Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Ally2 on September 03, 2016, 10:41:14 PM
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Hi
I'm nearly through the end of declorinator / tap safe product , and as wondering what to buy next . I've heard prime is good ? Or should I stick with the APL one I've been using ?
Also I normally fill the correct amount of clean water in a bucket the night before and add the tap safe at the same time . But I was wondering if the matters ? Does it take home to work ? Or can it be added just before its put into the tank ?
Ally
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Dechlorinators work instantly so there is no need to let it stand. I just add it to the bucket of water as I'm running it, then pour it straight into the tank.
All dechlorinators remove chlorine and most remove heavy metals. If you have chlorine in your tap water, that's all you need. But some places have chloramine in the tap water. Dechlorinators break down chloramine into chlorine and ammonia; they remove the chlorine but leave the ammonia in the water. Most brands also contain something to detoxify this ammonia until the filter bacteria can 'eat' it. But if your tap water contains chlorine, you don't need the chemical that detoxifies ammonia.
Any dechlorinator will do its job but some are more cost effective than others. And some contain lots of other additives eg things "to stimulate the slime coat". However, there is now evidence that some of these 'slime coat promoters' also coat the gills and are not terribly good for fish.
The two most concentrated dechlorinators (that is, quite expensive to buy but last almost forever and work out cheaper per water change) are Seachem Prime, which detoxifies ammonia if you have chloramine, and API Tap Water Conditioner, which doesn't detoxify ammonia. I use the API one because I have chlorine in my tap water and I don't like adding anything unnecessary to my tank. Prime contains all sorts of chemicals and Seachem won't say what. The API one dose rate is 1 drop per 3.8 litres with chlorine (it's more for chloramine) and as I use a bucket that hold 7.5 litres I just add 2 drops as I'm running water into the bucket. [Newer bottles don't have a dropper lid on the large sizes but the dose rate is the same]. I think the dose rate for Prime is the same.
In the end, it comes down to how much you want to spend at one go and whether you want to buy it from a shop or on-line. For example, API Tap Water Conditioner is not common in shops; I either get mine on-line or from a shop 30 miles away.
To find out if you have chlorine or chloramine in your tap water if you live in England or Wales look here (http://www.dwi.gov.uk/about/annual-report/2014/index.html). Find the document for your region (warning they are very big) and look for the page number for "Drinking water quality results" subsection "chemical quality". In that section, scroll down to nitrites and nitrates - the list is alphabetical - and it says in that section which areas have chloramine added instead of chlorine.
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Is it not also true that if you leave your water out overnight, then the chlorine will 'gas off' naturally?
All this talk of gassing off reminds me of a joke I found in the hotel guestbook whilst away recently on my hols... it simply said "someone needs to tell the Americans that in England Trump means fart" and was signed by the guests. No reference was made to the quality of the hotel...
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The chlorine will evaporate off overnight, but it doesn't do anything for chloramines or anything else.
I wish to congratulate the guests that signed the book with the startling insight into the potential next president of the US. Awesome. Sometimes people leave me speachless with admiration. 8)
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Chlorine does gas off but metals don't. While this shouldn't be a problem for fish it could be for invertebrates - snails and shrimps. That's the main reason I use a dechlorinator as I have snails in all my tanks and shrimps in the 50 litre.
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Hi
Like the trump joke !
Sue I use APL STRESS COAT IS THAT THE MAKE YOU MEAN ?
Ally
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No it's a different product. Stress Coat (http://www.apifishcare.com/product.php?sectionid=1&catid=19&subcatid=102&id=652) "removes chlorine and neutralises chloramine and heavy metals". It also contains aloe vera which is why I don't use it.
API Tap Water Conditioner (http://www.apifishcare.com/product.php?p=details&id=655) contains just sodium thiosulphate (removes chlorine) and tetra sodium EDTA (binds metals). Nothing else.
API say the difference is STRESS COAT has added ingredients which promote wound healing and reduce stress. TAP WATER CONDITIONER does not have these, it is simply a tap water treatment.
Everything we add to a tank gets absorbed by our fish. I want to add a little as possible so I use the simplest dechlorinator I can find. I could just leave water to stand over night to gas off chlorine but this would not remove metals for my snails and shrimps, and I'd have to keep rather a lot of water somewhere in the house for my 180 litre tank - I change about 70 litres a week.
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Hi
I'm going to have a look for it .
Thanks
Ally