You are probably here either because you have heard a lot about the excessive dosages of Flourish Excel (and want to do things right) or have actually gone through it yourself and are now finding ways to compensate. In any case, this article is helpful and provides you with a hands-on trip to plant your aquarium.
What we’ll cover in this article:
- Flourish Excel and its use
- Specifications for injecting Flourish Excel
- Nighttime is the best
- Frequency of injection
- Dosage of Flourish Excel Injection
- Overdosing Flourish Excel
- Minor Overdosing
- Massive Overdosing
- Consequences of Flourish Excel Overdose
- Compensating measures
- Change the water
- Restrict the carbon dioxide
- Look for signs of damage
- Monitor the Flourish Excel dose with care
As we want everyone to be on the same page, it would be essential to start with the basics. You can skip the basic part and jump to your relevant section if you have a specific query.
What is Flourish Excel, and what is used for?
Liquid carbon produced by Seachem comes in a bottled form with the name Flourish Excel. The brand’s prominence has actually made it one of the generic products that every aquarium owner would talk about, even if they are referring to the other brands of liquid carbon. How many times have you done it?
The use of liquid carbon in your aquarium can help you stimulate the growth of plants in your aquarium. It means that you don’t have to wait for weeks to see your aquarium plants; it could become a matter of days.
Besides, some companies offering liquid carbon consider it a means to protect the tank from algae and mound growth. So, if you have any of these considerations in mind, you should definitely go for such products.
But be mindful, the use of such chemicals in your tank can also create additional problems. So, you have to be highly precise about what and how you do it. The reason behind it is that when there are lesser algae, there will be lesser competition for the nutrients, so the aquatic plants you want to thrive will do so with the right nutrients.
Specification for injecting the Flourish Excel
You’ll find all the details about the dosage from the manual that comes along with Flourish Excel. But there are a few pro tips that you aren’t likely to find anywhere else, and this is what we’ll cover here in this section.
Inject the Flourish Excel at nighttime
Inject the recommended dose of Flourish Excel when the lights are on; this is usually the nighttime. The logic behind this notion is that plants consume carbon dioxide when they perform photosynthesis. Photosynthesis requires light. So, when you have the lights turned on, the plants will consume carbon dioxide, and so do the Flourish Excel.
When the lights are off, plants are usually respiring, taking in oxygen, and emitting carbon dioxide. In such a situation, adding in more carbon dioxide would be synonymous with wasting it.
Frequency of dosing Flourish Excel
Usually, the plant lovers using Flourish Excel do it every other day to get the results. However, this is not the best way to inject liquid carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide breaks in the water after 24 hours. So, that technically means that your tank would not have any of the injected carbon dioxide after 24 hours. So, we recommend you to introduce it every day to generate the best result.
One of the other problems you might face with alternate dosing is that it will cause fluctuations in the carbon dioxide levels in the tank. These fluctuations are responsible for the growth of black beard algae bloom.
Dosage of Flourish Excel Injection
The labeling of the Flourish Excel would define it all, and you must stick to the recommended dosage for the best results.
If you don’t have an idea of how much Flourish Excel to use, then let us share it with you. 5 ml of the Flourish Excel would work best in 200-liter aquarium. It is the capful in a 53-gallon water tank. But after the water change, you have to introduce extra Flourish Excel to get the best results. In such a scenario, the label requires 5 ml in 40 gallons of water. So, you will need more liquid carbon to serve the same tank.
Overdosing Flourish Excel
Now, what if you haven’t read the label properly or wanted to go the extra mile for better results? This is a million-dollar question, and let us divide it into a few sections to answer it properly.
A little overdose
If you have been sticking to the label guidelines all the time, then you might be conscious even about little overdosing.
However, let us tell you that the everyday injections we have recommended would amount to a slight overdose. To get the best results, you might want to level up every day for a 15-day cycle to find the right amount of Flourish Excel dosage for your tank.
