Seachem Flourish Excel

[bobbdd]

OK, I'm using Kent Freshwater Plantfood. My tanks are doing well.

I was at a lfs and the guy insisted that I add Seachem's Flourish Excel.

It is an organic carbon source.........what do you think??

 

[farm41]

I have heard some say they have had success. It's no where close to the results that can be gained from pressurized co2, not even as good as diy yeast made co2.

What size tank? What do you have for lights, substrate, plants, and fertilizer?

 

[tjudy]

I personally would not add both fertilizers. Flourish Excel has the basic Flourish mixture with the added carbon source. Just like Flourish Iron has the added iron. If you dose both the Kent adn the Seachem product according to package, you will be over dosing on basic nutrients. If you go half and halh, I doubt that the amount of carbon you are adding will make any difference at all.

I agree with Matt... carbon dioxide gas is better.

 

[2la]

Ted, I don't think that's right. Flourish Excel does not include the entire Flourish formulation, nor does Flourish Potassium, Flourish Iron, Flourish Nitrogen, etc. There's nothing to indicate such on the labels or on their website, and if you've ever seen Flourish and Flourish Excel side-by-side(I've used both--together--in the past), you know they just CAN'T be the same! The former is brown, opaque, and has a meaty smell to it, while the latter is clear and has a smell that sorta makes me wanna drink it (but not as much as Tropica Master Grow does...).

2la, enrolling himself in a 12-step program :roll:

 

[farm41]

12 step

Does that mean you are adding 12 kinds of fertilizer? Or just adding it in 12 doses? :lol:

Co2 gas is all I'd recommend, either way, diy yeast or bottled gas, the excel is just going to separate you from more of your money. I'd rather spend my money on fish or more tanks.

HTH

 

[tjudy]

It never amazes me how wrong I can be. Thanks 2la.. I was taking a person's word for it. I pulled out my Seachem product catalog and if confirms your statement.

I had stopped using Flourish and Flourish Iron together, because I was having algae problems. I was told that dosing both was doubling the basics. I switched to just Flourish Iron because the tanks are substrateless. In my tanks with Flourite I just use Flourish. The tanks have fish, so I might have been getting too much nutrient from the combination of Flourish and fish food.

 

[2la]

Ted, your experience seems to be consistent with a few others I've ran across in various forums. The one consistent factor that may underlie all these situations is that the Excel was added when it wasn't need, i.e., when lighting was high and CO2 was being injected. In smaller setups with lighting roughly around 1.5-2W/gal (so as to make CO2 injection somewhat trickier or even inappropriate), Excel has its role. Even though the label says that it can be used in conjunction with CO2 injection, I've heard enough horror stories to shy me away from ever actually trying that. No need, really, if there's enough CO2 in the water in the first place...