What Are These Tank Products?

[Kairi]

When I bought my 75 gallon tank, it came with a few goodies. Today I was organizing what I'd stashed in the stand and found the following items, and wondered what they were.

*Start Right: this looks like your average run-of-the-mill water dechlorinator. Does it do anything else? I'll use it if it's just a water conditioner thing.... I don't want anything funny in my tank.

*Start Zyme: bacteria in a bottle? I think not. What will it do to the water?

*Kent Freshwater ProClear: says it does something for cloudy water?

Any ideas? I can take pictures of the bottles if you need me too. I also got aquarium salt, which I'm sure one of these days I'll use.

 

[karen84]

Start right is a water conditioner it for when you add new fish or handling it helps when their stressed.
Freshwater proclear im not sure about ive never used it before.
Start Zyme is a safe blend of beneficial bacteria and enzymes which help develop and maintain the biological filtration you can use when ever your doin water changes.

 

[@ombomb]

First one - essential use every water change

Other two - junk

 

[nmonks]

The cloudy water stuff is useful if you've put a lot of silty substrate in the water. It binds the silt together, so that it sticks to the filter wool better. Otherwise, it is useless, and once you've removed the silt (which often comes with silver sand, for example) there's no need to use it again.

Bacterial cultures in a bottle have been around for a while. Some folks swear by them, others find them useless. Certainly does no harm, so if you have it, use it.

Aquarium salt -- as opposed to marine salt mix -- is completely useless. Does nothing of any value. It's sold as 'snake oil' to unsuspecting aquarists. Decades ago it was thought to help with certain issues, particularly nitrite poisoning and "shimmies" in mollies. Modern aquarists have access to excellent filters for all tanks and budgets, so you shouldn't even have any nitrites, and marine salt is a better (and cheaper) option for keeping brackish water fish (such as mollies).

Cheers,

Neale