spot dosing excel

[cheeky_monkey]

I'm noticing hair algae on my plants. I just read a thread where it was suggested to spot dose excel. Can anyone advise me how to do this?

 

[Austin.b]

I use a plastic syringe. You can get it from CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens. (the ones used to give baby's liquid medicine)
Only use the daily dose recommended on the bottle. Make sure to turn off filters and powerheads. Then just apply to the algea you want to get rid of

 

[fort384]

Yup, that is the easiest way. Most pharmacy counters will give you some medicine droppers for free, and they work great for spot dosing and measuring water for testing.

In my experience, you can dose a little more than the recommended dose without issues (unless you have some very sensitive inverts in the tank, like CRS). When spot treating, I will dose up to 2X the recommended dose.

It will effectively kill hair algae, but it will not solve your underlying problem, so that is something you will want to look into if looking for a long term solution.

 

[cheeky_monkey]

Thanks to both of you. I will give that a go tomorrow when I have time. How long do you think until I see results?

I believe the issue is the close proximity of the tank to a glass door which allows too much light to the tank. This will be fixed very shortly once we move house.

 

[DragonFish71]

When my tank is drained for a water change, I use a spray bottle if I have a large amount to cover. Just set the bottle to mist, add the amount of Excel you need, and spray the spots.

 

[fort384]

Thanks to both of you. I will give that a go tomorrow when I have time. How long do you think until I see results?

I believe the issue is the close proximity of the tank to a glass door which allows too much light to the tank. This will be fixed very shortly once we move house.

Results are usually evident the next day though it takes multiple dosings to eradicate it.

 

[cheeky_monkey]

Ok well I did the initial dose as per the bottles instructions. It looked kind of oily as it came out of the syringe, that's normal yes?

I like the spray bottle idea I might try that way next time.

Should I dose daily until its gone?

I do a 50% PWC each week so as per the bottle do I follow that and do the initial dose instructions again after each PWC or just stick to the lower dose from now on?

And also, once its all gone can I continue excel to keep it away?

 

[fort384]

Yes to "oily"
...yes to daily

...lower dose is fine after pwc and yes to continued use