Water Conditioner

[Irf]

Cheffi - and there are no other things to look out for? I don't know much about these things, but does the Tetra stuff do more than the pond dechlorinator? Anyone know?

Irf.

 

[Cheffi]

Cheffi - and there are no other things to look out for? I don't know much about these things, but does the Tetra stuff do more than the pond dechlorinator? Anyone know?

Irf.

As long as it removes chlorine, chloramines (if you have them) and heavy metals then I don't think so, which for example the nishicare does.

It's the marketing, if you use the word tropical aquarium you can charge more for the same product that you would use on a pond. Also you usually find pond dechlorinators aren't packaged quite so prettily.
I actually emailed nishicare myself to make sure it was safe to use and did the same job and they confirmed it. I dooooo like saving money.

 

[Jules H-T]

The cheapest way to dechlor, other than letting it sit out, is to buy sodium thiosulfate and mix your own...

...I use it in the summer months, when the concentration of chloramine is lower.

So what do you do about heavy metals during the summer months?

 

[Irf]

Aha - but how about this to prolong the discussion?

API Super Strength Tap Water Conditioner (@ Seapets)

Seems to say the right things. Costs £1.49 for 30ml. While that doesn't sound very good, the bottle is supposed to treat 600 gallons of water. It's not clear from the site whether that's US or UK gallons. However the label on the bottle says 2400 gallons, and it's a US product.

A little confusing, but might be worth a punt?

Irf.

 

[SamUK]

i use pond dechlor too.


i used to use tetras aqua (think thats what it was called), the proper stuff for aquariums (yellow bottle).


noticed the pond stuff from the same company in my lfs, same price, same size bottle, the only difference was its green!

this stuff does 55 gallons with only 10 ml!

 

[andywg]

If leaving the chlorine to go away on its own, don't you need to agitate or aerate the water?

Also, what about things like "chloramine" and "heavy metals"?

Irf.

Heavy metals is an interesting one and the science around exactly how they work and their effectiveness has been detailed previously.

Chlorine is horrendously poor at staying in water. On another forum, someone tried going without chlorine while doing a program of weekly 50% water changes. They found that straight out of the tap the chlorine wsa 4-5ppm, the tank water straight after a water change was 0.25 and within 5 minutes it was 0ppm. So Chlorine does not seem a problem.

A second person tried it, but they had chloramines in their water. Research has not been done in any way on the effect of chlormines on aquarium bacteria, but there are a nubmer of indicators that the filter bacteria can actually utilise the ammonia, as they would from fish waste, and break the bond with the chlorine themselves. Once this has happened the chlorine is gassed off as above. This is what was found as the experiments with chlormaines yielded very similar result to the chlorine one.

It was noted that tanks with less mature filters took longer to clear the chlorine out. So long as you have a fairly mature filter population (greater than 6 months) then this less than perfect experiment indicates that dechlor is not necessary.

I have not tried this myself, though am tempted to do so once my current stock of pond dechlor runs out.

 

[Tolak]

The cheapest way to dechlor, other than letting it sit out, is to buy sodium thiosulfate and mix your own...

...I use it in the summer months, when the concentration of chloramine is lower.

So what do you do about heavy metals during the summer months?

Heavy metals are usually more of a concern with well water, my water originates from Lake Michigan. I don't worry a whole lot about heavy metals. Besides sodium thiosulfate to remove chlorine, most dechlorinators contain sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate to convert ammonia to ammonium, and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, or EDTA to lock up heavy metals. Sodium thiosulfate is easy to get, sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate is a little tougher to get, as is EDTA. You could mix your own dechlor with a little chemistry.

Andywg has posted something that we discussed before, it's something I want to give a try as well. It would probably already be started if other thing in life didn't keep popping up.

 

[Irf]

this stuff does 55 gallons with only 10 ml!

OK, but according to the packaging, 10ml of API Super Strength Tap Water Conditioner will treat 200 gallons.

Irf.

 

[SamUK]

this stuff does 55 gallons with only 10 ml!

OK, but according to the packaging, 10ml of API Super Strength Tap Water Conditioner will treat 200 gallons.

Irf.

lol well thats even better but a bit strong for aquarium use.

think ill stick with this one. i already feel like im not putting enough in as it is lol.

 

[Coomon10]

[/quote]
Heavy metals is an interesting one and the science around exactly how they work and their effectiveness has been detailed previously.

Chlorine is horrendously poor at staying in water. On another forum, someone tried going without chlorine while doing a program of weekly 50% water changes. They found that straight out of the tap the chlorine wsa 4-5ppm, the tank water straight after a water change was 0.25 and within 5 minutes it was 0ppm. So Chlorine does not seem a problem.

A second person tried it, but they had chloramines in their water. Research has not been done in any way on the effect of chlormines on aquarium bacteria, but there are a nubmer of indicators that the filter bacteria can actually utilise the ammonia, as they would from fish waste, and break the bond with the chlorine themselves. Once this has happened the chlorine is gassed off as above. This is what was found as the experiments with chlormaines yielded very similar result to the chlorine one.

It was noted that tanks with less mature filters took longer to clear the chlorine out. So long as you have a fairly mature filter population (greater than 6 months) then this less than perfect experiment indicates that dechlor is not necessary.

I have not tried this myself, though am tempted to do so once my current stock of pond dechlor runs out.
[/quote]

Wow, thanks for the info... Would it be a misrepresentation then to suggest the information above advocates the usage of say 50% recommended dosage (of any water conditoner) as a happy medium/cost saver/trial for the fish, maybe to see the effect, followed by normal tap water? (Given of course a mature filter).

 

[Irf]

Well I think I will try several of these alternatives after my Tetra Aquasafe runs out. I like the look of the Nishicare and possible Tetra's pond product.....

Also, the API Stress Coat seems like a sensible and low dosage option.

Irf.

 

[andywg]

Wow, thanks for the info... Would it be a misrepresentation then to suggest the information above advocates the usage of say 50% recommended dosage (of any water conditoner) as a happy medium/cost saver/trial for the fish, maybe to see the effect, followed by normal tap water? (Given of course a mature filter).

It could be worthwhile. I recall Tolak writing that he forgot about de-chlor until about 2-3 hours after he had refilled his tanks with no ill effects.

Also, de-chlor dosing is I believe generally worked out on an almost "worst case" scenario, so a smaller dose should be ok, so long as you don't have a horrendous amount of chlorine in the water.

Alternatively, you can try and source sodium thiosulphate crystals (I believe it can sometimes be obtained from photogrpahy shops). The dosage needed for these is so low that quite often 4 fish keepers with multiple tanks have bought a single 25kg bag between them and it has done them all for life.

 

[OohFeeshy]

The already mentioned API dechlor is great- last time I used it, it used only 3 drops per gallon, and it treats far more water for your money than other dechlors.

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

I use this stuff:
Waterlife Haloex
It only needs 1 drop per litre of water you change - so lasts ages !!

 

[Coomon10]

I use this stuff:
Waterlife Haloex
It only needs 1 drop per litre of water you change - so lasts ages !!

Looks good, so you get it from this site?