Water Treatment

[Fryfly]

I'm concerned from something I've read in another thread.

Adding untreated water is bad - I know you can get away with it in a much larger tank in small amounts etc. I also understand why we add treated water and not tap - filter bac - chlorine, chloromine etc.

My question is around the right way to treat the water. So I use Aqua Plus, the directions are brilliant, not!
I use 2 buckets(10 litre buckets) when changing water, I fill up one bucket with just enough space for 1 kettle jug of water to warm it up a little. I put in a cap of Aqua Plus and pour in the boiled water. I then pour the water from one bucket to the next a few times to mix it all up.... Then its straight into the tank.
How long does it take to dechlorinate? does it just get rid of it straight away or am I doing it wrong and I should be leaving the water for a while?

 

[5teady_2012]

I'm concerned from something I've read in another thread.

Adding untreated water is bad - I know you can get away with it in a much larger tank in small amounts etc. I also understand why we add treated water and not tap - filter bac - chlorine, chloromine etc.

My question is around the right way to treat the water. So I use Aqua Plus, the directions are brilliant, not!
I use 2 buckets(10 litre buckets) when changing water, I fill up one bucket with just enough space for 1 kettle jug of water to warm it up a little. I put in a cap of Aqua Plus and pour in the boiled water. I then pour the water from one bucket to the next a few times to mix it all up.... Then its straight into the tank.
How long does it take to dechlorinate? does it just get rid of it straight away or am I doing it wrong and I should be leaving the water for a while?

When you do a waterchange, you simply the fill the bucket up with tap water, add your aqua plus water conditioner (whats your amount - how many drops/ml to every gallon?)

Stir up a bit in the bucket then add straight to tank..

 

[Scotty001]

as above i do pretty much the same, fill a 25L water canister, with a mix of hot and cold water then add 5ml of water conditioner give the water container a good shake to distrubute the conditioner then add to the tank. been doing it that way for almost a year and not lost a fish just after a water change or within 5 days of a water change.

 

[Fryfly]

Thanks both, I'm trying to understand what actually happens though. Somtimes while mixing I can smell a slight bit of chlorine so I assume this is the process but how long does it take to complete. IE when I actually pour the water in is it still going through the process of dechlorination and in that case is it not btter to wait till it's complete. If the chlorine and chloromine however are taken out instantly then fair enough. I'm more worried about how it could be slowing down the cycling process.

5teady I'm putting in about 10ml per bucket. a little more than suggested but I'm under the impression I can't really overdose and better a little too much than too little.

 

[Scotty001]

Thanks both, I'm trying to understand what actually happens though. Somtimes while mixing I can smell a slight bit of chlorine so I assume this is the process but how long does it take to complete. IE when I actually pour the water in is it still going through the process of dechlorination and in that case is it not btter to wait till it's complete. If the chlorine and chloromine however are taken out instantly then fair enough. I'm more worried about how it could be slowing down the cycling process.

5teady I'm putting in about 10ml per bucket. a little more than suggested but I'm under the impression I can't really overdose and better a little too much than too little.

I'm not too sure how long it takes and what happens, I'm a little ignorant in that way as in i know it does what it does and thats enough, don't need to know how, but i can understand your reasoning.

now you got me thinking too what actually goes on and how long will it take to dissipate 5ml / 10ml of chemical through 2500ml of water....ummmm

It may be worth re posting this in the scientific section, I'm sure those guys will be able to help answer this question.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

dechlor works pretty much instantly, particularly when you're dealing with larger tanks you don't do water changes with buckets but with a hose pipe. add the dechlor straight to the tank, then run water straight from the tap into the tank.

there's also a lot of debate over weather we actually need to use dechlorinator at all because it is believed that some of the strains of bacteria living in the filter have evolved to become immune to chlorine/chloramine.

from personal experience i ran a tank for about 3 years whitout using dechlor (although not as an experiement, i was a typical newbie, didn't do my research, just muddled along for a few years, didn't know i had to use dechlor) and i never had any problems that, with hindsight, i would attribute to not using dechlor.