Using water conditioners

[pahansen]

Hi. We have a whole house water filter which does a _very_ effective job of removing the chlorine from our tap water. When I was setting up our tank last year, I took the tap water to the LFS first to have it tested. The girl testing said that the water looked pretty typical of the area to her (hardness and pH-wise), and that our chlorine, nitrate, and nitrite levels were great -- she thought it was from a functioning tank!

That having been said, I have always added a water conditioner when I do water changes, solely on the principle that our filter might stop working (or working well) and I don't want to take any chances with the fish. But most of a year (and a few bottles of conditioner) later I am wondering if this is a worthwhile precaution.

My questions are:

- By regularly using water conditioner, am I adding undesirable (under the circumstances) chemicals to my tank which aren't really needed in the first place?

- Is the water conditioner adding any other benefit to my tank? (I have read mixed opinions about the good of using a chemical to benefit the fishes' slime coats.)

- How sensitive are chlorine testing strips for tanks? Would I be taking a chance in replacing my use of a water conditioner with just testing the water for chlorine before doing a partial water change, or would this be adequate? (Assuming I keep a bottle of water conditioner as back up, in case some chlorine does show up...)

- Which is more cost effective -- adding water conditioner at every water change or using a test strip each time? I haven't priced test strips for chlorine, but I know that some kits can be pricey.

I have a 20 gallon tank, stocked with about 15" worth of fish, but there are a couple of messy fish (can we say Pleco?!?) so I tend to do a partial water change every 5-7 days.

Thanks for the help!
Pamela

 

[TwoTankAmin]

You negelected to mention the dechlor you are using. However, a great many water companies also use chloramine which needs seperate detox to that of chlorine. I don't know if whole house filters renove these. I do know most dechlors handle both.

 

[pahansen]

See? That's why I post here! I've read about chloramine before, and the info was stuck way back in the dark recesses of my mind, but I'd completely forgotten about it.

I've been using Proquatics (it's cheap), and it does handle both chloramine and chlorine.

Does anyone know if there are test kits that handle both chlorine and chloramine? I know that I can call my local water company to ask if they use it, but even if the answer is no, I still would hesitate to add water without testing it first. Heaven knows that if they suddenly decide to start adding chloramine they won't notify me first!

The rest of my questions still stand, assuming that I can test for both chemicals. Can anyone answer them?

 

[fufanu360]

well water conditioners are pretty safe, and are better than not having any at all, its sorta the better-safe-than-sorry pathetic line.... i would keep using it (many of them also remove heavy metals from the water too)

 

[Yenko]

I'd still use a water conditioner; most of them contain EDTA, which bonds with heavy metals and keeps them from harming fish.

 

[pahansen]

Okay, you've convinced me. ...Well, all of you plus a little more poking around on the web -- unless there's some incredibly inexpensive set of chlorine/chloramine tests that I can't find floating around out there, I think it'll be way cheaper to keep using the water conditioner.

Thanks!