New Stress Coat?

[guppymonkey]

I heard that Aquarium Pharm is changing the formula for its Stress Coat product and adding in a chemical to "take care of" ammonia! I have used Stress Coat before and many people swear by it because of the aloe and its supposed effect on stress relieving (not that I have ever seen any evidence to suggest that aloe helps fish). I don't understand this change! Adding an ammonia remover (which is impossible ammonia just doesn't disappear it must be broken down) only weakens this product! This sounds like a desperate ploy to try to sucker the inexperienced that don't know any better into buying their product because they think its a cure all! If its true that they are switching their formula to add in ammonia remover I don't think I will ever use it again!

 

[cheesy feet]

Maybe they think that most stress is caused by ammonia lol.

 

[GoldLenny]

I use API's Tap Water Conditioner and also keep their MelaFix, PimaFix and Liquid Super Ich Cure (although I've never had to use the Ich med and it will probably go out of date eventually).

I don't buy into all of the stress-this and stress-that stuff... at least not on a permanent basis in my tanks. While aloe shows great success in a topical burn ointment and other topical treatments, I'm not sure it belongs in the water column. I try to avoid as many chemical additives as possible and then use new carbon or recharge my Purigen to remove the meds, along with a series of PWC's.

They are trying to compete with products like Prime and Hikari's dechlor/ammonia neutralizer products. They should just come out with a simple water treatment that does those two things rather than adding more chemicals to an already chemical-laden product.

 

[Danno]

If API does add an ammonia remover to Stress Coat I will probably have to look for another product. I don't like when products remove the ammonia. They have a tendency of giving false ammonia readings on test kits from when you use the product. I'll probably start using Amquel.

 

[andywg]

I heard that Aquarium Pharm is changing the formula for its Stress Coat product and adding in a chemical to "take care of" ammonia

...

Adding an ammonia remover (which is impossible ammonia just doesn't disappear it must be broken down) only weakens this product! This sounds like a desperate ploy to try to sucker the inexperienced that don't know any better into buying their product because they think its a cure all! If its true that they are switching their formula to add in ammonia remover I don't think I will ever use it again!

All it will do is add a chemical to bind to ammonia making it non toxic to the stock of the tank but still available to the filter colony (much like prime).

The most likely cause of doing so is to counter the growing number of water companies that are utilising chloramine rather than chlorine in water supplies. Using sodium thiosulphate to dechlorinate chloramine will leave a small amount of ammonia in the water, this is easily dealt with by a mature colony, but less mature tanks may experience some problems.

You can guarantee they will not claim to "remove" the ammonia but to "neutralise" it