API stress coat

[stellar981]

I just purchased this to help my "tail biting" betta's fins to heal. Well.. i put some in last night, and then he bit again last night.. how often should i be adding more? Should I only use it once in between water changes, or can it be used multiple times/daily? I want him to get better. I just brought him a smaller tank to see if that's his issue. It all started after i put him back in the 10 gal from the 2.5 hosp tank. So he is upset about something.. anyway, any tips about stress coat are appreciated.. or any other tips for healing his fins. Thank you!

[callistra]

You add it like any dechlorinator.. once. When you do a water change you do a dosage based on how much water you change. Be careful. You don't want to overdose. All you want it 1 ml per 1 gallon ratio.

[stellar981]

Originally Posted by callistra

You add it like any dechlorinator.. once. When you do a water change you do a dosage based on how much water you change. Be careful. You don't want to overdose. All you want it 1 ml per 1 gallon ratio.

oh i thought people used it here for fin repair/healing, in between changes. i must have misunderstood. hopefully adding it last night didnt hurt him! he seems ok. I am doing a change tomorrow. so when pet stores use those little cups for their bettas, i assume they use a dechlorinator. how would you dose something that small?? Almost all bottles tell you how to treat 10 gal. But nothing less.. Is is always a ml per gal? (any conditioner?) Or is this just specific to API stress coat?

[callistra]

I don't know how pet stores do it. I know not every pet store even uses dechlorinator, which is really sad. One way they could possibly do it is by mixing up 1 gallon or even larger batches and then filling up the small cups with the jugs or bucket water.

Every conditioner is different. That's just for stress coat, and actually that's specifically for healing fins. 1/2ml per gallon is standard.

[stellar981]

Originally Posted by callistra

I don't know how pet stores do it. I know not every pet store even uses dechlorinator, which is really sad. One way they could possibly do it is by mixing up 1 gallon or even larger batches and then filling up the small cups with the jugs or bucket water.

Every conditioner is different. That's just for stress coat, and actually that's specifically for healing fins. 1/2ml per gallon is standard.

oh ok.. yeah that makes sense. thanks for the info, i will ONLY use it for water changes from now on! i got it specifically for healing fins. i plan to buy Prime to replace my current conditioner. very highly recommended on here!

[callistra]

I use prime as my normal conditioner and i add stress coat at 1 ml per 1 gallon to help my biters and for fin rot recovery.

It will work just fine the way you're using it.. the reason you don't need to add more is it stays in the water.

[LittleBlueFishlets]

Originally Posted by stellar981

oh i thought people used it here for fin repair/healing, in between changes. i must have misunderstood. hopefully adding it last night didnt hurt him! he seems ok. I am doing a change tomorrow. so when pet stores use those little cups for their bettas, i assume they use a dechlorinator. how would you dose something that small?? Almost all bottles tell you how to treat 10 gal. But nothing less.. Is is always a ml per gal? (any conditioner?) Or is this just specific to API stress coat?

It's not always 1 mL per gallon. Some brands are more concentrated, others more dilute. But each brand will give you the correct dosing information on their bottle.

To treat small quantities, it's just a fraction of what's needed for the larger tank.

For example: Say you need 5 mL conditioner per 10 gallons water.
This means you'd need 0.5 mL condition per 1 gallon water. (Divide everything by ten.)

From what I've determined, there are ABOUT 20 drops in 1 mL. So if you needed 1 mL, you could add about 20 drops. If you need 0.1 mL, you could add about 2 drops.

(If you want to see if the 20 drop rule applies for your conditioner, you could put drops of conditioner into the measuring cap on your bottle, and count how many it takes to reach 1 mL.)

As for the pet stores, I assume they don't dose each individual cup. They probably have a huge tank of water, and fill the cups from it. :)

[stellar981]

Originally Posted by callistra

I use prime as my normal conditioner and i add stress coat at 1 ml per 1 gallon to help my biters and for fin rot recovery.

It will work just fine the way you're using it.. the reason you don't need to add more is it stays in the water.

oh ok... so it wasnt bad that i added it, in addition to my normal conditioner? i just dont need to add it again, until after a water change? that makes sense.. thanks!

[callistra]

Yeah I use both prime and stress coat, occasionally. It's overkill in most cases but I keep some temp 1 gallon bowls and those I use Prime in and the stress coat for fin growth. You don't need to use both but it's not hurting and each is doing something slightly different.

[stellar981]

Originally Posted by LittleBlueFishlets

It's not always 1 mL per gallon. Some brands are more concentrated, others more dilute. But each brand will give you the correct dosing information on their bottle.

To treat small quantities, it's just a fraction of what's needed for the larger tank.

For example: Say you need 5 mL conditioner per 10 gallons water.
This means you'd need 0.5 mL condition per 1 gallon water. (Divide everything by ten.)

From what I've determined, there are ABOUT 20 drops in 1 mL. So if you needed 1 mL, you could add about 20 drops. If you need 0.1 mL, you could add about 2 drops.

(If you want to see if the 20 drop rule applies for your conditioner, you could put drops of conditioner into the measuring cap on your bottle, and count how many it takes to reach 1 mL.)

As for the pet stores, I assume they don't dose each individual cup. They probably have a huge tank of water, and fill the cups from it. :)

thank you for this info, i will keep this in mind if for whatever reason i ever need to use a smaller container!