Florish Excel

[JE47]

Hi, again I was hoping for some help concerning this product from all the experienced aquarium plant people on this forum. So I have a planted aquarium that is starting to become more densely planted with hopefully some more plants to be added soon. Recently as I have added more plants I have noticed that there is less growth happening and I was wondering if that is because their is less CO2 to go around (I blame the Water Lettuce). Anyways long story short I was wonder if this would be a helpful product to introduce more CO2 with out having to install fancy equipment which I do not have the funds for. Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

[Pepere]

Water lettuce obtains its co2 from the air as the leaves are above water.  It might deplete water column nutrients, but not co2.

my biggest beef with Seachem is that they make a lot of dubious claims.  Excel is one of them.  
 

Excell might help as an algicide to suppress algae growth… I went through a period of daily use of Easy Carbon which is a similar algaecide, and I never saw much benefit from it.  Nothing I could categorically state as a benefit, and certainly nothing that satisfied me as a sufficient solution to algae…

Dense plant placement can indeed deplete co2 levels and act as a limit to growth.  I know of no real substitute for co2 injection…

 Many easy plants do not require co2 supplementation, but they do benefit from it…

Edited August 30 by Pepere

[JoeQ]

More plants equal the need for bigger doses of fertilizer(s). I think one of the biggest mistakes in the planted tank community is people often side with lean dosing or adding just enough fertilizer, which often results in chasing deficiencies, and eventually under fertilizing as plant mass grows.

Just as you add more food as you gain fish, and less food when you lose fish.

You add more fertilizer(s) as plant mass grows, and less fertilizer(s) when you trim or cull plant mass.

Edit : As far as the topic of Excel, altho it's marked as liquid co2 (which I don't know how the false advertising is legal). In reality (as stated above) it's an algicide.

Edited August 30 by JoeQ

[MattyM]

I agree with JoeQ - but also, you can try increasing surface agitation for more gas exchange and flow. If your plants are rooted, you can try some root tabs too. 

[JChristophersAdventures]

@JE47 I ran across this just yesterday... thought it was good and funny, too... thought of this thread (as Excel is a component of the Flourish line of products), so here it is: