Stress Zyme

[macksjay]

Hello I am doing a fishless cycle and I have been adding API Stress Zyme to help speed up the cycle and was wondering

Does it actually work?

Is there anything better to use in a fishless cycle than Stress Zyme?

What would happen if I never put anything in my water only Stress Coat to remove chlorine & chloramines?

Thanks for any help

 

[raptorrex]

Hello I am doing a fishless cycle and I have been adding API Stress Zyme to help speed up the cycle and was wondering

Does it actually work?

Is there anything better to use in a fishless cycle than Stress Zyme?

What would happen if I never put anything in my water only Stress Coat to remove chlorine & chloramines?

Thanks for any help

my view, would be, you should not be putting anything in the tank but ammonia. bottled "cycle" aids, are useless. that is unless you sell em, then they are great.

forget the additives, and do a good cycle.

which gives us:

Does it actually work?

NO

Is there anything better to use in a fishless cycle than Stress Zyme?

NO, coz none work

What would happen if I never put anything in my water only Stress Coat to remove chlorine & chloramines?

. nothing, you need ammonia to feed your bacteria

 

[macksjay]

Sorry I meant Stress Coat and ammonia

 

[JMcQueen]

Bactinettes seem to give good results if you have a LFS that stock them. The only problem is that they need to be relatively fresh from what I can gather and in date. What put me off was that the stockist near me never had any expiry dates printed on the bottle. How would anyone know how long they've been sat there?

But as posted above, the only sure way is just to keep testing and adding ammonia as needed.

 

[Corleone]

Stress coat is basically just a rather expensive water conditioner. You do want to use some kind, primarily to remove chlorine, but stress coat is more expensive to buy and you use more of it. Seachem prime is a popular one, you use fairly small amounts (with my 55 gallon, a bottle will last well over a year with weekly water changes), but you can also just pick up a pond dechlorinator like Weco to really cheap out - my first bottle of conditioner was a 4 ounce bottle of Weco. At 1 drop per 2 gallons, that little bottle lasted a long time, and cost less than $5.

 

[raptorrex]

Bactinettes seem to give good results if you have a LFS that stock them. The only problem is that they need to be relatively fresh from what I can gather and in date. What put me off was that the stockist near me never had any expiry dates printed on the bottle. How would anyone know how long they've been sat there?

But as posted above, the only sure way is just to keep testing and adding ammonia as needed.

having read about "Bactinettes", but never used them. it seems they speed up the "ammonia" reduction. but have no effect on the nitrite section. as for them needing to be fresh! if they are alive, and they have to be, it's vital. if for some reason they degrade with age, the product is useless. (as it probably is)

 

[JMcQueen]

I think they only have a useful life of so many days due to the fact that there is a finite source of food for the bacteria in the container. Also, I've heard mixed reports on needing to keep them refrigerated. Some LFS's have said they need to be kept refrigerated and others have said as long as they say below 70o its ok.

I might try some at the weekend and see if they do have any effect. My tank cycle got messed up last night and if it aids the repair process a little it'd be worth it. Plus purely from an interest point of view to see if they work.

 

[raptorrex]

I think they only have a useful life of so many days due to the fact that there is a finite source of food for the bacteria in the container. Also, I've heard mixed reports on needing to keep them refrigerated. Some LFS's have said they need to be kept refrigerated and others have said as long as they say below 70o its ok.

I might try some at the weekend and see if they do have any effect. My tank cycle got messed up last night and if it aids the repair process a little it'd be worth it. Plus purely from an interest point of view to see if they work.

if you could keep records. you experience could help people decide if its worth it!

 

[JMcQueen]

[/quote]

if you could keep records. you experience could help people decide if its worth it!

[/quote]


No problem. The only difficulty I see would be distinguishing between the effect of the bactinettes and what would have happended anyway.

My tank was starting to cycle nicely until an 'incident' last night. Before, it was processing 4ppm of ammonia in 12 hours but when I checked this morning it had virtually stopped. Im going to do another test tonight to see if the colony is recovering unaided but if not, then I'll get a tin of bactinettes tomorrow lunchtime and see if it helps. Most of the reports I've read state that it doesnt work as claimed in that it doesnt 'instantly' cycle the tank but that it does seem to speed the process up.

 

[raptorrex]

No problem. The only difficulty I see would be distinguishing between the effect of the bactinettes and what would have happended anyway.

a problem indeed. changes could be down to the additive, or environment, as you say. lol, i've never had a cycle last longer then 18 days (usually 14) so time does not seem to press for me. but, i already have a tank. i do understand why time seems so long, for those on their first tank.

 

[JMcQueen]

Im on day 45....

 

[raptorrex]

Im on day 45....

!

Ahh, that's time.

 

[JMcQueen]

Yeah, although it seems it was just a temporary setback, ammonia and nitrite back to zero this morning.