How much StressCoat?

[GrullaQuarters]

I'm preparing the water for a w/c in my new guy's tank, a 1.6 gal hex. I use stress coat in my big tank, however how much would I want to use for something this small?

Think I'll use the airline tubing for a little 'mini python' like someone mentioned in a different post...LOL....the Python I use in my big tank certainly wouldn't work for this little one!

Just like the big tank, I do intend to 'cycle' this one as well. Just think I'd be better for my little guy.

 

[SRC]

I've measured it out and 7 drops per gallon is spot on.

 

[rdd1952]

I don't ever measure stress coat. It really doesn't do anything except kill chlorine and aid with the slime coat. I don't think you can really overdose it. I just squirt a little in the bucket. For your 1.6 gallon, you can get one of the small vacuums. I usually don't vacuum my betta tanks with each water change. They are in there by themselves so there isn't that much to clean out. They take their betta bio gold from my finger so there isn't any food laying around to be cleaned up, only their poo. I just scoop out water with a plastic drinking cup and pour it in the sink and vacuum about every 2 weeks.

 

[GrullaQuarters]

Thanks for the input! I'd love to get a little vac for this thing....my python will probably be too big...and more trouble than it's worth for this little thing.

I dont measure the stress coat in our 75 gal, I just give it a good even squirt line from one side of the tank to the other... but I wasn't quite sure how much I ought to use for this........thank you!

I'm also planning on getting the pellets instead of the bettamin flakes I have now...it really makes sense to just give them a pellet at a time instead of a small pinch of flakes, and watch enough of it just fall to the bottom.........

Thanks for the input!

 

[SRC]

I doubt they'd put dosage instructions on the bottle if it didn't need to be dosed out.

 

[Haiku]

Perhaps the dosage instruction is the minimum amount needed to dechlorinate the water? I think I've read in a couple places that Stress Coat is not harmful if you put more in than the directions say, and it's recommended for stressed/injured fish. I think the small bottles I've seen said 5 drops per quart for small fishbowls/betta tanks.

 

[WhispTech]

Since I do jugs of pre made water for exchange that equal 1 gallon I have calculated it to be 1ml which is basically 1/4 teaspoon per gallon.

 

[Bettaman]

Thanks for the input! I'd love to get a little vac for this thing....my python will probably be too big...and more trouble than it's worth for this little thing.

I dont measure the stress coat in our 75 gal, I just give it a good even squirt line from one side of the tank to the other... but I wasn't quite sure how much I ought to use for this........thank you!

I'm also planning on getting the pellets instead of the bettamin flakes I have now...it really makes sense to just give them a pellet at a time instead of a small pinch of flakes, and watch enough of it just fall to the bottom.........

Thanks for the input!

i disagree, as it is a dechlorinate it is concentrated they recomend 5ml for every ten gallon so i would say 1ml would be ok, dont overdose with tap conditioner as it neutralises metals in the water and can harm fish if used to strong plus your wasting it if you use too much and here it isnt cheap.............

 

[Haiku]

Here are the directions for Stress Coat (as found on aquariumpros.com site)

To protect fish and condition water:
Add two teaspoonfuls (10 ml) for every 10 U.S. gallons of aquarium water.
To remove chlorine and heavy metals and neutralize chloramines:
Add one teaspoonful (5 ml) for every 10 U.S. gallons (40 liters) of tap water.

I know on the mini bottle I looked at, it said "For small fish bowls or mini tanks, use 5 drops per quart (sorry don't remember metric measurements), and that would work out to be more than if you divided the 1 teaspoon for 10 gallons down to ml/1 gallon mathematically.

Of course I don't think it should be dumped in indiscriminently, but just saying if you don't get it EXACT I don't think it'll cause any harm. I don't think there is too much danger in approximation within reason .

Here's the site I got the dosing information from: http/www.aquariumpros.com/Merchant2/merc...PG&Screen=APH85

But while on the topic, since it's mentioned too much dechlorination can be harmful, what about using things like ammo-lock and AmQuel+ alongside stresscoat or NovAqua? Both say they remove chlorine but one neutralizes/gets rid of ammonia and one is just the regular dechlorinator with the slime coat etc in it. Amquel+ and NovaQua are advised to be used together, so I've been wondering if this was actually safe to do. My tap water has a bit of ammonia in it to start with.

