Is it ok to mix water conditioners?

Hi, im using api stress coat. I have started cycling without fish for 2 weeks, but upon the advice of the experts here, I can already add fish. So today, my fish in cycling will officially start. My question is is it okay that some of my water was conditioned by api stress coat, and now, i will be using seachem prime as water conditioner and add in to the same fish tank?

another question is when the nitrogen cycling is completed,how often should we do water change, and what do we base it on? Still testing the water and keep the ammonia and nitrite at the minimum? Thank you.

 

API stess coat and Seachem Prime kinda the same product, each having their own twist. You will recieve many different opinions on how often you should do a water change and how much water to take out. But I think everyone will agree that you should let your test kit be your guide! An established tank should always read 0ppm amonia and 0ppm nitrites. Having a little bit of nitrates is okay (do you have live plants?), but high levels is still bad for your fish friends! Water changes replicate nature by taking out some of the nasties and has more benefits besides just removing ammonia and the like. Long story short. I prefer Seachem Prime, but just make sure you always add some sort of water conditioner to the water you refill your tank with!

 

Yes, I have live plants: christmas moss, java fern petite and anubias nana petite.

 

Awesome! I asked because nitrates are an important nutrient for live plants. It all helps the "ecosystem in a box" that is your aquarium. Oh and I mentioned before that many people will have different opinions on water changes. The test kit will let you know when there is amonia. But even when it reads 0ppm, its still good to get into a pattern of either weekly(around 15%-20%) or biweekly water changes. (Around 30%) Honestly if your sceduel permits, I would suggest weekly. But lets wait and see what other members of Fishlore say because I am also curious as to what everyones water change sceduel looks like

 

Hi, im using api stress coat. I have started cycling without fish for 2 weeks, but upon the advice of the experts here, I can already add fish. So today, my fish in cycling will officially start. My question is is it okay that some of my water was conditioned by api stress coat, and now, i will be using seachem prime as water conditioner and add in to the same fish tank?

Most water conditioner are basically the same thing so switching over to Prime is perfectly fine and will cause no issues.

another question is when the nitrogen cycling is completed,how often should we do water change, and what do we base it on? Still testing the water and keep the ammonia and nitrite at the minimum? Thank you.

Personally I change out 50% of the water each week in all my tanks no matter the numbers. In my humble opinion it is a good habit to get into. Some folks consider changing out that much each week overkill but I have to think it is the main reason I've never had to deal with any of the many illnesses I read about here on the forum daily.

Depending on the size of your tank and the bio-load you may not need to change out as much as I do. If it is a 5 gallon tank with a single fish 30% weekly may be enough. If you go with 30% then once a month change out 75% to reset the parameters so tank water and tap water are kept close to the same.

Fish have been killed by doing too big a water change if regular water changes hadn't been done. The parameters in the tank and the tap water were too different and the difference is why the fish died.

 

Thank you all for your replies

 

I have a 10 gallon and a 55 gallon. I have 2 pond goldfish and 2 plecos in my 55 gallon and 2 med goldfish and 1 catfish bottom feeder in my 10 gallon. I do a 50-80% WC (water change) one time a week. Of course I have MAJOR bioload so the more water I change out the better the water will be.

 

Hi, im using api stress coat. I have started cycling without fish for 2 weeks, but upon the advice of the experts here, I can already add fish. So today, my fish in cycling will officially start. My question is is it okay that some of my water was conditioned by api stress coat, and now, i will be using seachem prime as water conditioner and add in to the same fish tank?

another question is when the nitrogen cycling is completed,how often should we do water change, and what do we base it on? Still testing the water and keep the ammonia and nitrite at the minimum? Thank you.

I prefer Seachem Prime, but I have used API Stress Coat separate from Prime when my Betta had fin rot, and mixing them together has never caused any problems that I could detect. I don’t do that often, though. Mostly I use just Prime.