How Do You De-Chlorinate Water?

[goldfinger]

I was having a discussions with a friend who keeps tropical fish and I keep goldfish!
He usually leaves it over 48 hours before he does the change and doesn't use any chemicals. His fish are quite healthy.
I've been told the same method, but I leave it for 24 hours and add Chemcials API safe start when filling up 10 liter hold tanks.
I only leave this for 24 hours because the temps match when I use the water.
My father had buckets with airstones and he would use it around 24 hours without chemicals. (I find this a pain having to put air stones in every bucket)
Questions:
 
How long can the water stay in containers without spoiling?
 
How quick will any de-chlorination solution work?
 
Do some chemcicals work better in hardwater or softwater?
 
Does adding chemcials before or after you fill containers matter?
 
If I have 10 liter containers with 80mm pour spouts does this mean evaporation of chlorine takes longer than say a washing up bucket or a bucket?
 
If you add bacteria into the water right after de-chlorinating is there no point and risk killing some bacteria?
 
Like to see what other people think or tend to do as a routine?

 

[Shaddex]

How long can the water stay in containers without spoiling?
 
How quick will any de-chlorination solution work?
 
Do some chemcicals work better in hardwater or softwater?
 
Does adding chemcials before or after you fill containers matter?
 
If I have 10 liter containers with 80mm pour spouts does this mean evaporation of chlorine takes longer than say a washing up bucket or a bucket?
 
If you add bacteria into the water right after de-chlorinating is there no point and risk killing some bacteria?
 
Like to see what other people think or tend to do as a routine?

 
1. Weeks.
2. Instant.
3. No clue, but I dont think so.
4. Personal preference.  I fill 25ltr container and then add my De-Chlor.
5. Wouldnt think so as its a slow process.
6. I wouldnt suggest you use "Bacs in a bottle".  Never found one that works.
7. Routine =

• Drain 50ltrs from my tank (Approx 50%)
• Fill 2 x 25ltr tubes with correct temp tap water.
• Add De-Chlor to tubs.
• Give tubs a shake.
• Add tube water to tank.

Hope it helps

 

[KirkyArcher]

I use Nutrafin AquaPlus "Nutrafin Aqua Plus instantly neutralises chlorine, chloramines and dissolved harmful metals" I just swirl it around in the bucket and add it to the tank,
I also have connected an in-line water filter  http/www.ecodrinks.co.uk/water%20gem%20replacement.html to my hose that I fill my storage buckets with!

 

[Lunar Jetman]

7. Routine =

• Drain 50ltrs from my tank (Approx 50%)
• Fill 2 x 25ltr tubes with correct temp tap water.
• Add De-Chlor to tubs.
• Give tubs a shake.
• Add tube water to tank.

Hope it helps

The only difference I have to is that I add the tap safe to the bucket before the water so it gets a good mix in by the tap pressure. That and the fact I'm changing around 70 litres weekly. (My tank is 288l)

Just to add, letting the water stand for 48 hours will do nothing for the chlorine in the water. That won't evaporate and needs the tap water conditioner to do this.

 

[fluttermoth]

Just to add, letting the water stand for 48 hours will do nothing for the chlorine in the water. That won't evaporate and needs the tap water conditioner to do this.

You mean chloramine; chlorine will gas of over 48 hours or so, but chloramine takes a lot longer.
 
In the 'old days' no-one used dechlorinators; we all stood our water, but nowadays dechlorinators are so cheap and easy to get, it's not worth the hassle of standing water, IMO; they also perform other useful tasks, like locking up heavy metals.
 
Personally, as I have a lot of big tanks and a bad back, I add my dechlor straight into my tanks, and then refill with a hose.

 

[goldfinger]

Very interesting opinions!
The only other thing I do is add boiled water from kettle, to match the temp of newly de-chlorinated water to the tank. I have done this in an emergency of water changes over 70% of volume. 
I assume the boiled water would contain no Chlorine or Chloramine?
Sounds like my father used air stones to quicken the evap of chlorine wonder if that applies to Chloramine aswell? ?

