API, Seachem, tetra questions

I've been fishkeeping for several years and have used several water conditioners such as tetra aquasafe, API stress coat+ and stuff like that. Just today as I was looking through some forums about these products, I saw several posts about how these products don't actually reduce stress, and how they're not regulated by the FDA and can advertise whatever they want without any proof it does what they advertise. So now I am looking for answers, if API stress coat doesn't (potentially) reduce stress when adding new fish (without putting it on the fish directly), help fin recovery, or de-toxify chlorine and chloramine (or heavy metals, ammonia etc...) what exactly does it do? I also saw someone post that one of the ingredients (unconfirmed by API) mixed with certain polymers in some filter media can cause toxicity. I'm starting to question everything that I thought I knew about water conditioners and other products (not just API, that's just what I use the most).
The point of this post is to find out what does work for de-toxifying heavy metals, chlorine, chloramine, reduce ammonia or stress, because pretty much everything advertises those things. Basically, when I do a water change, what product should I use? Whenever I add fish, what should I use to reduce stress (if anything). Even though I have quite a few live plants, what should I use to reduce nitrates? (I'm not too worried about reducing nitrates a lot because I keep up with water changes but still the question remains). Are there certain products that I should use together or products that I should avoid?
I have not had issues with my tanks, but if I'm spending money on products that don't work for what I need, and potentially harming my fish, I would like to know.
If you don't have any scientific evidence It's fine, what I'm really looking for is experience with different products and observations of their affects. If there's any posts about experiments with different products, that would also be helpful.

 

I've been keeping fish since the early 80's. In that time I've used StartRite (Jungle), TapWater conditioner (API and Top Fin) and currently use Prime (Seachem) when doing water changes. I'm on city water which definitely has chlorine (or its variants) in it with no ill effects. I have no scientific proof other than I'm now on (7) running tanks and haven't lost fish due to water changes.

When introducing new fish, IF I remember, which is rare these days as I'm old and fat, I might toss an additional cap full of Prime into the tank in question - the tanks I'm stocking are 55 gallon and up. IF I have the room, and my kids have the patience, I'll quarantine in a 10 gallon for a few weeks - generally this isn't the case BUT as we buy from only 2 different lfs we're pretty confident in their stock.

Nitrates I let my plants handle and do water changes bi-weekly. Again most tanks are heavily planted so I can get away with this maintenance schedule. **I wouldn't say any of my particular tanks are overstocked....well other than my wife's 55 and she has plans to correct that with a trip to the fish store to trade in a ton of fish.

 

I wouldn't expect any huge issues or deaths with some of the water conditioners. I don't necessarily doubt their effectiveness, because I haven't had any deaths from water changes.

 

On city water my self. Did one water change without the conditioner, lost some fish in the tank. I'm using api aqua essentials right now but I've used api, tetra and seachem with no issues. With stresscoat plus it's supposed to be the aloe in it that reduces stress and helps replace slime coat. I have no proof it does but, I've had fish go from stressed to fine after adding it.

 

Sodiium thiosulfate is the dechlorinator. EDTA is for binding to heavy metals. These are the main useful ingredients in water conditioners.

Everything else is either marketing or not proven....

 

If you have chlorine in your water (you can test for it), then you must dechlorinate the water since chlorine is deadly to fish.

The best way to dechlorinate and to reduce fish stress during a water change is to allow the water to aerate before using. This process removes the chlorine and chloramines, and adds precious oxygen, and brings the water to your room temperature. You can test the water to see how long it takes - hours to a few days. The more circulation, the faster it goes.

Changing water with water that has zero chlorine, good oxygen (8 ppm +) and matches the temperature of your tank results in very happy fish after a water change. You can do 100% water changes like this and the fish thrive. This is how I do it.


You can also use a dechlorinator provided that you only use enough without excess. Excess dechlorinator can reduce oxygen, depending on your water, and the lack of oxygen is what stresses fish. I see this all the time.


The claims of various products to reduce stress, and detoxify ammonia etc. just appeals to people's inherent goodness and laziness in an effort to sell more bottles.

 

You can also use a dechlorinator provided that you only use enough without excess. Excess dechlorinator can reduce oxygen, depending on your water, and the lack of oxygen is what stresses fish. I see this all the time.

The claims of various products to reduce stress, and detoxify ammonia etc. just appeals to people's inherent goodness and laziness in an effort to sell more bottles.

I actually did not know that it would reduce oxygen levels, which is good to know because most people either advertise or say that you can add much more than what is recommended which I know now could be bad for oxygen levels.
Now if the products that advertise reducing stress and detoxify ammonia and all that don't actually do what they say, are there any products that can do that? (I'm not too worried about the stress assuming reduced oxygen is the cause of it because I can aerate) but heavy metals, ammonia, and nitrite are what I would like to be able to reduce quickly. If for some reason I were to have a nitrite spike or an ammonia spike and still had higher levels even with a larger water change, how could I reduce the toxicity?

Also (unrelated) are there any good informational books about fish keeping that I could read? (or very detailed online resources) I already have a pretty detailed understanding of fishkeeping in general such as the nitrogen cycle, chemicals that are toxic to fish, lighting, live plants, fish compatibility, temperatures, equipment. However I would like to do a much more in-depth study of everything relating to fish and their environments. I'm basically looking for something that would take more than a few minutes to read through lol

 

This: https://www.amazon.com/API-NITRA-ZORB-Aquarium-Canister-Filtration/dp/B003SNHYXC?th=1

You can use in situations where you can't change the water or have a poor water source.