Is putting a stress coat supplement in my tank going to help?

Question

I have been doing a lot of water changes to get my amonia levels lower in my tank, but I'm afraid that it is causing stress to my fish. I think that it gave them ick (which I've already treated) but I'm still worried that when I do more water changes it will get them sick again. If I get a stress coat supplement will it help?

Answer 1

The less chemicals you put in your aquarium, the better. Stress coat is one of the few good ones.

Even ich can be cured without medicine by just raising the temperature to 85 degrees for three days.

Water changes are a necessary evil if you want a healthy aquarium. However, you should never change all the water at once (see below). Uneaten food and fish waste breaks down into ammonia, nitrates and nitrites. All are toxic to your fish in varying degrees. Ammonia is the worst. Eventually they will all kill your fish if the levels get too high. The easiest and cheapest way to keep your water in good shape and your fish healthy is to change about 25% of the water in the aquarium each week to 10 days. If you wait 2 weeks, then change 30-35%.

Never change all of the water and wash the gravel because you will lose all of the nitrifying bacteria that you need to help with the breakdown of the different products of the waste breakdown. If you must do a clean out of the entire tank, siphon the gravel with a special gravel vac and don't change the filter when you do the siphoning. A lot of good bacteria live in the filter. Wait about 10 to 14 days before you clean the filter.

Answer 2

The high ammonia level likely weakened their immune systems. Water changes are really only stressful if you are doing massive changes in the PH or hardness. If you changed sources of water abrutly. (This is why I don't like bottle water as the same brand could be from a completely different source.) Or if you are changing the temp quickly. Make sure you are doing the changes more gradually. For example if you were planning on doing a 50% water change do one 30% in the morning, and one 30% in the evening. Or consider a chemical agent to reduce the ammonia.

Ich/ick was likely already in your tank, but when your fish were healthy their immune systems were able to fight it off. If you have fish that can take it raise the temp to 85, and add 1 teaspoon of salt per 5 gallonsto the water. (Also an anti-ich med might be in order if it's a bad case of ich.)

PS- Stress coat may help, but you'd need to add it to the water your putting in for it to be effective.

Answer 3

Water changes shouldn't have given your fish ick. Not if you're using fresh water anyway. The only way I know of to pass ick is through introduction of new fish (or decoration items) which have been infected. You may not have noticed it if the fish were newly infected when you added them.
It is good to use stress coat when doing large water changes OR when completely tearing down the tank.
But don't worry about water changes making your fish sick as long as you make sure the temperature of the fresh water is the same as the temperature of the water already in the tank.

Answer 4

A stress coat supplement will build up the slime coat on your fish's body, reducing the risk of disease and parasites like Ick. So, yes. It will help.

Answer 5

yes it will help it builds up a coating on the fish that will protect them from Ick and the stress coat is also good for your water changes and should help with the ammonia a little

Answer 6

First of all if you put tap water in an aquarium it will kill some of you beneficial bacteria, not all, but some will die so to avoid this add it to the bucket of water and stir the water. Then you pour the water into the tank. This way you know that you beneficial bacteria won't die. Then add about half a teaspoon to guarantee that you have add the right amount to your tank. And don't worry about adding to much it won't hurt your fish or plants if you have them.

Answer 7

There are other ways to get the ammonia down with chemicals instead of changing the water all the time. Stress coat will help, but also get an ammonia neutralizer. Go to your local pet store and they can help you.

Answer 8

alright--if you think your fish have ick, add some aquatic salt to the tank.it's a strange request, but even freshwater fish will like it! it'll calm them down, get rid of their slime coating, and help their systems accept the ick meds.

outside of that--yes! stress coating will help! it gives them electrolites, and their cells will thank them! it also gets rid of a lot of chemcials in the water to help them out that way, and coat them in a nice slime =) the salt will help too (there's freshwater instructions on the box), as well as kill the bad stuff in your water.

good luck!