Flourish Excel

[Fishnut]

I have been told by a reliable source that this stuff does a great job of killing BBA, so I bought some.  I've got to remove all the plants from the tank because I have valesneria and madagascar laceleaf plants in there, which apparently don't survive the dosing.

So my question to all my plant people is...what about my fish?!  I cringe at the thought of adding any chemical to the tank because I have species of fish in there that I most certainly won't be able to replace.

Has anyone had any negative experiences dosing their tank with this stuff?

[Yams]

Why not add a few SAE's instead of dosing if you are afraid of chemicals? A predator to the BBA!

I had a horrible BBA outbreak a while back, and the SAE's were the best thing I ever got. Since I do not add CO2 I am sure that was my issue, but the SAE's destroyed the BBA with a vengence. Took them a week or so to start eating, but once they did, they have never stopped.

Just a alternative suggestion..

[Jeff1192]

Your vals will be safe with dosing Excel for BBA. Just ramp up the dosing slowly. I had that bad BBA problem a while back and dosed Excel for a few weeks (among a whole bunch of other things to get rid of it). I had a huge clump of val in my tank and they were not affected at all.

My fish didn't seem to mind either. It's essentially a form of carbon....and you're not adding a lot compared to the volume of the tank.

Jeff

[Fishnut]

Yes, the SAE's are a good idea.  I've been avoiding them because they grow larger than I would like and I would need quite a few small ones for the amount of BBA in the tank.

Has anyone seen any healthy looking SAE's in the LFS's?

Perhaps someone has a few I can buy that are already large.  I'll put an ad in the classifieds.

[morrom]

I  used Excel in my tank after a bad break out of Rhizoclonium, I tried every thing to get rid of the stuff with out much sucess until I used it. I think the problem might have been to much light, but man is it hard to ID the problem...
My fish never seemed to mind it but that stuff WILL kill your shrimp, I did a lot of reading before i used it and people were 50/50 if it would harm shrimp. Let me tell you they will die  , I learned the hard way.
I did see some SAE at BA a while back, that is were I got mine.

Trevor

[Fishnut]

Well, I haven't used it yet.  There are some SAE's in BA Innes but they're tiny.  I'm going to need a dozen at that size before they'll put a dent in my algae problems...and I'll have to wait through a 6 week quarantine before adding them to the tank.  I'm not too sure what's more nerve wracking...adding a chemical or adding new fish.  Ugh...this is one of the crummy parts of having fish that aren't readily available!!

[Yams]

With SAE you can rehome them after you have controlled your BBA problem.... and keep only a few if you buy a dozen or so since they are small.... lots of options, but... it will take at least 6-7+ weeks to even start making a dent on your BBA problem, which could be detremental to some of your plants if they have BBA on them....

[magnosis]

There are some SAE's in BA Innes

Please do make sure.  It happened to me 3 times that I call and ask, get a "yes", drive 45 minutes to find out they aren't SAE but CAE or Flying Foxes.  It was very frustrating for me....


Also, I'm surprised no one has suggested this before, but Hydrogen Peroxyde does miracles against BBA.  In relatively small, localized doses, it works wonderfully. Done it myself.  IIRC I dosed a total of 2, then 3, then 5 ppm relative to the tank volume, with 2 days between each treatment, and followed with a 50-75% water change at the end of the week.  Take a syringe and dose a few ml directly on the affected area.  Don't go beyond 5ppm in your tank because the more fragile plants will take a hit.  The fish absolutely love it (H2O2 breaks down really fast and provides an O2 boost, which is a good thing).  My mini-journal can be found here.

[Fishnut]

I live 10 minutes away from BA Innes, and I did see them there...pretty tiny little guys though.  I'm going this afternoon to see if they are indeed the algae eaters or if they're flying foxes.

I'm not going to use Hydrogen peroxide in my tank.  There's more of a risk to the fish using that stuff than the florish excel.  At least the floruish is INTENDED for aquarium use and has (I assume) gone through whatever product tests that the company does to make sure it's safe to use as directed. 

If the piece of driftwood that the BBA is covering wasn't so darn big, I would just pull it out, treat with the hydrogen peroxide, then rinse it and scrub it well and put it back in.

Hmmm...I wonder how much of a job that would really be?  Stupid BBA...

I'm curious...if Flourish excel kills vals and likely my lace leaf plant, what exactly does it help grow?

[wolfiewill]

I have used Exel for years with no problems. Use as per instructions on bottles. It also has the added benefit of softening some algae for easier removal. Especially dust or spot algae that grows on the glass.