrum the auctual bulbs are, ideally we want the bulbs to be full spectrum somewhere between 5500 and 6500 kelvin a good lot of the CF bulbs come in at around 2700k which will be a quite yellow type light but fine for growing plants and there again a lot of them come in at under 2000k which really isnt much good for growing plants at all, i know Walmart do 6500k CF bulbs for about $5 each i think these are 10w or 15w, they may also do the 2700k bulbs which would do the job as well.

btw the WPG guideline breaks down for small tanks anyway, but with 40 watts over a 10 gallon you may be pushing it as regards not using co2, you may have issues with algae if you dont so i would either definatly use the Excel or lower the wattage with the Walmart bulbs (and be sure of getting the right spectrum as well) but even with the lower wattage the Excel would still benifit the plants.

HTH