Stress Zyme & Stress Coat?

[caige]

Hi there,

I just recently purchased a 29 gallon aquarium. My kit came with something called Stress Zyme & Stress Coat, and I'm not sure what it is or how to use it?

I set up my tank two days ago, decorated it and filled it with water. I added 3 tsp of dechlorinator as per the instructions. But the same instructions explain nothing on the Stress Zyme and Coat. My tank has been running (fishless) for two days. When can I add in fish?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mikaila31]

You don't need either of those. As far as fish. You need to cycle the tank. Read up on the forum on how to do a fishless cycle. It will take roughly a month before the tank is fish ready.

 

[micko]

Please read up on the fishless cycle in the beginners resource centre. This will tell you all about cycling.

 

[hanny93]

Although you do need to cycle your tank properly, il actually answer your question.

Stress zyme is a bacterial additive that is supposed to he3lp speed up your cycle, however the effectiveness of it is very questionable, with many people noticing no differences when using it.

Stress Coat is a dechlorinator that i use, it contains aloe vera which helps boost slime coat production on the fish which helps keep them healthy.

My advice?
Use Stress Coat, but dont bother with zyme

 

[Miles_hot]

Unless you can get some mature media you'll not have fish for some weeks (maybe months) unless you go for a fish ok cycle which is more work and potentially risky for the fish. Sorry. But better than fish dying.

 

[Rynofasho]

If the Stress Zyme came with it, no harm in using it. If it speeds your cycle by one day, then so be it. No sense in tossing it in the garbage though.

 

[fishguy2727]

You can fishless cycle without products or mature media in two weeks if you do it right. Use bottled ammonia, up the temp (90F), and go for it (read up about it first, I am not going to go into it here).

Stress Coat is a dechlorinator that also has claimed benefits of boosting the slime coat, which I don't buy. A-I am pretty sure fish don't need aloe for their slime coat. B-They make it on their own all the time, they don't need our help. If you are going to buy a dechlorinator get one that is more concentrated (more product for your dollar), I recommend Seachem's Prime.

Stress Zyme is one of many bottled bacterial products that claim to provide the bacteria your tank needs (as if they are not free in the air). Most people find absolutely no difference between using it (and other bottled bacteria products) and not using anything.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Imo both these products work best as toilet bowl cleaners. Many fish keepers follow a simple rule: Add nothing to the tank that is not absolutely essential.

 

[hanny93]

Imo both these products work best as toilet bowl cleaners. Many fish keepers follow a simple rule: Add nothing to the tank that is not absolutely essential.

Erm, stress coat removes chlorine/chloramines that would otherwise seriously compromise the health of or kill your fish..

 

[Miles_hot]

TTA - I thought you liked Dr Tim etc?

 

[fishguy2727]

But there are much better products for dechlorination. As stated previously you can treat MANY times more gallons with $10 of Prime than $10 of Stress Coat.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

TTA - I thought you liked Dr Tim etc?

DrTims One and only is the exact cycling bacteria we need in tanks. It actually works when used properly (a lot of folks fail to follow the directions and then attribute failure to the product instead of their mistakes). The Stess Zyme does not contain the right bacteria, it has 0 value in a tank.

As for Stress Coat I do not believe in adding aloe vera or any of the other ingredients in this product. Moreover, if one reads the research report Aquarium Pharmicuticals has on its web site, you will find none of the people who did the research seem to have any degrees after their names and they really hedge their bets. The results are from tests run only on goldfish. I highlighted all the ifs in red.

DISCUSSION

In the presence of STRESS COAT fish appeared to recover from the stress response faster than those not exposed. The initial response to a stressor is an increase in mucus production. However a few hours post-stress a reduction in the number of goblet cells can lead to a thinning of the mucus layer, possibly leaving the fish in homeostatic diffculty. Biochemical constituents of Aloe and fish mucus are similar both comprising of glycoproteins, monosaccharides and minerals. Molecules derived from the Aloe extract may deliver important mucin components that aid in the maintenance of the mucus layer possibly by providing a replacement
protective layer on the fish during and following the stress response.

The low cortisol levels in this study may be attributed to the elution liquid chosen for the water extraction. This study used ethyl acetate as opposed to alcohol, which extracts only free and not a combination of free and conjugated steroids from the water.

Donna L. Snellgrove, Steven M. Priestley, and Lucille G. Alexander
WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition, Waltham-on-the-Wolds, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, UK

From http/aquariumpharm...y%208.1.082.pdf

Folks might find this interesting as well:

[font="Times New Roman][b]The Loach Forum Archives (1)[/b] [/font]

[font="Times New Roman][b]Stress Coat Ingredients[/b] [/font]

[font="Times New Roman][b]Posted By: [url="http/aquaweb.pair.com/forums/archives/loach1/index.cgi?profile=john"]john[/url]
Date: Monday, 9 August 1999, at 12:31 a.m. [/b][/font]

[font="Times New Roman] [/font][font="Times New Roman][color="#333333"]i have thinking about whats in stress coat? so i visited the u.s patents web site entered the patent number and this is what i found. [/color][/font]

[font="Times New Roman][color="#333333"]5%-30% aloe vera gel by volume,up to 7.5g/l carboxymethyl celluse,about 1.3 to 25g/l polyvinylprrolidone,about 12.5 to about 60g/l sodium thiosulfate.up to 2g/l elthylenediainetetraacetic acid,about 0.3 to about 1g/l tris(htdroxymethhyl)aminomethane,and about 1.3 to about 4g/l diazolidinyl urea. [/color][/font]

[font="Times New Roman][color="#333333"]this is an edited version as the pages of infomation are pages long if you want to read them youyrself go to the u.s patent web site and enter patent no 4500510 [/color][/font]

[font="Times New Roman][color="#333333"]hope this helps the people wanting to know more. [/color][/font]

[font="Times New Roman][color="#333333"]John [/color][/font]

From http/aquaweb.pair....x.cgi?read=8594

 

[Aqua Tom]

<> You can fishless cycle without products or mature media in two weeks if you do it right. <>

Two weeks

Blimey, I suppose that is doable if you have the luck of the faries on your side.

4-6 weeks is far more likely.


Mine took 9 weeks.

Tom

 

[BigbruiserAl]

14 days is possible with media from another tank, on its own id say you have almost no chance of a 2 week fishless cycle from with no help.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

If you add mature media, in theory, you are fully cycled for the an amount of fish proportionate to the number of fish in the tank from which the media came and the fraction of the media used.

For example, I brought 7 fish from a friends tank to mine, along with all the media from that tank. My tank hasn't had a single bump in ammonia or nitrite.

Imagine you were going to take 1/3rd of the media from a tank with 30 fish. In that case, you could be fairly safe in adding 10 fish to your tank immediately. Of course, you will want to keep a close eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels to ensure that everything is fine, but it should happen without an issue.


Stress Coat is fine as a dechlorinator. Stress Zyme is a waste of money, imho.