Anyone buy the 1 Gallon (US) Stress Coat?

As the title says....

See on eBay there's a seller with the 3.8L (1 US Gal) containers of stress coat. Works out just over 8 times the large bottle available (473ml) over here. Anyone ever buy it?

Works out cheap enough - $36.02 + $28.00 = $64.02 or €46.39 in real money.

cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110148855157 <br><br>Post edited by: essjay, at: 2007/08/08 20:39

I'd say the shipping would be prohibitive though as it would be heavy. Have you asked them for a rate to ship to Ireland?

BTW, I have stopped using stress coat. I noticed gunk at the end of my water container and on my thermometer that I use for water changes. I reckon it was the coating (whatever it is - alovera?) they use in stresscoat. I now use the API water conditioner which is cheaper and takes less to do the same job. I'm not sure about some of these products putting a slime coating on the fish. Fish are able to do that for themselves.

The $28 quoted in the first post was the shipping so it's €46 shipped to your door for the 3.8L.

The stress coat and water conditioner are made by the same company - Aquarium Pharmaceuticals

It's a great price ok. I stopped using it as it was too expensive and started using Azoo, much cheaper, but it turned the water a tiny bit blue. So now I am using Nutrafin Plus.

essjay wrote:

The $28 quoted in the first post was the shipping so it's €46 shipped to your door for the 3.8L.

The stress coat and water conditioner are made by the same company - Aquarium Pharmaceuticals

Sorry, didn't get the shipping first time around. You're right, it is a great price as long as you're not hit with duty on delivery.

hopefully it will be small enough not to get hit. I got some NLS food and that got through ok.

i now use seachem prime... the best ive used, and lasts forever. you only need to add 0.5ml per 20 litres of water. suitable for both salt and freshwater.

I thought stress coat was a scam product and that the only thing you should be adding to your water is a chlorine remover?

it's basically chlorine remover with aloe vera

Aloe vera? Your fish are suffering from a dried out epidermis? me thinks not. Another marketing ploy.

You don't need to use any dechlorinators. Just put the water you intend to use in a food safe container for 24 hours and aerate that will get rid of any chlorine and you can also add a heater to bring it up to aquarium temperature. I use an old water vat. Chloramine needs 48 hours to dissipate but as far aas I am aware is not used in Ireland. Check with your local council to be sure
Holger

I wouldn't trust my local authority to give me accurate information regarding additives to the water. There's also no guarantee that they won't add chloramine at some time in the future. Many of the dechlorinators also neutralise heavy metals which is another reason for using it.

I don't save much by not using it so will do so to be on the safe side.

Your local authority is bound by law (Freedom of Information act)to give you an analysis of what's in your drinking water.

And I hope you don't buy into the claim that any of those additives remove heavy metals. Remove them to where? It's a process called chelation or reversable binding. A chelator such as EDTA binds heavy metals but as the second name says, it's reversible. The heavy metals are still in the water. The amount of heavy metals in drinking water are so low that it's really no reason to be concerned.

And almost forgot to mention. I found this little snippet under Eu directives:
EDTA and DTPA are under increasing pressure to be removed from many applications, particularly pulp and paper, circuit board producers, photographic development and industrial detergents.

The EU Risk Assessment concluded that a risk reduction strategy should be put in place for these applications where large scale local emissions were possible. The concern in this instance is that EDTA and DTPA can extract toxic heavy metals from river sediments and release them back into the aquatic environment.

EU Member States can specify limits on EDTA and DTPA in river basins under the Water Framework Directive and already some like Austria are starting to implement very strict limits.

EDTA and DTPA are excluded from use in eco-labelled products.

Phosphonates
Phosphonates such as DTPMP and DEDTMP are also not biodegradable and are classed as persistent in the EU DID-List.

The EU Detergents Directive (648/2004) passed into UK Law in October 2005 and places a requirement on manufacturers to use biodegradable surfactants within their detergent formulations. The Directive is also proposing that the next Directive considers:

\&quot;The issues relating to anaerobic biodegradation, the biodegradation of the main non-surfactant organic detergent ingredients, and phosphate content, which are not dealt with in this Regulation.\&quot;

Phosphonates could be banned or restricted in use under future legislation should the biodegradability principle be extended to chelants. Phosphonates are already restricted or excluded from eco-labelled products.<br><br>Post edited by: apistodiscus, at: 2007/08/09 14:10

Dechlorinators may not be necessary but they sure are handy.
I add the required ammount to my 18L bucket and fill with warm tap water.
I don't match the temps exactly.
Indeed every now and then I pour cold water in just to make the Cories breed.
It works every time!!!
Mind you I've never been able to hatch the eggs or even keep them long enough to hatch.

