Water Change Dechlorination Help

[emusnes]

I have a Python 25ft water changer I just purchased. Is it ok to add the Dechlorinator(SuperBac All Natural Dechlorinator) to the tank directly, then add water straight from the tap? Should I add enough for the entire tank or just the amount adding?

Thanks

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

You want to add de-chlorinator to fresh tap water before it goes anywhere near the inside of your tank, as chlorine is highly toxic to your tank's essential bacteria colony.

 

[Tolak]

You want to add de-chlorinator to fresh tap water before it goes anywhere near the inside of your tank, as chlorine is highly toxic to your tank's essential bacteria colony.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=161413 In particular post #19.

My biggest concern would be the product you are using. It appears to be a vitamin C or citric acid based dechlorinator, which to my knowledge is an unproven product. When filling directly from the tap it is advised to treat for the whole tank volume, as portions of the components in dechlorinator can be made less effective by existing organic substances in your tank.

Many people, including myself do water changes with tap water run directly into the tank. In my setup I dechlorinate afterward, due to having overflows in most tanks for water changes. Many people do not bother with dechlorinator when doing 25% or less water changes, mine are normally double that or better.

 

[emusnes]

Which Dechlorinator do you recommend?

 

[drobbyb]

I recommend Seachem's Prime. It's highly concentrated and a bottle will last you a long time.

 

[Twinklecaz]

LOl, I always get the impression NOTG is always happier the more hard work and complicated it is

 

[ajs2294]

I recommend Seachem's Prime. It's highly concentrated and a bottle will last you a long time.

I second this recommendation and if you do a lot of water changes look into the powder form of Prime called Safe its even more concentrated and works out far cheaper. I know many people who use the stuff during python water changes and just dose the tank with it before they turn on the tap water.

 

[Tolak]

I recommend Seachem's Prime. It's highly concentrated and a bottle will last you a long time.

Another vote for Prime, or Safe, the powdered equivalent.

 

[waterdrop]

Yup, Prime is the one. You want to dose for the full volume of the tank, not the volume of new water, when direct filling. Using a dechlor product is partly about lowering the risk of a chlorine product overdose by the water authorities and dechlor products can be overdosed to give better protection against that small but possible chance. If you are still in the process of maturing your bacterial colonies, ie. in the first year of a new tank, you don't want to overdose more than 2x. Probably 1.5x to 2x would be a good recommendation.

I use a Python and since dosing Prime for my full tank volume at 1.5x to 2x is still only a partial capful, I find I like to guesstimate half of it and toss that into the filter output stream before the Python fill and then the other half toss right after the fill is finished. I'm sure it doesn't really matter but it makes me feel good.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Many of us use Prime including me but I feel that other dechlorinators are probably just as effective. Since I am a cheap old man, I always look at the long term costs of using anything. Prime is a dirt cheap dechlorinator in actual use. The 500 ml bottle I bought a couple of years ago should last me many years while I use it for all the water changes on all 25 of my tanks. There are many names for known good dechlorinators but cost hits me especially hard with the number of tanks I keep. I have never been a fan of the many "easy" water change methods that are to be found around but lots of people do just fine with those methods.

 

[JoshuaA]

I vote Prime too.

Does anyone know the downsides of over dosing the dechlorinator too much? I see 1.5x is ideal and usually follow by it and up to 2x if I do a big one. Is there any downside if someone where to overdose drastically? Seeing as Prime can be used up to 5x as much in a Nitrite spike rather than just water changing it would suggest it is somewhat safe.

 

[OldMan47]

As it happens, the research done by Havonec says that a dose of over 2x the recommended amount can actually slow a cycle. It is the reason that I usually just use 1.5X the recommended dose as my personal ideal.

 

[JoshuaA]

Interesting information on the final post from the link Tolak provided. However I always assumed the dechlorination was more important for the fishes health than the bacteria, being a resistant enough type of bacteria to live in our water supplies I've never believed it would be a concern. I was always told from a young age the chlorine can burn the gills of fish in high concentrations though.

 

[OldMan47]

Chlorine can actually be a killer when it comes to fish JoshuaA. At one time I worked in a place that used ocean water for cooling. Because we had screens in front of the ocean water pumps, we had a gradual build of marine fish in the inlet area. After a time, the fish built up to a level we could no longer tolerate. We used chlorine to kill those fish. With flows of well over 400,000 gallons per minute of ocean water, we would use a simple 5 gallon bucket of chlorine bleach to kill every fish in that inlet area. It was very effective if it was added over a few minutes. Figure that we were adding maybe 5 gallons of a 5% solution of bleach to over a million gallons of water. Every fish in the inlet area died within just a few minutes. I would say that chlorine is a very effective killer of fish in relatively small doses. As that goes, I always try to keep that lesson in mind when judging how safe a particular dose of chlorine might be for my fish. No matter how small, I do not trust chlorine i my water system. I go far further than most people would to make sure my fish never see those high levels of chlorine.

 

[JoshuaA]

Further interesting information, I can always rely on you for creating a good read. Is it damage to the gills or generally the whole body? Similar to the problems we would face if we breathed in chlorine? The eyes being burnt etc etc. Sounds like an excruciating death for us just having it come into contact with our skin, never mind being submerged with it.

Is chloramine as deadly to the fish as chlorine?