BiG BeTtA

Hi, does the aloe vera in stress coat harm fish because one of my other fish I used stress coat and died within a few days of it. Now I just don't use it in case. I saw on a website that there is a debate on whether aloe vera is dangerous to bettas. If there's somebody else who's using stress coat please tell me if it's fine because maybe some bettas are affected by aloe vera in stress coat ?

Thanks

De Fishy Dude

COBettaCouple

As far as I know, aloe vera is safe for Bettas as is stress coat.

cherryrose

voiceless_kat

I use stress coat to condition my tank water. Recently, I have been adding AmQuel plus as well to my uncycled/hospital tank.

chickadee

If you are adding Amquel+ then you do not need to add StressCoat too, but if the tank is being cycled like the tank you will be using permanently then you cannot use the Amquel+ until it is cycled or you will not cycle. You will have to use only the StressCoat on it. But to use the Amquel+ on the hospital tank is smart as it will save you a water change perhaps.

Rose

voiceless_kat

Ya, thanks Rose. I was using AmQuel in his home tank since he was constantly on meds and I didn't want to be doing water changes all the time. The tank wouldn't cycle due to all the meds.. Now he is in his hospital tank and I added AmQuel there so I could do the course of meds without water changes. -- but since I used ZymBac in the home tank, no more AmQuel.

genie

I thought Amquel+ didn't affect the cycle. OMG that is why I am having so much trouble!

chickadee

Amquel or Amquel+ neutralize ammonia which the bacteria need to feed on to establish themselves.* Normally the neutralization would be a good thing AFTER the cycle is established if you have a temporary problem, but until the bacteria is established it NEEDS that ammonia so the Amquel or Amquel+ is making the bacterial growth impossible or at the very least a very difficult process and can take many months if it happens at all.* I would definitely recommend that you do a couple of things, change to either NovAqua+ or StressCoat (at least for the duration of the cycle) and do a couple of massive water changes to remove the current conditioner.

To go to the issue about Aloe. There is only one problem with it. When you use it and need to add water that has evaporated to top off your tank, you must remember that the water has evaporated but aloe does not so if the only conditioner you use is one with aloe, you are raising the level of aloe every time you add it. This will NOT hurt your fish but if you run an airstone or have a very active filter you could wake up some day to a lot of what looks like soap bubbles in your tank and it is the result of the concentration of the aloe in your tank water. It is harmless but can scare you to death. My recommendation should be to use the aloe conditioner for when the fish are having a problem with illness and get another for regular use like NovAqua+ (it contains echinacea and vitamins to increase their immune systems as a bonus) and then you will cut down on the problem.

Hope this helps.

Rose

genie

Well I have like 3 or 4 different water conditioners. I thought the Amquel+ said that it did not mess with the bio-filter, but I will quit using it until I get the cycle under way. I was only using it to keep Spike, and now Lila from getting ammonia poisioning while cycling. I have tetra-safe and NovAqua+ and another by API. I will quit with the Amquel+ for now.
I guess it is back to massive water changes to keep things healthy. Spike will be flaring at me for that!

COBettaCouple

NovAqua+ and Prime are our favorite water conditioners. We used to use AquaSafe and AmQuel+.

Good luck with Spike -- don't let him flare too much or his fangs will grow and you'll have a vampire betta to deal with! Really best of luck Genie.