# Seachem Flourish and Flourish Excel questions



## vaetki (Jul 7, 2015)

I have a 5.5 gallon walstad tank (organic dirt under sand, live plants, etc.). I have wisteria, java fern, anubias, java moss, two banana plants, and frogbit in the tank along with two MTS and my betta. I spent a good amount of money on my little boy so I'm being extra cautious with what I put in my tank. Thus bringing me to my question: do I need to dose with Flourish/Flourish Excel for my plants to thrive? The light I'm using is a "Finnex Stingray LED Light, 7000K + Actinic Blue + 660 Red". I'm asking mainly for my java moss and frogbit, I'm not seeing much growth from either yet, which is why I wanted to try dosing. Is this product 100% safe with bettas or are there risks I should be aware of? Thanks for reading! 

EDIT: I'd rather under-dose than anything. If anyone could tell me how much to add to a 5g tank, I'd appreciate it because I am just awful at math lol. x_x


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

vaetki said:


> I have a 5.5 gallon walstad tank (organic dirt under sand, live plants, etc.). I have wisteria, java fern, anubias, java moss, two banana plants, and frogbit in the tank along with two MTS and my betta. I spent a good amount of money on my little boy so I'm being extra cautious with what I put in my tank. Thus bringing me to my question: do I need to dose with Flourish/Flourish Excel for my plants to thrive? The light I'm using is a "Finnex Stingray LED Light, 7000K + Actinic Blue + 660 Red". I'm asking mainly for my java moss and frogbit, I'm not seeing much growth from either yet, which is why I wanted to try dosing. Is this product 100% safe with bettas or are there risks I should be aware of? Thanks for reading!
> 
> EDIT: I'd rather under-dose than anything. If anyone could tell me how much to add to a 5g tank, I'd appreciate it because I am just awful at math lol. x_x


You do not need flourish if you are using soil. Excel is at your discretion/judgment. I use it in most of my tanks (I also use flourish in tanks that don't have root tabs-i don't do dirt tanks anymore-too much mess when I want to rescape) and have and no adverse effect on bettas (or shrimp). For a 5g 0.5ml (or cc) if you have a needleless syringe, I'd have to check how many drops that is..


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## vaetki (Jul 7, 2015)

Aqua Aurora said:


> You do not need flourish if you are using soil. Excel is at your discretion/judgment. I use it in most of my tanks (I also use flourish in tanks that don't have root tabs-i don't do dirt tanks anymore-too much mess when I want to rescape) and have and no adverse effect on bettas (or shrimp). For a 5g 0.5ml (or cc) if you have a needleless syringe, I'd have to check how many drops that is..


I have a syringe to use, I just wasn't sure how many drops to put in! But thanks so much, I'll most likely start dosing with Excel then


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## christinamac (Jan 2, 2016)

Be careful with Excel. Make sure you don't have any plant species that are sensitive to it. Excel has been known to cause crypt melt, for example. I believe that invertebrates like shrimp and snails are also sensitive to it.

As long as you don't have anything in your aquarium that might be adversely affected by Excel, it is a great product to use.


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## vaetki (Jul 7, 2015)

christinamac said:


> Be careful with Excel. Make sure you don't have any plant species that are sensitive to it. Excel has been known to cause crypt melt, for example. I believe that invertebrates like shrimp and snails are also sensitive to it.
> 
> As long as you don't have anything in your aquarium that might be adversely affected by Excel, it is a great product to use.


Oooo, yeah that's why I am hesitant about using it! I had a ghost shrimp a while back in my 6 gallon tank and it passed a day after using Excel  I'll have to do some more poking around on the internet about it affecting MTS or the plants I have. Thanks!


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Sorry I forgot to mention that: some plants that don't do well with excel include crypts.. for some reason my regular java fenr also doesn't like it (narrow leaf has no issue with it.. go figure), it melts/kills vals, subwasertang, and anacharis. Some people claim they can dose it in tanks with these plants (specifically vals) and not halve melt. I believe those people have very densely planted tanks with other species of very fast growing plants that absorb the excel before it does damage to the listed plants.
How much excel did you dose in the ghost shrimp tank? I do a 3x dose in my husband's 12g long cherry shrimp tank, and a 2x dose in the cookie jar that has a few cherries. No issues I've also done the high dosing in tanks with otos (overly sensitive fish) without trouble. Ghost shrimp are mass bred for feeder shrimp so they usually aren't that healthy/long lasting. Might have been coincidence.


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## vaetki (Jul 7, 2015)

Aqua Aurora said:


> Sorry I forgot to mention that: some plants that don't do well with excel include crypts.. for some reason my regular java fenr also doesn't like it (narrow leaf has no issue with it.. go figure), it melts/kills vals, subwasertang, and anacharis. Some people claim they can dose it in tanks with these plants (specifically vals) and not halve melt. I believe those people have very densely planted tanks with other species of very fast growing plants that absorb the excel before it does damage to the listed plants.
> How much excel did you dose in the ghost shrimp tank? I do a 3x dose in my husband's 12g long cherry shrimp tank, and a 2x dose in the cookie jar that has a few cherries. No issues I've also done the high dosing in tanks with otos (overly sensitive fish) without trouble. Ghost shrimp are mass bred for feeder shrimp so they usually aren't that healthy/long lasting. Might have been coincidence.


Ah okay, I did a bit of reading and saw that it can harm java fern and since I have so much of it in my tank, I think it would be safer to not dose at all. I honestly can't even remember how much I dosed back then, it was some time over the Summer and I only did it once, I believe. It just bummed me out because he had so much personality and he seemed pretty healthy. I had him for a little while so when he passed, I thought it must have been from dosing, but yeah, it could have just been a bad coincidence. My wife doses her heavily planted 20g that has cherry shrimp and they seem perfectly fine too, so... SHRUGS! My wisteria is filling in nicely, I'm excited for it to turn into a jungle  it's doing great so far with just the dirt and light.


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## olgamc (Jan 2, 2016)

Hey vaetki, what kind of soil are you using and did you mineralize? This has nothing to do with your question, just that I am having trouble with my own tank.


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