stress coat?

Hi all.I was wondering if aquarium pharmaceuliticals stress coat with aloe vera is good for my newts (chinese fire bellied newts).




chris:wacko:



p.s thank you in advanse for any helpful advice:happy:

It's not necessary. The aloe will just add nitrogen to your tank.

It is also a dechlorinizer and that is what i need and is nitrogen harmful in a tank?






Chris:wacko:




p.s I'm sorry about not knowing about the nitrogen.I only have a very basic knowledge when it comes to newt keeping but I'm still learning:happy:

Simply letting the water sit will dechlorinate it. It is not a necessary product. I'm so glad I have a well, lol.

Sharon

OK thanks Sharon and kaysie i will evacuate my newts to a temporary tank.Also how long do I have to let it set preciously?

I let my water stand for 24 hours

Simply letting the water sit is not an effective way of removing Chlorine or Chloramine. Depending on different factors, it can take a while for chlorine to dissipate, plus it will not even get rid of Chloramine, which can cause harmful ammonia spikes. Get dechlorinator that removes chlorine and chloramine.

Honestly when I lived in town we had water with so many additives it was bad to use in your pool or for plants. Now I don't understand how in the world water that corrosive (ruined the finish they said) could be good for you to drink. I didn't think the dechlorinators etc would work so I just bought filtered water from those machines.

But letting water sit works for a friend of mine who has 300gl saltwater tank & multiple freshwater tanks.

She fills the tub and lets it sit 24 - 48 hours and then scoops 5 gl buckets for water changes etc.

Sharon

ferret_corner said:

Honestly when I lived in town we had water with so many additives it was bad to use in your pool or for plants. Now I don't understand how in the world water that corrosive (ruined the finish they said) could be good for you to drink. I didn't think the dechlorinators etc would work so I just bought filtered water from those machines.

But letting water sit works for a friend of mine who has 300gl saltwater tank & multiple freshwater tanks.

She fills the tub and lets it sit 24 - 48 hours and then scoops 5 gl buckets for water changes etc.

Sharon

Click to expand...

Hmmm......Well I'm not sure about that. Is there chloramine in their water? It might work for removing chlorine, but I would go with the dechlorinator just to be better safe than sorry.

I'm getting kind of confused here:errr: should i use the stuff or not?:happy: it removes chlorine and chloramines does that mater?





Chris:wacko:

I might suggest to check with your municipality and determine what is used in the water - chlorine or chloramine. As Will indicated, chloramine will not be removed by 'aging' the water. Depending on the size of your set up, another consideration is using Spring Water and checking for pH.

Ok according to wikipedia - you can fill a white 5 gl bucket with your water and if it has a greenish cast to it, then it contains chloramines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine

and this one...

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/water/chlorine.shtml

go all the way to the bottom and look for this paragraph...

""The Washington DC water utility offers a document "How the conversion to Chloramines affects your fish" generated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which injects a note of sobriety into this sometimes panic-inducing situation. Being a public agency, the Washington Aqueduct couldn't recommend any commercial brand, but in general they recommended four general methods for neutralizing chloramines: 1. activated carbon in filtration, 2. sodium thiosulfate, 3. commerically-available de-chloramination products ("some simply remove the chlorine, while others 'lock up' or detoxify remaining ammonia"), or 4. a chemical agent plus a biological agent ("bio-filter") to remove the ammonia. (You should already have known all this, eh?) ""


there is more information after that paragraph so keep reading.

Sharon

The simple way to determine if you have chlorine or chloramines in your drinking water is to call your municipal water supply, like Jan suggested. They'll be able to tell you how they treat the water.

Chlorine will eventually dissapate from the water. This is accelerated by using some sort of aerator (an air stone). Chloramines are a chlorine-ammonia molecule, and will not dissapate. These need to be removed by chemical means. The chemical breaks the chlorine-amine bond, so you're left with chlorine and ammonia. The chlorine will dissapate (just like straight chlorine treated water), and the ammonia will be converted in your biological cycle.

If you do have chloramines in your drinking water, treat with the simplest dechlorinator you can find. I've used many over the years, and they all seem to be equally effective. I usually use half to three-quarters of the recommended amount. I do not recommend those that 'lock' ammonia. These just convert the ammonia to another form. They do not remove the ammonia.