# Excel Overdose



## Islandgaliam (Jan 27, 2014)

I read last night where overdosing excel can harm the fish, but it didn't say what was considered an overdose.

Does anyone know about this?


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## tankman12 (Nov 13, 2012)

I have never had a problem. But I heard if you sort of spot treat and you hit a cory with it,it will kill them.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Anything that is more than the dosing instructions on the bottle. Most of the time it won't harm anything (depending on size of tank, the bigger the tank the less possibility) if it's like 1ml over but I'd just be careful to not overdose if you can!

If you have enough plants actively growing and you dose when you are supposed to; before the lights come on in the morning, then you shouldn't have issue. Most of the issues come about when you dose towards the afternoon or night time, this can screw up the 'natural' cycle of things. Here's a pictoral reference for you:









The issues come when the dissolved oxygen fall at night and the pH swings, if you dose other time than morning then you'll get some issue which depending on the fish species can be very harmful. Catfish in general can die with depleted oxygen at night so best to stick to normal dosing if you can.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

Hmm, that's interesting lilnaugrim - thanks for the info. I usually dose Excel in the morning when I feed the fish, but sometimes I forget, and just add it later in the day. I never knew that could harm the fish. Note to self: always dose ferts in the morning. :shock:


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, best time is do them just before lights on.

Okay, maybe they won't ultimately kill your fish if you dose a little later but it can account for pH drops and oxygen drops. You'll see catfish farmers have an aeration system for their catfish and they monitor oxygen like hawks! If the o2 drops too low they've got to get their aeration system going or they're going to see a lot of floating dead catfish in the morning! Likely we won't have the exact same effect in our tanks but it's still best to dose in the early morning if you can so you can follow that pattern up there: dose co2 or Excel, plants soak it up by noon but fish are still taking up o2 and respiring; making co2. At night, plants don't photosynthesize which means there is a build up of co2 and a huge drop in o2 as the plants stop making o2, that's when the dangers occur.


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## Islandgaliam (Jan 27, 2014)

Thanks soooo much for this info. I also have dosed after the fish are fed, and the lights are on. I will definitely change that, and dose in the morning before work (lights don't come on until I get home, but I am going to change that to 5 hours on, 4 hours off once I remember to figure out the timer)

Bubblo got his new tank day before yesterday; after I dosed yesterday, I noticed him laying on the bottom, and I totally freaked! I watched him last night, and he got better, and appeared to be his normal self when I checked on him this morning.

At first I thought maybe it was because he didn't get acclimated correctly on accident (but he seemed fine the first night); the lid on his cup wasn't on tight, he got out, and it was about 20 minutes before I noticed.

Also, I had some hair algae in the 20g, and when I did the excel dose each day, I shot it at the plants with the algae; it got horribly worse. and some of the Ludwigia Persnusis (spelling probably isn't right there) melted away.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

If you do happen to overdose and you realize it, you can do a quick water change to hopefully take out the extra carbon dioxide.

Some plants really hate Excel, of those I know Anacharis will immediately melt as well. Ludwigia shouldn't be so sensitive though and I feel something else was at work there. When I do dose Excel daily (only stopped once for a month and regretted stopping) I generally just pour the capfull into the tank and that's always worked for me at least. It got rid of my hair algae but if you dosing Excel you need to dose Flourish or some sort of liquid fert as well. You should also preferably have at least medium light if not high lighting otherwise your dosing has gone to waste pretty much. Root tabs or a NPT would also be preferable if you are going to dose Excel or co2 in general.


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## Islandgaliam (Jan 27, 2014)

lilnaugrim said:


> If you do happen to overdose and you realize it, you can do a quick water change to hopefully take out the extra carbon dioxide.
> 
> Some plants really hate Excel, of those I know Anacharis will immediately melt as well. Ludwigia shouldn't be so sensitive though and I feel something else was at work there. When I do dose Excel daily (only stopped once for a month and regretted stopping) I generally just pour the capfull into the tank and that's always worked for me at least. It got rid of my hair algae but if you dosing Excel you need to dose Flourish or some sort of liquid fert as well. You should also preferably have at least medium light if not high lighting otherwise your dosing has gone to waste pretty much. Root tabs or a NPT would also be preferable if you are going to dose Excel or co2 in general.


I had the flourish dose way to low, and there were a couple times I forgot..I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. I am using a Seachem Spreadsheet now that shows me how much of each; I got the whole line of stuff, except the equilibrium.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Ah okay! That could be it.

I dose daily with the regular 1ml per gallon I believe it was? I haven't actually looked at the bottle in a while lol I just know my dosing amounts for each tank; 20, 29 and .5 gallon (experiment mostly)


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Inverts are extremely sensitive to Excel. I didn't notice any significant difference when I ran out and didn't use for four months. I now half-dose and it has kept the hair algae away.

I recommend starting with a half-dose and working up to a full just to be safe. But that's conservative me.


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## Islandgaliam (Jan 27, 2014)

lilnaugrim said:


> Ah okay! That could be it.
> 
> I dose daily with the regular 1ml per gallon I believe it was? I haven't actually looked at the bottle in a while lol I just know my dosing amounts for each tank; 20, 29 and .5 gallon (experiment mostly)


How many ml's do you dose in your tanks? When I entered the number of gallons on the spreadsheet, it shows 1.5ml for 15 gallons (that's how much water it took to fill my in my 20gal) or 0.3ml for 3gal. 




I


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Derp, I mean 1ml per 10 gallons not 1 gallon lol!! That would be a horrible mistake!

So 2ml for the 20, I do 3ml for my 29 since it is technically 30 gallon's-ish. and then just a few drops for my .5, don't actually count those but generally 1-4 drops.


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## Islandgaliam (Jan 27, 2014)

lilnaugrim said:


> Derp, I mean 1ml per 10 gallons not 1 gallon lol!! That would be a horrible mistake!
> 
> So 2ml for the 20, I do 3ml for my 29 since it is technically 30 gallon's-ish. and then just a few drops for my .5, don't actually count those but generally 1-4 drops.



lol...that's what I thought it meant; but I don't remember what the bottle says on it...I only read it yesterday


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