My girlfriend is doing a 3 gallon nano with 18watts of light and a HOB filter. She's dosen't want to do DIY C02 so I think were going to go with excel. The tank will only have pygmy chain swords, which I think is WAY to big for the tank but who am I to tell a woman what to do , and some manz wood with ferns and mosses. She says she dosen't want animals, but I think I'm going to sneak some RCS in there .

I've never used excel before. What would be a routine for a tank this size?

Also, where is the best place to buy a 4L bottle of Excel? It was pretty cheap on Big Al's website, but I haven't ever bought stuff from there before.

Also, I have 7L of a 50g CSM+B/1L H20 witch is badly infested with fungus. Should I throw it out and go for some TMG since I am already placing a order for excel? I have 1 and 1/2 lbs of CSM+B that I'm going to finish off first though. Will it last the 6 months that it will likely take me to use the rest of the CSM+B or should I hold off and just pay shipping costs again?

Thanks for the input,
Creighton

The pygmy chain sword should actually be ok. It's hard to tell about the light, whether it will be "too bright" for just Excel (i.e. will the Excel provide enough carbon for faster uptake driven by a bright light source, if my understanding of the dynamics is correct. VaughH? Tom?) The chain sword will probably stay smallish, as I bet that 18W has only a so-so reflector and does not give complete coverage of the tank. Those small lights rarely do. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Mosses, ferns, etc should be just fine.

Be patient. Let her have fun with the tank, don't be (too) pushy.


Follow Seachem's directions. You can slowly increase dosage if you find the plants need it.


I just recently started to use Big Al's and have been very satisfied with the pricing and very quick delivery. I just bought 4L of Excel from them about a week ago. I've also bought from ThatPetPlace.com (typically at the store itself when I'm down that way).

The powdered CSM+B should be okay, I guess, unless it has been kept in a very humid place, unsealed for a time. I've been good about keeping the bags away from light, on a low shelf (cooler, I hope) and make sure I seal the bags up after pushing the air out before putting them back. I just mix it with some water right before dosing. (I got a used magnetic stirrer off eBay which I find I use every day for mixing the ferts, and salt for bbs hatching, etc. Love that thing!)

-Jason

The light has no reflector which should be good.

I guess I'll place the order for Excel tonight.

I'll take some pic's. The tank is FULL of pygmy chain sword.


Thanks for the advice Jason.

For a 3 gallon tank you would want to dose Excel at 3/20ths of 5 ml per day, and for the first dose after a water change, dose about twice that much. That would be about .75 ml daily and about 1.5ml at water changes. A syringe would be about the only way to do that. Or you could use an eye dropper, and use 20 drops equals 1 ml, so you would dose 15 drops per day and 30 drops at water changes. If you were to dose twice that much it probably wouldn't harm anything.

By the way... What's the easiest way to post pictures? I've never done it before, but have always wanted to. It's always told me the file size is way too big. Oh yeah... I have a Mac.

Go to photobucket.com or picturetrail etc, free hosting and upload, then they have URL links, you copy those, then post them right in the message.

Simple and easy.

Excel will be fine, I'd suggest this.
Moss might not like the Excel.

Gloss ought to do good actually.
Get a small bag of ADA AS.

Add some CystalRedShrimp, she will like those once she sees them in there.
Cherries work too.

Fish?
Hard to say 3 gal ain't much and Killi fish will eat shrimps.

As long as you keep up on the Excel, things ought to run well.
Change the water often.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Since you have a Mac, you have an easy way to reduce the size of the photos. Use your iPhoto program to store your photos, pick a photo you want to upload, use the email command to put the photo in an email, but chose either medium size, which works best, or small size for the photo. Then copy that photo to the desktop from the email form. Delete the email you just setup.

Upload that photo, which is now a much smaller file, to a photo hosting service like Tom suggested (I use VillagePhotos for mine). Each uploaded photo has a url, shown below the photo. Use the little icon at the top of this message form that shows a mountain peak on a yellow background to attach that photo url to the message. Preview it before you post, just to be sure it is what you want.

We've had ecocomplete in the nano in the previous set up for about a year. She's had shrimp in the previous set up, too. Do you think that will be okay to reuse the substrate, or should I invest in some aquasoil?

Thanks,
Creighton

Hey, my two cats drink out of my open top aquarium regularly. I just started dosing Excel. Is it safe for my cats to drink this water?

Thanks!!

Might be a good question for Seachem tech support. They have a forum on Aquatic Plant Central. I have also had good responses to their email (on their web site) as well.

I would think it to be similar to human intake. Come to think of it, if it were toxic, it would be bad for fish.

Good question!