The best way is to start with the recommended 5 ml, then keep on adding 2 ml extra to the tank till you start seeing the algae in your tank die. This must be the point when you shouldn’t go beyond and stick to this level. In such a situation, your plants will grow faster and will be healthier, and there will be no traces of algae.
If you follow such guidelines, you’ll be overdosing your tank with more than triple the recommended dosage amount. But as you would have tested it for your tank, it would be the optimal one. So, if you have overdosed nearly three times of the recommended label dosage, that would be considered as a little overdose and should generate only a positive impact on your tank and the plants living in it.
While monitoring the overdose of Flourish Excel in your tank, be sure you are administering it properly and do not rush to get the results. Sharp overdose can create a negative impact on the species living in your aquarium.
The big overdose
If you have even exceeded this recommended overdose mentioned above, now should be the problem. This would usually be the case when your Flourish Excel’s label is damaged or misprinted, or you have interpreted it wrongly.
In such a situation, you might end up giving more than 3x – 4x of the dosage. By having such a high amount of liquid carbon, the life in your aquarium will die. The fish will be the most prominent ones to suffer. But that doesn’t mean that your plants would remain healthy. They’ll wither and die.
Consequences of the Flourish Excel Overdose
Flourish Excel is a powerful product known to provide your aquarium plants with the extra nutrients to grow and flourish.
So, if you have massively overdosed your tank with Flourish Excel, the consequences you should expect should be massive.
If your aquarium contains fish or corals, they’ll all seem to get impacted by these extra carbon dioxide levels. It is because none of the living organisms is accustomed to living on a massive overdose of carbon even if they intake Carbon dioxide. There can be certain carbon-specific diseases that your fish might get at the minimum. Obviously, at the maximum intensity revelation, these fish will die.
Excessive carbon dioxide levels can usually reduce the pH level, making the aquarium water acidic (which is essential for some of the fish). But going beyond a reasonable limit, you’ll find the fish gasping in the air by coming out to the water surface and then eventually dying if you haven’t taken any remedies soon enough.
The same goes for the plants you had been inducing this specialized carbon dioxide. The higher carbon dioxide levels will make them wither, and you’ll see them die in a day or two.
What to do to fix the excessive dosage of Flourish Excel?
You might get everything back to normal even after excessive overdosage of the liquid carbon. However, it depends upon the time elapsed since you added the liquid carbon and the time you realized your mistake.
However, in any case, you can perform the following steps that might help you get your tank back to normal.
Change the water
The first and foremost thing to do is change the aquarium tank’s water with excess Flourish Excel dosage. It will ensure that the extra carbon dioxide levels within the tank will remove. So, if it has only been a limited time with excessive carbon, nothing bad will happen to your aquatic life. But treat it as a lesson for the next time.
Restrict carbon dioxide
If your aquarium has been set to induce the carbon dioxide injections after regular intervals, switch this feature off. You should avoid any extra carbon for a few hours so that the tank organisms can get normal.
Look for any signs of damage
If you have fish in the aquarium as well, you should observe them closely for any issues like problems in breathing or other symptoms that would indicate that harm has already been done to your aquatic life. A 24-hour observation after you have changed the water would suffice for this purpose.
Monitor the Flourish Excel dose with care
You’ll indeed be scared to use Flourish Excel for some time if something wrong happens to your tank due to overdosage. But you must accept it and move forward.
You’ll need the Flourish Excel or liquid carbon for the same purpose you have been using it. You just have to be more careful while administering the next dosage, and you’ll feel fine.
Summing up:
Flourish Excel is one of the remarkable products that can help you bring your aquatic plants to life a lot easier than waiting. Besides, it can provide a better environment for the fish as well.
But as we all know, excess of everything is bad, and it goes for Flourish Excel too. You might go beyond the recommended labels. However, going too far will create a severe problem for your aquatic tank, and obviously, for you.
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