[newguy420]

How much can you rely on stress coat. Just wondering if this should be used for water changes only or could I use it for like 35g of tap water. What are your opinions? I'm just trying to get the bigger system running before I receive my ro/di system. Thanks

[lynnvangsnes]

Personally, I only used stress coat in my freshwater tanks. I have never used it in a marine tank and never will. Forget using tapwater for your tank; there are too many unwanted chemicals in it; mainly copper. Get a 5 gallon jug and keep it filled with ro water. Treat as necessary for chlorine (I use amquel). Reverse osmosis water by definition does NOT remove chlorine and/or chloramines. It must use activated carbon to remove these. Most commercial places that sell ro water use activated carbon, but I have seen some that do not.

[newguy420]

The ro/di system I bought is a 6 stage with activated carbon. Just wanted to get started. Patience wearing thin. I had spoken with someone locally before and he said he used it for his marine tank with water changes. The bottle clearly states for marine aquariums and it does in fact state that it removes chlorine, cloramine, amonia and other metals.

[pogodzib]

I use it once in a while if a fish seems to be struggling or with new fish additions. All new water should be RO/DI water. There are additives that bind heavy metals and other chemicals, but they don't physically keep them out of a system like RO/DI water does.

[spanko]

Quote:
"Stress Coat forms a synthetic slime coating on the skin of fish,...."

It contains Aloe Vera. I wonder about this for our tanks, is a synthetic slime coating really a good thing. Hmmmmm.....

[NAS]

WOHA!

I would suggest steering clear of the Alo based products (Stress-coat, Aqua-plus, any thing other then Sodium Thiosulfate [standard de-chlorinating agent]). It is protien based (same idea as slime coat from fish). your protien skimmer may go crazy and just crank it out, or not be as effective. It can also screw up your specific gravity testing- in effect giving you a false Hi reading on your salinity.

If you really feel the urge, go with either a hospital isolation tank, or fresh water dips to "doctor" the slime coat of the fish.


(just my opinion, only for fresh water)

[ljv]

Your skimmer will go crazy. Been there, done that. If you must use tap water (in an emergency) find a tap water conditioner that doesn't have all of the "slime" enhancers. It will be the small cheap bottle that treats 10x more water than the big, expensive slime enhancing ones.

RO/DI is the way to go. I fought red slime for the first year I had my tank setup. The more I changed water (tap) the worse it got. I was about to quit and change back to freshwater. I bought an RO/DI filter and the difference was amazing. Within 2 months no more slime!

[pogodzib]

Stress Coat is one of the few products that I like, but make sure that you use the Marine version. The old, standard FW version will make your skimmer go nuts. The new, marine version won't. Don't use it as a regular supplement or as a substitute for good tank husbandry, but I recommend using it if you think a fish is struggling.

[NAS]

Pogo,

I have yet to see the marine stress coat.. What's the active ingreediants?

[pogodzib]

The ingredients aren't listed as far as I know. They do advertise it as containing Aloe Vera, but that is about all they say. Most people that know me well, know that I hate adding any chemicals into my reef tanks besides for ones that I can test for, and even with those I dose very lightly. Stress Coat is the one and only product that I use that I can't test for because it does help fish if they are ailing. I don't add it, or recommend it's use, any other time though.

Here is the product spec sheet. http://cms.marsfishcare.com/files/ms...ine_092007.pdf