Didihno wrote:

Dechlorinators may not be necessary but they sure are handy.
I add the required ammount to my 18L bucket and fill with warm tap water.

Warm water will have all the chlorine dissipated out of it already. That's what heat does to chlorine. I wouldn't use warm tap water for aquarium neither would I drink it. Have a look inside your water tank in the attic and have a look what has collected in it over time and you know what I'm talking about...

I recently stopped using stress coat, I am using tetra pond ( 5 euro Atlantic homecare)saving a fortune and i have to say i also noticed a difference in my tanks I now only use stress coat in my fry tank. and my pocket is a lot healthier

apistodiscus wrote:

Aloe vera? Your fish are suffering from a dried out epidermis? me thinks not. Another marketing ploy.

You don't need to use any dechlorinators. Just put the water you intend to use in a food safe container for 24 hours and aerate that will get rid of any chlorine and you can also add a heater to bring it up to aquarium temperature. I use an old water vat. Chloramine needs 48 hours to dissipate but as far aas I am aware is not used in Ireland. Check with your local council to be sure
Holger

Chloramines are used in Ireland. They are used after water pipe maintenance.

Stresscoat is a load of crap IMO. I used it befoe and never liked. I think Safe Guard and Aqua plus are very good.

apistodiscus wrote:
I wouldn't use warm tap water for aquarium neither would I drink it. Have a look inside your water tank in the attic and have a look what has collected in it over time and you know what I'm talking about...[/quote]
Yes I know. I used to boil cold water to heat up the water for the changes.
(I don't use only warm tap water, just enough to take the chill out, about 1/3)
Aquaplus or Safewater claims to remove chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals man.
I use both of these.
Whether they do or not is for others to proove, all I know is my fish are generally in good health. Someday I will set up an RO processing plant, until then laziness rules.

No water conditioner will take out heavy metals. Phyiscally not possible. Chloride can be gotten rid of. It's a gaseous at room temperature. Heavy metals aren't and you can't get them into a gaseous state either. Please re-read my earlier post about chelators. The only way to remove heavy metals from water is by ion-exchange or the use of an RO unit. BTW heavy metal concentrations in tapwater are so low that you don't really have to worry about it.

@Anto,

Ok, even if chloramines after are used after maintenance in Ireland you will still get rid of them by aeration and heating of the water you intend to use for 48 hours. Chloramines are more stable than chlorine but not that stable either that they will not eventually break up in ammonia and chlorine. Leaving the water stand for 48 hours will also have the added advantage that the pH can stabilize.

Holger

Holger,

I wouldn't be too sure about getting rid of chloramines that easy. I think the best advice to any beginner reading this is to always use a dechlorinator until you are full sure of what's in your water supply. Even at that, you can't be sure of what will be added to it in the future.

I always use dechlorinator and will continue to do so.
I think offering up advice that you don`t need de-chlorinators
is irresponsible, especially to beginners.

Whether it's rubbish or not, I've not lost a fish yet and the delivery arrived today. 250+ water changes (@ 100L a change) for €48 or so can't be bad. It'll do me for years....<br><br>Post edited by: essjay, at: 2007/08/24 12:13

It wouldn't last me for six month:)

@Anthony,
do you know whicj type of chloramine is used when they flush pipes. Just wondering since some chloramines are made illegal in some EU countries for use in drinking water. For example Chloramine T is banned in Germany for the last 7 years<br><br>Post edited by: apistodiscus, at: 2007/08/24 13:07

I agree that we should always encourage beginners to use dechlorinators.

I've recently tried Holgers approach of aerating the water and leaving to stand. So far so good, if there are any suspicious deaths or water quality problems (due to filter bacteria being killed off) i'll use dechlorinator again.

@Peter,

very easy to show that the system works.Do an ammonia, nitrite, nitrate test just after you changed your water. You won't see any negative changes hence my method works