olivia

Hi everyone, I am planning to do a water change for my 29 gallon aquarium. I understand that i should dechlorinate the tap water first before adding it to the tank. I have some ideas but i am not sure if they are exacty correct. I have a stress coat and stress zyme here. Could i use the stress coat to dechlorinate the tap water or is there a different product i should be using? if so, how long do i have to wait before adding it (with the added stress coat) to the tank? and my last question is how and when do i use the stress zyme? by adding it to the tank directly ? (with correct measurement of course. )

Sorry for the silly questions, i had a smaller aquarium before and all my fish died and just didn't follow proper maintenance rules. This time i'm starting new and want to make sure i get everything right.

if you someone could help me, i'd appreciate it.

Thanks

Olivia

Lucy

Hi Olivia, welcome to Fish Lore

Stress Coat will remove chlorine, chloramines and detox heavy metals. It's a very good conditioner.
There's mixed feeling about stress zyme, personaly, I wouldn't use it. IMO it's best to cycle your tank without bacterial additives (unless it's tetra SafeStart) that can hinder the cycle and you have to keep adding it with every water change.

Butterfly

Stress coat is for dechlorinating your water. If you are using buckets put it in the water in the bucket and you can use it immediately. Dechlorinators work immediately upon being added to the water. Stress coat has Aloe in it which is harmless to your fish but good for injured fish. It will at times cause foam to form around the edges of your tank as water evaporates and is replaced. The water evaporates but the aloe doesn't causing a build up. This build up is harmless. I would suggest when you run out of stress coat that you buy another dechlorinator such as Prime.
Stress zyme on the other hand is unnecessary if water changes and gravel changes are being done weekly (or in a timely manner). I've never used it so I can't say how it works but the directions on the bottle state it's for eliminating sludge buildup(you won't have any with proper maintenance)
Carol

olivia

Thank you > Carol and Lucy for your help. I am going to start cleaning in couple of hours. I don't think i'm going to use the stress zyme then b/c i am going to really try to stay on a weekly schedule for the water changes. again thanks so much

Olivia

Lucy

Your welcome.

AlyeskaGirl

I use Stress Zyme only on my q-tine tank when I set it up because it wont be up for that long. I've had my q-tine tank setup for two months and have gotten zero readings across the board this whole time. Yes, zero ammonia too. Stress Zyme eats up the ammonia and doesn't allow the real bacteria to grow.

Butterfly

Welcome as always Olivia

agabr123

welcome!

lucy and carol have you covered on advice