# Excell and cloudy water?



## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

I got some Excell to kill of what is thought to be the bad start of BBA. I took the advice of some people on the forum and did double the initial dose the first day, then the initial dose the second day, and for the last 3 days or so I've been doing the "up keep" dose that is usually done every other day - but I've done it each day. 

The BBA hasn't gotten any worse, but it also hasn't died off. I've also noticed the water is a bit cloudy now, where as before, it was crystal clear. (I've turned the lights off since discovering the BBA.) 

The tank is fishless cycling, so there is nothing living in the tank to foul up the water.

Do I need to take the ornaments out and rinse the stuff off of them? Do I need to do some sort of water change? (Ex: too much Excell in the water?) When the cycle is done, I'm going to do a 50% water change, then let the Nitrazorb run for 24 hours to bring the Nitrates down, but should I change any water or rinse the junk off of the ornaments before then? (If not, I can try siphoning the stuff off when I do the 50% WC.)

Thanks.

*I was thinking of doing a 50% WC anyways to "un-stall" my fishless cycle...... or would this screw up the cycle?* You can follow what's going on in the "Ammonia Not Dropping" thread.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Excel shouldn't have caused the cloudiness. You're probably going to want to remove the items and scrub them off eventually. 

Is your cycle still doing the same thing? If so, I'd be dosing every other day the amonut it took me to get to 4ppm the first time. Did you remove the nitrazorb?


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Yep, took the Nitrazorb out on Thursday evening. I Dosed the tank on Friday and then a couple hours later got 3.5-4ppm Ammonia, 1ppm Nitrite and 7.5ppm Nitrate.

I tested today at 24 hours later and got: 1ppm Ammonia, 1ppm Nitrite and 7.5ppm Nitrate. I dosed the tank again, and 4 hours later have an ammonia reading of 4ppm.

I'm assuming tomorrow evening at about 6:30 the tank will read 1ppm ammonia again, with 1ppm Nitrite and 7.5ppm Nitrate. (Seems to keep getting stuck there.) Although the removal of the Nitrazorb allowed it to go from 1.5ppm ammonia to 1ppm. If it has dropped to 1ppm, I will only be dosing every other day or every 3 days. (NitrItes peaked at 5ppm at about 2 weeks into the cycle, and have been stuck at 1ppm for about 3 weeks.) NitrAtes spiked about 3 weeks into the cycle to about 20ppm and then dropped (b/c of the Nitrazorb I think), so it's been stuck at these readings for about 4 weeks now..... (at least I'll be better prepared for what NOT to do when I cycle the 36g!!!)

I think tomorrow I'll take all the castles out and rinse them off, as well as the fake plants. (The fake plants are going out permanently when the tank is cycled, but are just there for looks at the moment.) The fluff that is on the gravel will just have to stay.... no way to get that out until I siphon the gravel, and I won't even be doing that for a week or so after the animals get moved in because I don't want to destroy the good bacteria that's growing in there.

Should I stop dosing Excell? And, should I do a WC to help re-kick start the cycle, or just leave it? I will be doing another filter squeezing from the 10g tomorrow. (Would any of the planaria from the 10g die if I put it in the 20g because of the ammonia? I could use some of that gravel to help it along, but just don't want to contaminate with planaria.)


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

If you get a few in there, they should die off fairly quickly as you aren't adding food to that tank, and the ammonia will probably help killing them off also.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Thanks! I may try adding some of the 10g gravel then.


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