API STRESSCOAT

[Slaphppy7]

API Tap Water Conditioner, or Seachem Prime, is all you need.

Stresscoat = waste of $

 

[FishHobby99]

API Tap Water Conditioner, or Seachem Prime, is all you need.

Stresscoat = waste of $

That’s what I’m saying too.

 

[Uberhoust]

A. vera for up to 96 h. One hundred percent of tilapia exposed to 50 ppm A. vera died within the duration of the experiment. Fish used in this experiment exhibited severe depigmentation and destruction of organs (including gills).

Well we now know the LD 100 for Aloe vera. That said, I have used the product when I haven't had anything else. I haven't noticed any negative affects on my fish.

I do agree that it is a marketing ploy. Aloe vera might be good for people so its got to work for fish...

Normally I use the cheapest, per gallon of water treated, water conditioner that contains sodium thiosulfate. I use slightly under the prescribed dose because I know my chlorine concentration is on the low side. Often that means going to the pond section of the store.

 

[FishHobby99]

Well we now know the LD 100 for Aloe vera. That said, I have used the product when I haven't had anything else. I haven't noticed any negative affects on my fish.

I do agree that it is a marketing ploy. Aloe vera might be good for people so its got to work for fish...

Normally I use the cheapest, per gallon of water treated, water conditioner that contains sodium thiosulfate. I use slightly under the prescribed dose because I know my chlorine concentration is on the low side. Often that means going to the pond section of the store.

It works! My fish have such soft smooth fins! All from Aloe Vera. They glide through the tank with the greatest of ease.

 

[Byron]

Since they have been mentioned in posts 16 and 17...of the two--API Tap Water Conditioner and Seachem's Prime--the API is the safer product to use. It is the most highly concentrated so less is needed. But of greater significance is the fact that it does only what is needed (in an established biologically stable tank). Prime is OK if ammonia, nitrite or nitrate are in the source water, but if not, then there is the real possibility that it is unnecessarily messing with water chemistry with fish in the tank.

This came up in another thread recently over the detoxification of heavy metals, which both conditioners handle. The API does this in a manner that makes the metals (copper, zinc, manganese, iron) available for assimilation by the plants. [If you want an explanation, @Essjay who knows chemistry explains this better than I can.] But Seachem refuses to say how this is achieved with Prime, but they do caution that Prime is effective for 36 hours and during that time the metals are somehow detoxified and unable to be assimilated by plants; this is why they recommend not using Flourish or any plant additive for 48 hours after using Prime.

The simplest road is always the safer road for fish and additives.

 

[Essjay]

API Tap Water Conditioner contains tetra sodium EDTA which forms a metal-EDTA complex. This effectively removes the metal from the water so that it cannot harm fish.

Plants can be used for phytoremediation, which uses plants clean up soil contaminated with metals. In studies, EDTA has been found to enhance phytoremediation. If terrestrial plants can remove heavy metals better when they are complexed with EDTA, presumably aquatic plants are the same.



I live in an area with just about the highest concentration of chemical industry in the UK. That's why we moved here - my husband worked for ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), a company which now no longer exists. In this area, ICI pioneered the use of reed beds to remove chemical contamination. Plants are wonderful things, and not just in fish tanks

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

API Tap Water Conditioner contains tetra sodium EDTA which forms a metal-EDTA complex. This effectively removes the metal from the water so that it cannot harm fish.

Plants can be used for phytoremediation, which uses plants clean up soil contaminated with metals. In studies, EDTA has been found to enhance phytoremediation. If terrestrial plants can remove heavy metals better when they are complexed with EDTA, presumably aquatic plants are the same.



I live in an area with just about the highest concentration of chemical industry in the UK. That's why we moved here - my husband worked for ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), a company which now no longer exists. In this area, ICI pioneered the use of reed beds to remove chemical contamination. Plants are wonderful things, and not just in fish tanks

I'm afraid I don't speak science very well, but from what I can gather with this info is that API water conditioner is better for a planted tank? Maybe you could explain it in more simple way (if you can) for an idiot like me please Essjay? Thus may be where I'm going wrong with my planted tank

 

[FishHobby99]

API Tap Water Conditioner contains tetra sodium EDTA which forms a metal-EDTA complex. This effectively removes the metal from the water so that it cannot harm fish.

