# Excel Spot treatment in Groundcover



## RoseHawke (Mar 10, 2004)

*The problem:* Staghorn (I believe) in the lilaeopsis and the substrate in the front of my tank. Spot treating is slow and gets only a very small area at a time. Plus to be most effective the filter needs to be turned off for a time which I really don't like doing since everything else is connected up to it. I've been the whole tank OD route before, and although it works, after about a week the fish are definitely not happy, never mind the inverts. This always made me nervous. What was needed was a way to concentrate the normal dosage in an area for a while.

*The solution:* one plastic food container, a couple 1/4" stove bolts and nuts, lots of washers, and a catheter tipped dosing syringe. Cut the outer lip off the food container so it'll fit closer, drill three 1/4" holes in the bottom and thread the washers on the bolts, place it where you want it (shooing the shrimp out of the way :hihi: ) take the syringe of your daily dose insert it into the middle hole with a twisting motion so it'll stay put and won't float, push in the syringe and leave it there for a couple hours. These were just normal bolts and washers I had on hand, if you feel a bit wary of that you could always invest in the stainless steel variety. My take on that is that it's not going to be in the tank that long.










*End Result:* Dead and dying staghorn. Takes about three days to get to this point depending on how much Excel you're using. You could always use a smaller container of course.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

Excellent!


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## turbosaurus (Nov 19, 2005)

How extremely clever!


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Try it with H2O2 next time.. I'm curious to see it's effectiveness.


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## Color Me Blue (Nov 10, 2005)

OMG! GREAT idea!!roud: Thank you for sharing!  

Gives me the idea of using the taller plastic containers for mid-ground plants. I've got BBA that I'm wanting to get rid of and this idea will help isolate the plant from my shrimp so I can get direct doasges of excel/H2O2 on them. I can't wait to try it!


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## ringram (Jan 19, 2005)

Wow. Amazing. I wish I had thought of that before. It's definately worth checking out if BBA or staghorn come back to my tank


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## steve.hes (Aug 9, 2006)

once it's dead do you manually clean it out, leave it there or does something eat it?


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## RoseHawke (Mar 10, 2004)

Probably leave it. The stuff's so insidious that if you try to pull it out (at least when it's alive) it tends to take plants, substrate and all with it. I'm sure it'll break down to the point where the vacuum will get it come water change time.


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## Martin (Jan 15, 2005)

brilliant idea. Can be used for annoying BBA as well. BBA in Marsilea, Glosso, HC etc. is a bleeding bloody pain. Will definetely relay this idea to my Danish aquarium plant forum. 
Good thinking.


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## icliao (Jun 9, 2007)

What concerntration of Excel and how long each exposure?


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## vibes_jedi99 (Jun 20, 2007)

Very nice idea RoseHawke!!!!!! thankyou


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## CampCreekTexas (Feb 28, 2007)

Now that is an incredible idea. You're so creative, Cindy! Thanks for sharing the info, too. I think this will come in handy for me.


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## JenThePlantGeek (Mar 27, 2006)

FANTASTIC Cindy! Clever clever clever! Love it!


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## RoseHawke (Mar 10, 2004)

Whoa, someone resurrected this old thread . 

*icliao*: you can either overdose a bit at 1.5 times what the "normal" dosage would be for your tank, or just do your normal dosage. The idea is that for a while you're getting an _intense_ overdose in a concentrated area (make sure there are no fish or shrimp under the container!)

That tank . . . *sigh*  . She's mostly torn down now, it's been severely neglected this spring/summer while I work on the house. Haven't had the energy to do more than throw some food in for the fish occasionally. I ripped out all the plants last week except for _just _a bit of the lilaeopsis (or microsword, opinions differ) and a scraggly twig of HM wisteria. Nothing was salvageable really, we're talking a huge mess. I hadn't realized it had gotten into such a bad state. The last yo-yo loach died today, and I'm down to 7 Rasboras. I think the loach did the last of my shrimp in as well before he took that final swim. I'm thinking about leaving it at this point until I get a bigger tank, maybe next spring. I'd hoped by Christmas, but . . . I want this house if not finished, then MOSTLY finished so I can kick back and relax at long last. Can you tell I'm tired ?


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## garuf (May 30, 2007)

RoseHawke said:


> Probably leave it. The stuff's so insidious that if you try to pull it out (at least when it's alive) it tends to take plants, substrate and all with it. I'm sure it'll break down to the point where the vacuum will get it come water change time.


this made me think that you had clado, staghorn for me has always been an "on plants" problem. 
that and my clado always rip's up plants like you say.
I might give this a try, normal spot dosing didn't work for me.


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