Excel or CO2 tablets

P

philip02180

AC Members
Nov 10, 2005
37
0
0
Stoneham, MA
I was wondering which is a better source of Carbon?
Seachem has this product called Excel but it seems to me lots of people
are using DIY CO2 (or similar tablets sold in LFS) instead.
Any opinion or experience with Excel? I was thinking of using Excel because it seems straight forward to use and doesnt require that much of my time.
 
Some of us however do use Excel in much larger water volumes where technical considerations do not allow the use of CO2 gas. It is less effective than pressurized CO2 IME, but far more so than relatively uneven DIY CO2.
 
djlen said:
What size tank do you have?
Excel is not cost effective in tanks of 30 gals. or so, and up.

Len
Click to expand...

I have a 75 gallon and I use Excel. No CO2. I can't afford a pressurized system and I don't trust DIY systems. I've heard too many horror stories. :eek: I'd rather lose all my plants than lose my clown loaches. :D

I have Cabomba growing in my tank like crazy. It grows about 6 inches in a week. I just dose Excel everyday and Flourish 2X per week. I tried to dose Flourish Iron but it makes my tank really cloudy. Root tabs in the substrate and I think you can grow most plants. JMO!!

Excel is great stuff.
 
It's a 15g tank. Subtrate is 50% flourite & 50% coarse gravel. It has a single strip light but i'm planning to upgrade it to a twin-tube strip.
I think I may just stick with Excel only...I think the fish is giving out enough CO2 already ;-)
Going back to Excel question. Would it taken up by filter media?
 
Last edited:
I think you will have great success with that set-up. Excel is perfect for that size tank. What kind of filter media? Carbon may take up some (maybe 10%) but our doses are off by that much anyway so you should be ok. I don't even use Carbon filtering in my tanks (I believe most people here don't). Just use mechanical...that's all you need (other than the obvious...biological). Mechanical won't do anything to Excel. Neither will surface aggitation.

With that set-up and the upgraded lights...you can grow just about anything IMO. Good luck with the tank.
 
I've been using Excel combined with Greg Watson's dry ferts in my 55 gal. planted tank for close to a year with excellent results. I don't want to give up the bio-wheels on my Emperor 400 filter so Excel has been my choice for supplemental carbon. I dose approximately 5ml./day and 25ml. the day after my weekly 30% PWC. I buy it in 4L jugs and the cost has been manageable so far.
 
If you do go the excel route, be very careful when dosing. I recently bought a bottle for the first time and it had the wrong label on it. It was a 2 liter bottle with a 1 liter bottle label on it I think. Anyway, the dosing is by capfuls and the capful on my bottle was 10 ml instead of 5 ml. I ended up putting in twice as much without realizing it. It killed a few of my fish.

I contacted Seachem to find out what happened and that's when they told me about the mislabeling. They are trying to "smooth" things over with me now. Initially I was really mad but I think they're going to make things better.

A good side effect though was ALL of my algea died.
 
Every size bottle of Excel I've ever bought has that same label claiming the cap is 5ml from the 100 ml bottle to the 1 liter bottle. I do love the stuff though.

Bill

PS
I don't think price is that bad if you buy the big bottles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom