Dosing with Seachem Flourish Comprehensive and Excel

[Stussi613]

I finally have Discus in my new 125g setup. At the moment I have a massive sword, a somewhat smaller sword, vals and blyxxa japonica growing in black flourite at the back of the tank and after my fish settle down I'll have around 1-1.5 watts per gallon of lighting running on the tank. No C02 and the filtration is from a Rena xp4. I'm not sure how much, and how often I should be dosing with flourish and excel. Anybody have any advice for me?

And before you ask, pics of the build are forthcoming, I'm just waiting for my last 5 fish to come in before I post them. :D

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Usually the directions on the bottle are accurate, but if you still need more information, try this link.

http://www.seachem.com/Library/Calculators.html

"I will share some of my experience with plants and hope it helps. I am sure there are some more experienced people here who can jump in as well I have been doing this for over a year but am still learning as I go.

I think in order to properly advise you we need some more info about your tank.

So if you could post the size of your tank, (2 ft x 20 in tall but how wide is it or how many gallons is it?

How many watts is the bulb you mentioned?

You said that the bulb is 12000k. That is not a weak bulb for plants, (it can be quite bright actually) the 12000k rating refers more to a color spectrum than strength but it is considered a daylight bulb. (the bulbs on my high light tank are only 10,000k and I have had amazing results! )

I have used excel before and I think it is a great product. Although to get the best results I had been advised to dose 1/2 the suggested amt every other day in my med-low light tank. Some people use it daily as part of their dosing routine. Basically it is a liquid form of carbon and is only available to the plants as a nutrient for 24 hours.

I found that to be too much as it increased algae.

One thing I have learned is that you usually have to take suggestions as a starting place and experiment on your own with what is right for your tank. How much you need to dose, of what, and how often will depend largely on the type of plants you have, how many, how much light they are getting, for how many hours per day and how heavy your bio-load is in your tank.

As for brown leaves on your amazon swords, they might need more fertilizers at the root as they are heavy root feeders. The same goes for crypts, you should (if you don't already) put some root tabs under the gravel as that might help. The Java ferns and anubias will get their nutrients from the water column so you don't have to worry about them. Most root tabs last about 3 months and you just push one under the root of your swords and crypts.

If the tank is not too large you might want to look into doing DIY CO2 and mixing up your own yeast solution. It gets harder with a tank larger than about 30 gallons though.

I think if you are not ready to do anything with CO2 then Excel is a good option. You could start with half a dose once or twice a week and see how it goes. And if you are having good results with the other ferts then keep doing what you are doing.

Also remember to give any new change at least 3 weeks to start to see results as it can take a while for changes to really make a big impact on your plants."

Another good piece of advice I found for you at:

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=125727



Good Luck.

[discuspaul]

Jeff's advice is right on the mark.
Besides using fert root tabs, I dose my 75 gal planted discus tank pretty much just the way Jeff has described, using Excel in combination with Flourish Comprehensive Supplement, and all my plants do quite well - you may want to have a look:
http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/h357/discuspaul/redrubys
Good luck !

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Nice job Paul on the tank. It looks amazing!!! Thank you for sharing.

[discuspaul]

Thanks Jeff,
It's one of those "simple is better" jobs, imo - K.I.S.S.

[jcardona1]

Excel DOES NOT cause algae as mentioned in post #2. Algae is caused by too much light and/or not enough co2/ferts. In fact, Excel is used an algae treatment, by dosing directly over the affected areas. I've dosed 3x the recommended dose on a daily basis with no negative effects. It's really hard to overdose with Excel. I currently dose 3-4x the recommended amount in my 3g planted tank, and I even add 2x the amount to my high-tech tank that has pressurized co2 going. Blyxa japonica can be a delicate plant, so I'd give it all the carbon you can, and dose daily. It's not difficult to grow, but it can melt away if conditions aren't right.

Also, just keep in mind that watts/gallon is a useless and archaic rule, and can only be used with T8/T12 lighting, and even then isn't accurate. This is because of the new types of lighting these days (PC, T5HO, LED, etc). Not to mention the PAR at the substrate of a tank will depend on the fixture height. Take for example a 20g tall and a 20g long. Both would have the same amount of light according to the wpg rule, but the plants in the 20g long would be receiving A LOT more light than the 20g tall because of the difference in tank height :)

[Mathman]

I dose my plants excel and flourish excel and aside from that I inject co2 at a rate of 3 bps and the results are simply amazing.