Clear Ammonia

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JellOh

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I have some ammonia here that is labeled Clear Ammonia: All purpose cleaner. Could I use it for cycling a filter? The ingredients are Softened water, Ammonia, Chelating agent in that order. I wasn't able to do the buble test and I haven't smelt it yet.
 
What on Earth is chelating???

Anyways, it's probably ok, but best do the bubble test first.
 
the_lock_man said:
What on Earth is chelating???
Beats me! I looked it up, and the definition is-

Chemistry .
a.
of or noting a heterocyclic compound having a central metallic ion attached by covalent bonds to two or more nonmetallic atoms in the same molecule.
b.
of or noting a compound having a cyclic structure resulting from the formation of one or more hydrogen bonds in the same molecule.


So... That helps a lot (not)
 
Chelating agents in chemistry basically means a chemical that "binds."  As with a lot of publicly sold chemicals, the ingredient "Chelating Agent" as it stands is completely ambiguous.
 
A chelate can be any number of things. 
-Polyvinylpyrollidone (an ingredient in some tap water conditioners) bind to most polar molecules, making it a chelate. 
-Another ingredient found on some water conditioners is EDTA (EthyleneDiamineTetraAcetic acid) binds to harmful metal ions that may be in tap water.
-Heavy metals such as copper (can be copper sulfate), cobalt, are also chelating agents for certain molecules. 
 
So as you can see, a chemical ingredient label "chelating agent" could mean a whole number of things.  As for it's use with ammonia, I have no clue.
 
EDTA is used as a softening agent so could be the chelating agent used to produce the softened water as NeonBlue said very ambiguous as you definitely wouldn't want to add heavy metals to your tank!
 

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