Water Conditioner - Some Queries

I use API Tap Water Conditioner and it is actually 3 times the chlorine dose for chloramine. In the link, the 5 ml chloramine dose treats 30 galls compared to the 5 ml chlorine dose treating 20 galls.
The smaller bottles are slightly less concentrated and their dosage is 1 drop per US gallon for chlorine, 3 drops per US gall for chloramine.

The problem with API TWC and chloramine is ammonia. It splits the chloramine into chlorine and ammonia, removes the chlorine part but leaves the ammonia part still in the water until it has all passed through the filter and been eaten by the bacteria. This is the main reason that most dechlorinators also contain an ammonia detoxifier. In the past bottles of API Tap Water Conditioner used to advise using a separate ammonia detoxifier at the same time if the water had chloramine, though that comment now seems to have disappeared.



Don't you have very soft water? What is your pH? The reason I ask is that it if you have a low pH you might not need an ammonia detoxifier because the ammonia from the chloramine will all be in the less toxic form.

Should you decide to try the API Tap Water Conditioner, I suggest you start with a small bottle, the 30 ml size. It has a lid with a dropper which makes it easy to dose a bucket. The larger sizes from 118 ml up have a measuring cup lid which is useful for really big tanks that you clean and refill with a hose and add the dechlorinator in one dose before refilling the tank.
I bought a small bottle, and now get the bigger bottles and transfer it to the smaller bottle to make it easier to measure drops. I got a larger than usual bottle last time and found it was more concentrated so I had to work out how much water 1 drop treated.



The reason that a lot of people, me included, don't like Prime is because Seachem won't say what's in it.

The reason eSHa says not to use dechlorinator is because the ingredients can also remove the medication. If you read their website, they say that you don't need a dechlorinator; tap water should not have metals in it and chlorine gasses off. But they are a Dutch company and I wonder if Dutch water regulations are tougher than ours regarding metals. Chlorine may gas off, but some water companies use chloramine which doesn't.

Does your water company use chlorine or chloramine? If it's chlorine, you could leave a bucket of water standing overnight before a water change when using meds.

I use a dechlorinator even with eSHa meds.

Thanks, both. As mentioned in the first paragraph of the original post, there is chloramine in the tap water, hence my dilemma.

A bucket of water has actually now been standing for ~30 hours and pertinent test results are as follows:

JBL 6-in-1 test strip:
0.8 Cl2 mg/l ie chlorine [possible results are 0, 0.8, 1.5 or 3.0] which is accompanied by a warning symbol – rather difficult to read, though, but definitely seems to be some chlorine still present.

API ammonia test strip (NH3/NH4+):
0.5 [possible results are 0, 0.5, 1.0, 3.0, 6.0] although the actual result is difficult to read.

JBL ammonia/ammonium test (NH4):
0.2 NH4 mg/l (ppm) [possible results are <0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 1, 1.5, 3, 5] – this is definitely the easiest and most clear-cut to read of the tests.

Cross-referring to https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/fish-health/tetra-with-unhealed-injury/msg35240, I’m thinking that the best course of action is probably:
* to extend/prolong the eSHa 2000 course by a couple of days (ie dose on Sat & Sun) as the detailed leaflet advises if some improvement – it’s not clear that there’s necessarily any improvement but at least the fungus doesn’t seem to have spread or got any thicker/coarser and so at best may have halted;
* meantime (ie on Fri eve), add Seachem Prime to the aforementioned bucket of water which has been standing, and, if I were to perform a water change on Mon, the Seachem Prime in that bucket ought to have done its job and thus not be problematic if any subsequent treatment course were to be administered;
* if required, I could then administer either another course of eSHa 2000 or another medication after that (although, ideally, the problem will be resolved by then), having run some carbon in the filter beforehand to remove remnants of the original treatment.

Thoughts? Thanks.

I have to admit I don't know which option would be best.
If you use a water conditioner that does not detoxify ammonia, the fish will be be swimming in ammonia until it has all been eaten by the bacteria. But I cannot find a water conditioner that removes chlorine, binds metals and detoxifies ammonia that also does not contain a 'slime coat promoter'. The latter seems to be in all water conditioners that detoxify ammonia 
API Tap water conditioner removes chlorine and binds metals but does not detoxify ammonia; API Ammo Lock detoxifies ammonia, removes chlorine but does not bind metals. If you use both together, you will overdose on the chlorine remover.


There is one possibility. But it would mean treating the water before it goes in the tank.
Fill a container with tap water and add API Tap Water Conditioner at chloramine strength. This will split the the chloramine, remove the chlorine and bind the metals but not add a slime coat promoter. Then run a small filter filled with zeolite in the container. This will remove the ammonia made from the chloramine. Your tester would tell you when it has run long enough so you'd soon get to know how long to leave it running. You would also need to make sure the zeolite wasn't full and had stopped removing ammonia before adding the water to the tank. Again, experience would tell you how long it lasts.
Zeolite comes in various sizes from gravel to rocks and in packs from 50 g to 25 kg (for ponds!) and you'd need a mesh bag to put it in.





I have extended treatment times on occasions with no detriment to the fish concerned. But i don't know which other treatment you could try instead as eSHa 200 seems to be effective against most conditions.