I bought some API Stress zyme +

Hello! I bought a bottle of this to add to my established 55 gallon, because 'sludge-eating bacteria' seemed helpful. It has really good reviews on amazon, but a few left me unsettled (people saying it killed their fish). I thought I would ask here. What is your opinion of API Stress Zyme+? Safe to use or not?

 

Hello! I bought a bottle of this to add to my established 55 gallon, because 'sludge-eating bacteria' seemed helpful. It has really good reviews on amazon, but a few left me unsettled (people saying it killed their fish). I thought I would ask here. What is your opinion of API Stress Zyme+? Safe to use or not?

I think it makes very little sense to buy bacteria in a bottle that you already have in more than abundant numbers in your tank.

If it says they eat (digest) sludge, they’re just a bunch of the heterotrophs that make up a lot of the biofilm in any tank and if you overdose them you may create a bacterial bloom you really don’t need.

I have a very hard time even imagining that they’d kill fish but if someone used too much in a small tank I suppose it’s not impossible that it could happen.

But nobody needs to buy this kind of bacteria because most tanks already have far more of them than are needed.

 

If the bottle was named 'placebo', it would probably still get good reviews on Amazon.

 

How long has your tank been established? If it has only been established a few months and you cycled it using ammonia or ammonium chloride, then it might not have developed colonies of bacteria that break down sludge. However, you also might not have that much sludge to be broken down.

If your tank has been established for years, it likely contains plenty of bacteria of all kinds.

If a tank has been allowed to go for a while with poor mainenance, there could well be sludge built up in the gravel. If you then dosed extra bacteria, you could end up with a furry of bacterial activity that could consume oxygen and cause harm to the fish. That should not happen if your maintenance has been good.

 

All aquarium additives kill fish. Seriously. Even your favorite dechlorinator. Just check the one star Amazon reviews.

 

We are all exceptionably bad in attribution, which gives suppliers lots of opportunities to offer products that rely on the inevitable.

I assume the bacteria in a bottle are dead or dormant by the time they reach a consumer, and are unable to go out of dormancy after being introduced in an aquarium. The bacteria will eventually be killed by predators or removed by the owner.

I might be right, I might be wrong.

But I'm pretty sure 'sludge-eating bacteria' will find your tank almost instantly and reach numbers that matches your tank's organic and oxygen conditions within dynamic margins and affected by water changes and aeration.

 

I might be right, I might be wrong.

But I'm pretty sure 'sludge-eating bacteria' will find your tank almost instantly and reach numbers that matches your tank's organic and oxygen conditions within dynamic margins and affected by water changes and aeration.

Or perhaps they work too well eating up all the sludge in zero time, and consume all the oxygen while that produces so much sulfuric gasses that cannot dissipate with the water circulation/aeration? Effectively, a zero redox potential? I think we say the same thing here?

 

Let's bring sulphuric gasses into the equation

But yes, we are saying the same thing here.

 

Any chemical added to a tank can have unintended consequences if you do not know what you are doing. However, adding Stress Zyme to a tank at recommended doses should not be harmful as long as you have sufficient water movement, filtration. and oxygen. The question is not whether Stress Zyme is harmful, but whether or not it is useful.

 

The question is not whether Stress Zyme is harmful, but whether or not it is useful.

I am guessing about just as much as seachem pristine which I had use and didn't see any difference. Did it work and I didn't notice it? Was it a bad batch? At least there where no bad side effects.
Exept the money I paid.