Recommendations For Water Treatment/Additive Program

[fredmertz]

My tank is six months old and doing well after some fits and starts, but I am still having a hard time figuring out what exactly I should be adding to my tank on a regular basis. It is a 75g freshwater tank with 3 angels, 3 yoyo loaches, 5 rainbows (3 turquoise, 2 boesemani), 3 gouramis, a rainbow shark, a cobalt lobster and fake plants.

Right now, I use Prime, Nite Out and Stress Guard with each water change, but after a decent amount of reading, I can't really figure out if beyond Prime either of those are necessary and it can be hard to figure out which products actually do the same thing (the marketing copy for a lot of these things seems to be intentionally confusing).

Does anyone have any suggestions for regular maintenance additives? I would love to see what programs others are using.

Thanks!

 

[blert]

Prime is really all you need.
Stop the NiteOut completely, and keep an eye on the toxin levels for a while. It is hindering the establishment of a mature bio-filter. You may have to do a few extra water changes until the bacteria in your bio-filter catch up.
The only other thing you need would be some sort of fertilizer if you have live plants.

 

[fort384]

Agreed. The only thing you need to add to a fish only FW tank is prime during a water change. Adding anything else is probably not helping anything, and in some cases can be detrimental to establishing a tank.

All I do on a FW tank for maintenance is a 30-50% PWC each week, with prime for chlorine treatment, and I rinse out the filter media about once a month in the tank water I take out during a PWC.

 

[Richie1RCS]

I agree as with every body else just make shore u add it to your tap not in tank for prime

 

[fort384]

A lot of folks, especially those who use a python for water changes, add it straight to the tank with no ill effects - personally, I do as Richie recommends and just add it to the bucket before I put it in the tank.

 

[fredmertz]

I agree as with every body else just make shore u add it to your tap not in tank for prime

I follow the instructions on the prime -- I add enough for 75g to the tank before I add the water, rather than dosing for the replacement amount.

I don't even know how I would treat 30-40 gallons of water prior to adding to the aquarium. How do people do that? Where do you put the water to treat it, and then how do you get it into the tank? I use the python method.

 

[fort384]

No sweat Fred - a lot of folks do it that way. It will work fine.

 

[librarygirl]

I follow the instructions on the prime -- I add enough for 75g to the tank before I add the water, rather than dosing for the replacement amount.

I don't even know how I would treat 30-40 gallons of water prior to adding to the aquarium. How do people do that? Where do you put the water to treat it, and then how do you get it into the tank? I use the python method.

Your method is fine, as Fort says many of us doing it that way when using a changer attached to the faucet, myself included. Ditch the other stuff, just use the Prime.

 

[fredmertz]

Well thanks everyone. Amazing how an entire industry has developed selling unnecessary additives for aquariums!

 

[foster53]

Well thanks everyone. Amazing how an entire industry has developed selling unnecessary additives for aquariums!

To the companies selling the products it's all about the $.