I used soilmaster select. I bought it before I did a lot of reading on your forum. The plants were in poor health when I got them. Its been very cold here in the midwest and I had them shipped. The shipper did the best job he could with insulation and heatpacks but I don't think some of the plants appreciated it. I know my pond lily didn't

I plan on not using excel at all in the future. I can't really explain what drove me to add it to begin with;-) it will not be used from here on out though.

I had zero access to any mulm so there isn't any. I don't trust any from our local LFS or the one person I know who has a tank. I do have some peat moss under the substrate though.

The good news is things already seem to be turning around. The roots seem to be taking and there does seem to be some new growth starting. My stem plants have already shot out roots (I learned this while cutting off dead leaves on a nearby crypt and I uprooted it ;-O) Hopefully it was simply the poor condition of the plants and the plants acclimating to my tank.

My LFS has some ottos coming for me and I plan on buying some Amano shrimp from him also so hopefully that should clear up my minor algae.