Seems people use mainly:
Nutrafin AquaPlus Brown
Tetrasafe Blue
I use API safe start (Clear) recently and its good, but tetrasafe I could use that all day long.
As for Nutrafin if its brown tea like stuff heard its quite natural in formulation effectiveness not so sure?
Have heard rainwater, but that screams acid rain to me?

 

[pirategrl]

I do the same as fluttermoth...   I use prime and add straight to tank and then fill with a hose connected to my sink.  I just try to match as close as I can to the temp of my tank using the faucet.  I'm not sure about the boiled water... but with prime you add the amount for the volume of the tank and not just the water you're adding so I don't worry about exact amounts I'm taking out or adding back in 

 

[Essjay]

Anyone know how long chloramine has been in use? It is possible that your father had only chlorine to get rid of rather than chloramine if it's quite a few years ago.
 
I add my new water from a bucket and add dechorinator to each bucket. I also use boiled water to heat it, but treat it as if it was straight out of the tap - better safe than sorry.
 
 
You can use rainwater but there are two things to be aware of -
If you live in an area with pollution in the air, that pollution will be in your rainwater.
Rainwater contains no minerals so they have to be added either by mixing with tapwater or by adding remineralisation salts.

 

[goldfinger]

True my father was a fish keeper from 80's to 90's.
I've been reading and Chloriamine is made up from Ammonia atoms! Some have said that some water conditioners remove Cholramine, but leaves traces of Ammonia behind.
Which is why everyone uses Prime but in the UK Prime is not readily available hence I started to use Safe start.
I did find this bit of information

Chloramine, like chlorine, can be removed by boiling and aging. However time required to remove the chloramine is much longer than that of chlorine. The time required to remove half of the chloramine (half life) from water by boiling is 26.6 hours, while the half life of free chlorine in boiling water is only 1.8 hours

 

[Essjay]

Chloramine is chlorine and ammonia joined together. Dechlorinators split them apart and remove the chlorine half, leaving the ammonia half still in the water. Some dechlorinators also contain something to detoxify ammonia. The filter bacteria then remove this detoxified ammonia.
 
Seachem Prime is available in the UK, just not on ebay or amazon as the company stopped it being sold on there. It is still available from other on-line retailers.
 
My water company said it uses chlorine (I asked them) so I use a dechlorinator that doesn't detoxify ammonia, which is much cheaper. And I do check the newly dechlorinated water every so often to make sure - I've never seen anything other than zero ammonia.

 

[goldfinger]

Hardness
  mg/l Ca 79 mg/l CaCO3 197.3 Clarks deg 13.82 French deg 19.79 German deg 11.05 millimol/l 1.97 Nitrate 20.8 Nitrite 0.071 Residual Disinfectant 0.15
 
Well water board just confirmed some figures for me and they do use Chloramine and Chlorine under Residual Disinfectant mean value 0.15PPM
Perfect hardeness of water for goldfish is around 200 They have it at mean value 197.3 My PH is 8.0 consistant.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

If I have 10 liter containers with 80mm pour spouts does this mean evaporation of chlorine takes longer than say a washing up bucket or a bucket?

 
It will take longer to gas off - the larger the surface area that is exposed to the air, the faster evaporation will take place. 
 
 
As an experiment try this:  Get two bottles of soda (pop, seltzer water, etc) and pour one into a glass.  Open the other and leave it in the bottle.  See which one goes "flat" sooner.   The "fizz" is caused by carbon dioxide gas in the water - it will gas off about the same as chlorine will.  The biggest difference is that the amount of CO2 in the soda is a much higher concentration than the CL2 in the tap water - which is why you don't see the bubbles at the same rate.  But, you will see bubbles form - generally on the sides of the container.

 

[goldfinger]

Agreed Mate, like your tank by the way was that slate you used?
Just to let people know my test results this afternoon looks like cycling has finished, so what now?

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Just to add, letting the water stand for 48 hours will do nothing for the chlorine in the water. That won't evaporate and needs the tap water conditioner to do this.

You mean chloramine; chlorine will gas of over 48 hours or so, but chloramine takes a lot longer.

Yep I did... :facepalm emoticon

 

[eaglesaquarium]

No.  Local rocks, gneiss and schist.
 
I have some slate in my tank at home.