Vallisneria Posted April 27, 2008 Report Share Posted April 27, 2008 Since there has been some discussion on this and I"ve had plenty of first hand experience with it , I was wondering why certain plants melt from using Excel. What causes the melting? Why do some use it and grow fine while others die and melt away? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted April 28, 2008 Report Share Posted April 28, 2008 It's because of the biocidal properties of the ingredient polycycloglutaracetal. This is a polymerized isomer of glutaraldehyde which is used as a tissue fixative in electron microscopy, as embalming fluid, and is a component of leather tanning solutions. And I know all of that because I looked it up on Wikipedia. Apparently some of the simpler plants and algae are susceptible to cell damage at certain concentrations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted April 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2008 Thanks for that Got to love wikipedia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted June 25, 2008 Report Share Posted June 25, 2008 I did a dip with some of my amazon swords, because they had bad algae growing on them. It ended up killing a few of them. But they seem to do ok with a dose every once in a while in the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegrandpoohbah Posted June 25, 2008 Report Share Posted June 25, 2008 I did a dip with some of my amazon swords, because they had bad algae growing on them. It ended up killing a few of them. But they seem to do ok with a dose every once in a while in the tank. How concentrated a dip are we talking about? I've never seen swords melt from Excel before and I used to double dose it quite frequently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted June 25, 2008 Report Share Posted June 25, 2008 It was 1 part excel to 10 parts water, they didn't quite melt away, but after a few days the leaves turned brown or clear and the plant was basically dead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbot Posted June 25, 2008 Report Share Posted June 25, 2008 It was 1 part excel to 10 parts water, they didn't quite melt away, but after a few days the leaves turned brown or clear and the plant was basically dead. that's a pretty concentrated mixture! how long did you leave the plants in the dip for? i have used the dip method to get rid of some BBA on my windelov java fern with one part excel to maybe 100 parts water (one cap full to about 2 cups of water) and left the plant in that mix for about 15 minutes. Algae died, turned pink, and was all but gone within 48 hours.... Excel is great for keep algae levels down - just don't over do it.... I've lost vals and nymphaea because of overdosing excel directly into the tank.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted June 27, 2008 Report Share Posted June 27, 2008 We read on some website that is the ratio to mix it at. I didn't know, and it was also to get rid of BBA. We left them in for about 3 minutes. Thanks for the words of wisdom. I would never have known that site was totally wrong. I will do that in the future if need be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dghofer Posted December 2, 2008 Report Share Posted December 2, 2008 My water currently has a greenish color. I'm doing water changes and hoping this will get rid of it. Would excel help get rid of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted December 2, 2008 Report Share Posted December 2, 2008 My water currently has a greenish color. I'm doing water changes and hoping this will get rid of it. Would excel help get rid of it? That would be an interesting experiment. I haven't heard of anyone using Excel to treat green water, but it might work. Or you could use a more standard treatment like blacking out the tank. More info on green water here: Aquarium Algae If you do give the Excel a try, let us know if it works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dghofer Posted December 3, 2008 Report Share Posted December 3, 2008 I haven't used excel yet because I live an hours drive from the nearest city where I would be able to get some. I'm doing daily water changes and it has definitely gotten better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dghofer Posted December 5, 2008 Report Share Posted December 5, 2008 I decided to get rid of the algae bloom with a UV sterilizer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted December 5, 2008 Report Share Posted December 5, 2008 UV's are the best way to get rid of algaes in the aquarium, especially green dust algae and green water. I would have never thought of using excel to get rid of green water either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EDGE Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Daphna is a good biological way to remove green water UV's are the best way to get rid of algaes in the aquarium, especially green dust algae and green water. I would have never thought of using excel to get rid of green water either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksp Posted February 21, 2010 Report Share Posted February 21, 2010 so what's so special about the excel? it seems to be popular but can kills lots of plants?? Kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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