Seachem Flourish Excel Query

[Ch4rlie]

Hi
 
Am a bit annoyed with myself!
I ordered online for what I thought was just Seachem Flourish but found I had ordered Seachem Flourish EXCEL!
 
Now, i was just planning on keeping a low tech tank (for now at least anyway) and just wanted Seachem Flourish to keep my plants healthy and lush looking (see my sig for list of plants).
 
What is Organic Carbon exactly and what does it do?
 
is it ok to use this as I have RCS in my tank as well as Threadfins?
 
If it is beneficial to have this Excel, would you also recommend to dose with Seachem Flourish as well?
Or will it be best to refund this and get just dose with Seachem Flourish instead.
 
Advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Sorry if these are totally stupid questions, I am new to fishkeeping and planted tanks and want make sure of everything before adding anything to my tanks as do not want to ruin all my hard work and harm my fish and plants.

 

[levahe]

What you could do is keep the excel just in case you need it and order the flourish as well.
Then just dose the flourish and see what happens - if it all works out OK sell the excel, or you may end up with algae problems then you have the excel as a backup!

 

[Electric Warrior]

Excel isn't a fert, so you would still need to dose ferts in addition to a liquid carbon.  Keep in mind that if you do start dosing liquid carbon, wether Excel, EasyCarbo, etc., you need to be dosing NPK as well, so just Flourish on it's own wont really cut it.  If you want to stay with an all in one liquid fert, you could use something like Tropica Specialised or TNC Complete, for example.  Also, if you start dosing liquid C02, you are moving into high tech.  What kind of plants do you have and what's your lighting like?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

For over 10 years I have been adding Excel and Tropica mastergrow, now Plant Nutrition, and no macros to planted tanks, The fish produce the macros.
 
One warning- do not dose Prime and Excel at the same time. Space them at least a day apart. http/www.seachem.com/support/forums/showthread.php?t=7007

 

[Ch4rlie]

Excel isn't a fert, so you would still need to dose ferts in addition to a liquid carbon.  Keep in mind that if you do start dosing liquid carbon, wether Excel, EasyCarbo, etc., you need to be dosing NPK as well, so just Flourish on it's own wont really cut it.  If you want to stay with an all in one liquid fert, you could use something like Tropica Specialised or TNC Complete, for example.  Also, if you start dosing liquid C02, you are moving into high tech.  What kind of plants do you have and what's your lighting like?

 
Ah, sound like I have the wrong stuff then if I want to stay low tech for now since I don't want to start fiddling around with C02 yet.
I will in future but for my first tank think low tech is the way to go for now until learn and more experience.
 
Think will return that Seachem Excel back and get a refund. 
 
Think will go for one of these all in one liquid ferts and see how things go with that.
May go for Tropica Specialised first and see.
 
Thanks for those suggestions, much appreciated.
 

For over 10 years I have been adding Excel and Tropica mastergrow, now Plant Nutrition, and no macros to planted tanks, The fish produce the macros.
 
One warning- do not dose Prime and Excel at the same time. Space them at least a day apart. http/www.seachem.com/support/forums/showthread.php?t=7007

 
That is an excellent trip, do not dose Prime and Excel at same time due to the reducing agents.
Will remember to dose at least 24 hours or even 48 hours separately.
 
Thanks for that link, most enlightening.

 

[Electric Warrior]

 

Excel isn't a fert, so you would still need to dose ferts in addition to a liquid carbon.  Keep in mind that if you do start dosing liquid carbon, wether Excel, EasyCarbo, etc., you need to be dosing NPK as well, so just Flourish on it's own wont really cut it.  If you want to stay with an all in one liquid fert, you could use something like Tropica Specialised or TNC Complete, for example.  Also, if you start dosing liquid C02, you are moving into high tech.  What kind of plants do you have and what's your lighting like?

 
Ah, sound like I have the wrong stuff then if I want to stay low tech for now since I don't want to start fiddling around with C02 yet.
I will in future but for my first tank think low tech is the way to go for now until learn and more experience.
 
Think will return that Seachem Excel back and get a refund. 
 
Think will go for one of these all in one liquid ferts and see how things go with that.
May go for Tropica Specialised first and see.
 
Thanks for those suggestions, much appreciated.
 

For over 10 years I have been adding Excel and Tropica mastergrow, now Plant Nutrition, and no macros to planted tanks, The fish produce the macros.
 
One warning- do not dose Prime and Excel at the same time. Space them at least a day apart. http/www.seachem.com/support/forums/showthread.php?t=7007

 
That is an excellent trip, do not dose Prime and Excel at same time due to the reducing agents.
Will remember to dose at least 24 hours or even 48 hours separately.
 
Thanks for that link, most enlightening.
 

 
 
Keep in mind that you would only really need to use Tropica Specialised if you are dosing liquid carbon or using C02, or if you are super heavily planted and don't have many fish, because it contains NPK.  If you are staying low tech, and don't have a massive amount of plants, then you really want to be using something like Tropica Premium instead.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Lovely, will just order that one instead. 
 
Glad I did not already order the Tropica Specialised one yet!
 
Cheers for that.