# Excel kills fish??



## jharrison (Dec 7, 2004)

Lost my botia striatus (zebra/tiger loach) today. I did two things yesterday.... dosed with excel for the first time and turned up my CO2 because my test kit said it was low. This morning the loach was on his side.... thought it was normal loach behavior, he got up and swam around. 6 hours later I came home from class, and he was dead. I dosed a little heavy, maybe 1.5 recommended dose. CO2 was doubled from 2 bps to 4bps, indicator was still green though some of the guppies seemed to be gasping a bit. Maybe the loach was more sensitive to the excel since he was scaleless.... Any thoughts?


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## Piranha Guru (Nov 24, 2005)

It was the excess CO2, not the excel...most likely you caused a pH crash or the concentration was too high for them to unload the CO2 from their gills. I routinely dose 1.5-2 times the amount of Excel and have never had any problems...too much CO2 though and I've had gasping fish. I currently use Excel in 2 small community tanks housing a batik botia and sidthimunki and never have had any problems. I've also used it in tanks with clown loaches and a species tank of sidthimunkis. I only break out the Excel on my CO2 tanks if there are serious algae issues, but I hit them hard when I do and no problems.


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## jharrison (Dec 7, 2004)

Botia had red irritation around his mouth, and he as the only scaleless fish. That is why I thought chemical.


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## louisvillain2.0 (May 16, 2007)

I'd agree with bioteach, upping the CO2 probably was the culprit. I've knocked a whole bottle of excel into a tank with no ill effects on fish. Melted all my vals but that's about it.


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## jharrison (Dec 7, 2004)

Well, sh*t! Woke up this morning to 2 dead cories and my big prego guppy dead! Red irritation around the gills on one of the cories. I am guessing the red sea CO2 indicator is crap! I had turned the CO2 down to 2 bps yeasterday afternoon. I shut it off this morning and pointed the spraybar up for some surface agitation. Oh, yeah... cloudy water now. Guessing ammonia spike. I am gonna do a 75% WC after work tonight.


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## jharrison (Dec 7, 2004)

Just when I thuoght I had everything under control!


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## Curley (Aug 4, 2004)

yea bro, co2 turned up killed em most likely.

that happened to me back in the day with some small fish.

Also had excel mess a fish up when he swam right under where I was pouring. It took the entire slime coat off and stressed him out but he lived after about a week of hospital.


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## jharrison (Dec 7, 2004)

Yeah, all my vals, crypts, and anachris melted. Guess it's pretty common. Kinda like when not knowing an oscar won't make such good tankmates with guppies! Oh well, time to start over again!


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## louisvillain2.0 (May 16, 2007)

Yeah vals are much more sensitive to excel, not sure why. Best way I've found is to use excel in smaller amounts then build up to full dosing over a week. They don't react as badly. If they do melt like yours, believe me, they will come back with a vengeance!!!


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## jharrison (Dec 7, 2004)

Yeah, I just snipped them all off at the base, figured they will be back.


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## Ba20 (Jan 29, 2003)

you need to hook your co2 solenoid up to a ph meter or a timer, have it turn off about 20 mins before the lights go off and come on 20 mins before the lights come on


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## jharrison (Dec 7, 2004)

Yeah, it is


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