ArtistGardener
Aquarium Advice Freak
I started using Flourish Excel in my planted 20 gallon tank a few weeks back at the recommended dosage and my little corydoras habrosus just went nuts--he acted like he wanted to jump out of the water, did rolls and dives. I had to remove him to my hospital tank where he now resides with very red gills. I tried reintroducing him after a 50% water change but he still went nuts--and was in definite distress. My shrimp all seemed fine, until Sunday night when I came home from vacation and all of them were obviously ill (I had a neighbor feeding fish daily and add Excel once during the four days, just the recommended dose which she insists they got--no more). I removed all of them that I could find from the tank and put them in fresh water. This morning, they are all dead.
None of my other fish showed any signs of problems, but I did a 50% change nonetheless. Before doing the water change, I tested the water and got these results (nothing unusual for my tanks):
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-5
pH-8.2
phosphate-0
GH-12, KH-14
I have heard others say Excel doesn't harm their cory cats or shrimp…. so what is wrong? I am reluctant to continue using it.
None of my other fish showed any signs of problems, but I did a 50% change nonetheless. Before doing the water change, I tested the water and got these results (nothing unusual for my tanks):
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-5
pH-8.2
phosphate-0
GH-12, KH-14
I have heard others say Excel doesn't harm their cory cats or shrimp…. so what is wrong? I am reluctant to continue using it.