 

[SRC]

Which is why I said 7 drops per gallon..I have measured it out. Most people don't want to go through the trouble of dividing fractions/decimals out or have a syringe that has enough ticks to properly measure stuff out...so I purposely measured it out...and 7 drops is the correct amount for a gallon.

Honestly..if the bottle says use a certain amount..you should divide it down to however many gallons you are going to be using....they don't give you dosage instructions just to fill space on the back of the bottle.

I know you've heard the phrase...too much of a good thing...is bad.

lol this took me a bit to come up with..but I did it so not everyone woudl have too (no point in not sharing after I already did it lol)

The whole syringe...1 tsp (5ml)..........treats 10 gallons
3/4 the syringe.......3/4tsp (3.75ml)....treats 7.5 gallons
1/2 the syringe.......1/2 tsp (2.5ml).....treats 5 gallons
1/4 the syringe.......1/4 tsp (1.25ml)...treats 2.5 gallons
1/5 of 1 ML ............(.20ml)..................treats 2 cups

So to treat 1 gallon you need 3/5 of 1 ML.

3/5 of the 1ML section = 3rd tick (.60ml) = treats 1 gallon

 

[WhispTech]

hmmm

Thing I dont get is that if you look at measuring spoons it says 1ml = 1/4 teaspoon.

So wouldnt a teaspoon be 4ml?

 

[Haiku]

Honestly..if the bottle says use a certain amount..you should divide it down to however many gallons you are going to be using....they don't give you dosage instructions just to fill space on the back of the bottle.

Ok, and what I am saying is the bottle has two different directions, 2 teaspoons for 10 gallons for "protecting fish and conditioning water" and "1 teaspoon for 10 gallons for removing chlorine." What I'm trying to say is somewhere in the middle of those two ranges should be safe, yes? I'm getting a bit frustrated here, because I think I'm being misunderstood in what I'm trying to say. I'm guessing if stresscoat is the only water conditioner you use, the larger amount is good, and if you use it in conjunction with something like Ammo-lock, the smaller amount should be used?

Also, the smaller bottle says, right on the label, "One teaspoon for 10 gallons to remove chlorine, IF USING FOR SMALL AQUARIUMS OR FISH BOWLS use 5 drops per quart," which ends up being, when I measured it before, around a half teaspoon or so for a gallon...

I'm not saying ignore the bottle instructions, I'm saying if you use 6 drops or 8 drops instead of 7, I doubt there will be any lasting harm due to the variation in instructions.

 

[WhispTech]

The first part of the instructions sounds like if you have a damaged fish and need help healing him.

The second set of instructions sounds like for when you are starting from scratch from tap water and maybe for bigger tanks.

The third set of instructions is for smaller tanks.

Thing is for the third part how big is a drop lol.

Since if 1 gallon is 1ml I could easily fil that little sppon above with 5 drops.

lol

Here is the label on aqua plus. It has 3 different instructions too.

 

[Haiku]

Thanks for the pic of the bottle to help clarify. I had used it in the past and remembered the different sets of instructions somewhat, and the variation in them, it's why I thought if you got a tad more in than the precise measurement, I didn't think it'd be too big a deal. Note, this is NOT saying "ignore the instructions on the label" .

I've been using NovAqua recently, it seems similar to Stress Coat in what it does, has the same dosage, and says: "Dosage can be increased or repeated without adverse effects." and "Dosage may be increased to remove excess amounts of heavy metals or chlorine."

Ok so anyway my whole point I guess was, for me personally I'd still measure it out to be on the safe side, but if an extra drop or two fell in, I wouldn't immediately dump the water and start over in fear of adverse effects...

 

[crankwalk]

Ugh.. why do they have to divide the directions so strangely?

I definitely agree with dividing the dosage according to the amount of gallons. However they also go on to tell you how many drops per quart. The drops are all pretty much uniform as long as you don't squeeze it unevenly (notice for water testing kits the directions just say to hold the bottle completely vertically for uniform drops, they don't tell you to measure anything). It just is confusing because they say 5 drops per quart. I was treating 2 gallons last night, with stress coat.. so I just counted.. 40 drops (8 quarts in a gallon x 5 drops). Now it seems the proper dosage by division is a quarter teaspoon for 2.5 gallons!

1.25ml = 0.2536052 teaspoon.

I am changing the water again today anyway to begin Maracyn-Two treatment. I will count and see how many drops go into a quarter teaspoon.