StressZyme question for those in the know

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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jfudge01
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StressZyme question for those in the know

Post by jfudge01 »

hey does anyone know if this contains live bacteria?

i couldnt find biospira and the people at the fish store said they use this to cycle their tanks.

it says on the bottle that it contains 'dual action live bacteria' so between that and what the fish store people say i would believe it does but it seems people on here are ademate about the fact that only 'biospira' works.

anyways, if you know, thanks for clearing that up.
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Post by Nick »

It does not. It is bunk, like all the other products that are not biospira. It's dry on a shelf. Whats keeping the bacteria alive? They need O2, and food, they are getting neither. So the claim it is live bacteria is already a lie on the packaging, at absolute BEST, it's dormant bacteria. As far as I know, nitrifying bacteria do not go dormant, or do not last long in a dormant state unless refrigerated(like Biospira). So either it's DEAD bacteria from the start, or dormant bacteria that died sometime shortly after packaging. Don't buy it.
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Post by manutius »

Stresszyme is useless. If you can't get the elusive to the UK Bio-spira then the only way to cycle a tank is with good old fashioned patience and time :P
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Post by jfudge01 »

patience and time?? what do you mean by that?
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Post by manutius »

Starting with a tank with no livestock and waiting a good few weeks before you add fish :D
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Post by Pufferpunk »

Read the Fishless Cycling article in our Library.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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Post by DarkEntity »

Funny i used stresszyme to test cycle a tank and it worked. I did nothing but add the zyme as per instructions, and tested the water every 2-3 days. Eventually it did cycle.

Having said that id use pure ammonia for anything i was actually going to add fish too.
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Post by Pufferpunk »

Were there fish in there too? There's no way a tank can cycle on it's own, even with Bio-Spira, without some source of ammonia.
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Post by DarkEntity »

Just threw in flake food twice a week...it did have a pile of plants floating in ti though until i could get time to plant the real tanks.
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Post by Boxermom »

The StressZyme didn't cycle the tank, the flake food did. Common way of cycling a tank.
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Post by DarkEntity »

yer realised that once i remember the flake :roll:

well actually my good lady, mumbled it
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Post by Stormylee »

My local fish store owner tried to tell me the same thing. BUNK. I was doimg 33% water changes every day to keep the nitrites down. I finally drove 30 miles to get some Biospira. He also told me the ghost shrimp I wanted were pure junk food for puffers, like that was all I would feed em. So far I've learned a lot from this site and if they say so it is probably right.
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