De-chlorinator – Confusing.

[rich05uk]

I've already posted a similar question in the new to the hobby section but thought I might try here also.

I'm new to keeping fish but in my quest for information I came across this article on dechlorinators. I am now trying to find a dechlorinator that simply removes chlorine and chloramines without doing any of the 'other stuff'. Any suggestions?

If such a product exists, would I need to do anything else to the water such as removing heavy metals etc, if so how?

Thanks.

 

[Bignose]

Here: http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/rev-cond.htm is a good article that has a table of what a lot of popular dechlorinators do.

You do want one that binds up heavy metals too. Fish have different heavy metal tolerances than humans -- and the water companies only monitor the levels to be safe for human consumption. For example, a fish's LD50 level (the LD50 level is the dose that kills half of a test population) for copper is between 100 to 1000 times smaller than the dose where humans even start to notice any ill effects. So, detoxifying heavy metals is usually a pretty good thing for the fish.

 

[rich05uk]

Thanks Bignose, that's a very useful link.

From the list in this link it appears the closest dechlorinator that does what I want is the API Tap Water Conditioner except it doest deal with removing chloramines from the water, any suggestions?

I'm still trying to find a dechlorinator which simply removes chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals only from the water. Reading the article in the link you provided it suggests that anything else isn't necessary and treatments like Aloe Vera should only be added if you need them as a healthy balanced tank with healthy fish should be able to produce their own healthy slime coat on their own without any need for other things like Herbal Extract or Aloe Vera. They just add organic load in the aquarium and can cause a long term residue build up in the tank which I would certainly want to avoid.

Further to this, some dechlorinators lock ammonia and I believe this is bad as it can interfere with the filters bacteria and the nitrogen cycle, is this correct and if so, I will also need the dechlorinator to NOT lock ammonia.

Some also do something similar to Nitrite & Nitrate too (Such as Prime), so surely this is bad for planted tanks?

Am I paranoid and looking too deep into this or should I just buy a bottle of Prime and trust the manufactures that all the extra stuff is necessary for a health tank and go along with everyone else who successfully use it?

 

[andywg]

Further to this, some dechlorinators lock ammonia and I believe this is bad as it can interfere with the filters bacteria and the nitrogen cycle, is this correct and if so, I will also need the dechlorinator to NOT lock ammonia.

Locking up the bacteria is likely to have very little effect on the bacterial colony's ability to utilise the ammonia or ammonium. Prime is used by a huge number of aquarists without issue. Tolak breeds FW angels and swears by it.

Some also do something similar to Nitrite & Nitrate too (Such as Prime), so surely this is bad for planted tanks?

Not really, despite what you may read, many aquatic plants prefer to take nitrogen as ammonia rather than nitrate, with some going to the effort of converting nitrate back to ammonia before taking it up. I certainly don't recall noticing any threads in the planted section about how Prime is bad for a planted tank.

The best reason to use Prime is the cost. As it is a higher concentration (approaching pond dechlor dosing levels) you use far less at each water change, thus it lasts much longer than many other dechlors.