Dechlorinating Liquid

[Squidward]

Hi All,

I have always used Tetra Aquasafe when doing a water change.
But I was at my lfs on the weekend, needing to buy a new bottle, and I noticed that some of the other manufacturers products are far cheaper.

For the Tetra you use 5ml/10L, but of the others you use 1ml/10L. and the cost of the bottle is more or less the same.

Are all the different manuafacturers (Tetra, API, JBL etc) products all the same, just different concentrations?

These products also claim to promote/help the slime coat of fish.
Is there any truth in this??

Thanks
Squidward

 

[DrRob]

I try not to link off forum, but this page is pretty fantastic and right on subject.

dechlorinator comparison page


The other alternative, if you're feeling really cheap, is to buy sodium thiosulphate crystals and make your own, and it's also worth checking out the pond products for bang for your buck.

 

[raptorrex]

I've never really worked out, the answer, to that question.
but as most stuff sold to add to water is little more than "snake oil".
i use Prime.
its cheap as chips to use.
and does the job perfectly.

 

[max1e]

i've been using nutrafin aquasafe +

 

[raptorrex]

remembering, of course, that Heavy Metal binding is very important in our hobby.
its the only reason i use a conditioner, at all.
willco's do a cheap dechlorinater but it has no metal binding. and it still costs the same as prime, per change.

 

[Squidward]

Hmmm, Seems the API Stress coat that I bought isn't as good as some of the others.

 

[raptorrex]

should we not, as this is the scientific section, be trying to find out just what, if anything, are the active ingredients in these concoctions.
then discussing how different conditioners may affect our stock.
or indeed IF they can affect our stock?

 

[Squidward]

should we not, as this is the scientific section, be trying to find out just what, if anything, are the active ingredients in these concoctions.
then discussing how different conditioners may affect our stock.
or indeed IF they can affect our stock?

raptorrex,

Indeed we should. That's why I posed the question.

 

[DrRob]

Indeed Raptor, you are correct.

My first response to this, and one I'm very happy to be corrected on, is that I've not seen any evidence that any of the additives, apart from the dechlorination, actually make a difference. I can see the benefit of heavy metal binding, although haven't seen any stats, and remain to be convinced that my fish need help with their slime coats, they seem fine at the moment without adding stuff.

 

[raptorrex]

Indeed Raptor, you are correct.

My first response to this, and one I'm very happy to be corrected on, is that I've not seen any evidence that any of the additives, apart from the dechlorination, actually make a difference. I can see the benefit of heavy metal binding, although haven't seen any stats, and remain to be convinced that my fish need help with their slime coats, they seem fine at the moment without adding stuff.

until recently i had an old copper barrel hot water system, though filled by a boiler not immersion heater.
as a precaution i use a conditioner just for that.
I too have seen no stats.
but the science behind "binding" is sound.

personally i can gas of most of the chlorine at the tap.
I found no reason to dechlorinate until change volumes exceed 30+% (unfortunately i found this out by killing fish. even worse they were not mine )

I too feel a well kept tank should not need any help.
and am far from convinced most of these "potions" actually do anything but turn profit.

but would like to go through it properly here.

But where to start?

 

[Essjay]

I use API tap water conditioner. The bottle says it removes chlorine and detoxifies heavy metals.
Looking at API's website, this product contains sodium thiosulfate (the chlorine remover) and EDTA tetra sodium salt. EDTA is ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid, and the chemical in the water conditioner is the tetra sodium salt of the acid. It is a very strong complexing and chelating agent. It forms an EDTA-metal complex with any metals in the water. Metals in the water exist as ions, and it is in this form they have the potential to harm aquatic life. When the metal ion is bound in the complex it is much less reactive and is effectively removed from doing any harm.
I use this declorinator as my water supply has chlorine rather than chloramine, and I have shrimps and snails so I want to get rid of any danger from metals

I haven't looked at any other dechlorinators to see if the ones that detoxify heavy metals also contain EDTA tetrasodium like this one.


One thing that API tapwater conditioner does not contain is aloe vera or any other 'slime coat' chemical. This is why I use it; I have yet to be convinced that these are a good idea.
But it does not contain anything to detoxify ammonia and/or nitrite. As my filters have been running several years without problem, I do not consider that I need these, but someone doing a fish-in cycle could well benefit from a dechlorinator that does contain them.

 

[Aquascaper]

I notice 'King British Safe Guard' is not mentioned in that list which is what I've used for years.

It neutralizes chlorine, chloramines, heavy metals, excess ammonia (from the reaction with chloramines) and also has Aloe Vera extract (not that I'm even remotely bothered).

Only mention it as it's very cheap and at 1ml per 10l it goes a long way.

 

[Essjay]

The price is another reason I use API tap water conditioner - the dose rate for that (for chlorine rather than chloramine) is 1 drop per gallon/3.8 litres, or put another way, 1.25ml for 76 litres.

 

[raptorrex]

Prime is used at the rate of 1 ml per 10 UK gallons, and that's for chlorine and chloramines.
that works out at 0.034p per gallon to treat.
or 1.69p to treat an entire 50 gallon tank.

this compares with say, Aquasafe from tetra (500ml).
which is 2.5ml per gallon
roughly 4.5p per 1 gallon to treat.
ouch

 

[ian_m]

Many many (maybe 30 odd) years ago my brother kept tropical fish and used sodium thiosulfate (fixer from a photographic shop) to make his own dechlorinator as commercial products were not readily available.