Plants can be used for phytoremediation, which uses plants clean up soil contaminated with metals. In studies, EDTA has been found to enhance phytoremediation. If terrestrial plants can remove heavy metals better when they are complexed with EDTA, presumably aquatic plants are the same.



I live in an area with just about the highest concentration of chemical industry in the UK. That's why we moved here - my husband worked for ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), a company which now no longer exists. In this area, ICI pioneered the use of reed beds to remove chemical contamination. Plants are wonderful things, and not just in fish tanks

Whaaaat? You’re saying no plants in fish tanks? Heresy or I misunderstand.

 

[Essjay]

EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetate) is a molecule which wraps itself round metals and attaches to the metal. (I spent 2 years postgrad research using a different chemical, but one which wraps around metals in a similar way, to make cobalt complexes).

Researching on google found that EDTA is used to bind metals in contaminated soil in a wash to remove these metals so the ground can then be used safely. But further papers suggest that plants can take up these metals as well, and adding EDTA to the soil enhances the amount of metals the plants can take up.
These papers are concerned with making soil safe. I can only read the abstracts unfortunately, but they do say that the plants take up more metal from the soil if it's bound to EDTA.

It is often said that we should not add fertiliser to a tank until at least 24 hours after a water change so that the EDTA will have been used up by metals in the new water, tap water, so that after 24 hours there won't be any EDTA left over to remove the metals in the plant fertiliser.

But if terrestrial plants can take up these toxic metals when bound to EDTA, should our aquatic plants still be able to take up the metals in fertiliser even if they are bound by the EDTA in water conditioners? Or in other words, do we need to wait at least 24 hours after a water change before adding fertiliser?

Whaaaat? You’re saying no plants in fish tanks? Heresy or I misunderstand.

Don't worry, I'm not saying no plants. I'm just wondering if we can add fertiliser immediatley after a water change rather that waiting till at least a day later. If terrestrial plants can take up metals bound to EDTA, does that mean that aquarium plants can take up the metals in fertiliser even if they are bound to EDTA?

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I've always added my ferts in with the new water so maybe I should wait a day and see if I notice a difference

 

[Essjay]

My husband's PhD is in metal complexes But different ones from those made with EDTA.

 

[Byron]

I've always added my ferts in with the new water so maybe I should wait a day and see if I notice a difference

This was my former thinking too, after Seachem advise me (in response to a direct question to them) about Prime's 36-hour effectiveness which would (they said) nullify any of these metals in fertilizers added during the 36 hours. However, with Essjay's info, I am no longer thinking this holds with ASPI's Tap Water Conditioner, which is what I use, and I have now gone back to adding the dose after the water change. I didn't notice any plant differences when I went to the "delay" method a few years ago, so I don't expect to see anything now, though time will tell.

The other thing that does affect this though is the CO2 in the replacement water. This varies with conditions in the atmosphere, water reservoirs, etc, but some weeks there is considerably more CO2 in the water after the water change (all those tiny bubbles), and more than once I have observed pearling from some of the plants. [You may know, but just in case you don't, pearling is the release of the excess oxygen which is a by-product of photosynthesis.] In a discussion with Tom Barr some years back, he said this influx of CO2 was not beneficial to plants if it was not consistent and matched by light and other nutrients; he was arguing that the influx of CO2 might harm the plants, but without any evidence of this I just took it at face value. Additional CO2 is not going to be of much use if the other required nutrients are not sufficient. I have frequently thought the plants might do better if the fertilizer was in the water with the additional CO2, so for this reason also I have gone back to my former method of adding the fertilizer after the water change.

 

[FishHobby99]

I've always added my ferts in with the new water so maybe I should wait a day and see if I notice a difference

OMG! This Ipad was bouncing around because I was peddling fast & I thought you wrote: I’ve always added my farts…..

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

OMG! This Ipad was bouncing around because I was peddling fast & I thought you wrote: I’ve always added my farts…..

Now there's an experiment...

 

[FishHobby99]

Now there's an experiment...

Organic tank fumigation