Aloe

[Mentat]

Oh I saw on one of mentats posts.

As an experienced aquarist I do not use or recommend any water conditioners that go beyond a basic dechlorinator like Seachem. Also, believe that to coat our frogs in aloe and chemical binders is unnatural.

A few decades ago some manufacturers started adding other things to their dechlorinators to make them "better." That included Aloe and many of us started using it. Either the Aloe or the binders (or a combo of both) would stick to fish and other organic stuff. The first observation was that the pores in sintered glass filtering media (i.e. Seachem's Matrix) would get clogged in a few months making it useless to maintain a large bacteria colony and needed replacement because you could not remove the coating off with a tank water rinse . On comparison; I've got filter media that is over 3 years old with thriving colonies and only gets a weekly rinsing in tank water during a water change .

The second issue myself and others witnessed, was an interference with water treatments and medications . At first it was observational facts, but then some products started including warnings they were incompatible with aloe water conditioners . Now, understand these issues affected aquariums; but frogs are even more sensitive to chemicals than the basic fish (some scaleless fish and invertebrates are very sensitive too). Also, frogs intake oxygen and water through their skin, which makes me wonder and deduce what long terms effects will the use of aloe and it's binders have on them. Do be aware that at the same time, other aquarium keepers swear by these products .

Do I have scientific data... no. Am I going to expose my frogs to something I know by experience to bring issues to aquariums filters, water and fish... nope!

And while in the subject of dechlorinators, last year we had a new line of products calling themselves natural dechlorinators. They are based on Vitamin C and after reading the label went like "oh, natural organic stuff is good" and bought a 16 oz. bottle of product "SuperBac All Natural Dechlorinator". The product worked as advised and neutralized the chloramines in tap (have a CL test kit on hand) but it did something else my fish did not like. I have large fish and their water changes are 15-20% and just that, had them acting "funny" or stressed . With one it was severe enough to require an immediate water change (using Prime this time) to dilute product. Interestingly the product label states "it replaces slime coat to reduce stress." I did email the manufacturer (NatureBac) describing issue and got a quick response from admin type stating would pass my email to lab techs and have them contact me. It's been over a year and I'm still waiting for their response . The whole bottle went into thrash and I would not recommend using vitamin C dechlorinators with fish, frogs or any water system either .

Organisms have natural immunity and defense systems. IMO we should not interfere with that, unless a pathogen has overwhelmed the systems .