Excel in nonplanted tanks

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blizowman1

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Dec 1, 2011
Messages
648
So excel is supposed to help plants and battle the algae away. Does any one use it or can it be used in a nonplanted tank to help keep algae from growing
 
Flourish Excel is an organic form of carbon that plants need to photosynthesize. People with planted tanks use it when they aren't running CO2. One of the ingredients in Excel supposedly works as algaecide but Seachem doesn't market this product for that purpose. If you have algae try using a syringe to spot treat a certain area that has algae growth and see what happens.
 
It depends how large the tank is and the inhabitants. You can spot dose with Excel to kill algae in specific places. But if you are growing a lot; Reduce photoperiod, Up water changes and reduce food. Reduce wattage of light if needed.
High light is much more maintenance.

A little algae is fine. I wipe front and side glass and leave back wall alone as some of my fish/Shrimp/snails eat algae.

A balanced tank may see some algae but not huge outbreaks.
 
If your question is for me then yes. I would turn off your filters and or powerheads to let the water settle, fill the syringe with the amount of excel needed for your size tank, then inject excel directly onto the algae, and repeat every day or every other day on different spots. Don't forget to turn your equipment back on after about 15 to 30 mins.
However now that I think about it if you don't have plants in the tank to use that excel your putting in there then you may run into an overdose problem. If there's an algae problem in the tank then you really need to find out the type of algae you have, it's cause, and other ways to resolve it before going with chemicals.
 
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