Water Changes?

I've had my tank for about 8 months now and carry out 10%  water changes twice weekly. A few older guys I know who have had tanks for years have said I should let the water sit in buckets for 2 days to let the chlorine etc evaporate. Is this correct or am I better to add some form of "tap safe" and put the water in straight away?

There's a thing called tap conditioner you add straight to tap water, it can be purchased at your LFS

You can add dechlorinator and use the water right away. Letting chlorine evaporate was used back when (I think) there wasn't as much added to tap water? Now there is chloramines and metals, etc.
 
I might have gotten chlorine and chloramine mixed up, I'm not sure, sorry, but I do think it's best to use a dechlorinator.
Hopefully someone who knows more about past practices can be of use since I'm still very new. I just wanted you have some sort of answer for now

Not sure how it was all done in the past but my money's on some sort of water conditioner every time.
 
As Ninj suggests, most water conditioners not only deal with harmful chlorine and choloromines but also detoxifies some metal compunds, too. Plus, some of them have stress relieving additives as well as slime coat treatments.
 
Not sure I'd trust 48 hour old water in my tank...

I think chloramine is a compound made up from chlorine and ammonia. The water conditioners make metals safe too as Nin said. 

bryanh2901 said:

I've had my tank for about 8 months now and carry out 10% water changes twice weekly. A few older guys I know who have had tanks for years have said I should let the water sit in buckets for 2 days to let the chlorine etc evaporate. Is this correct or am I better to add some form of "tap safe" and put the water in straight away?

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Back in the good old days, water companies used chlorine to sterilise the water, to make it safe for human consumption. This would normally take 48 hours or so to "gas off". Nowadays, some companies use chloramine which does not gas off. For the cost of it, a water conditioner, as others have suggested, is the most sensible way forward.

 

Ninjouzata said:

I might have gotten chlorine and chloramine mixed up, I'm not sure,

Click to expand...

 
 You haven't

 

Mamashack said:

I think chloramine is a compound made up from chlorine and ammonia.

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Yup, it is.

I am fortunate to have well water and have never used a conditioner. However, if I had to use one, I would never use those which claim to have additives that help with slime coat, especially aloe vera. Juts one man's opinion.
 
You may want to read here http/jsats.pnnl.gov/Publications/Peer/2011/Harnish%20et%20al%202011_Water%20Conditioners.pdf

Bryan, a lot of people age their water in the manner your friends suggested without any issues. If your water company doesn't use chloramine, then you'll probably be fine. If the cost of dechlorinator/conditioner is an issue, then ageing your water instead is generally fine if your supplier only uses chlorine. Of course, if they do use chloramine, then a water conditioner is advisable.

Another vote for water conditioner...Prime is pretty popular and it is what I've used for many years.

Ok, thanks again guys. I have e-mailed Scottish Water to find out if our supply does contain chloramine. Going on from this, what's the best or recommended water conditioner? I have bought some "Interpet tap safe" but I'm not sure if this is what's needed? I don't mind paying a bit more for something that's better for the fish.

Interpet Tap Safe is fine, it will do the job. When you come to replace it, the majority of us use "Prime". This is not often found in LFS, which is a shame, because it is quite concentrated, meaning that the bottle lasts a helluva long time (and that's probably why you don't find it often). Easily obtainable via t'internet.

Another vote for Prime. My LFS doesn't stock it but I can usually find it in the fish supply section of my local Petsmart so other pet stores might stock it too. My bottle says "5ml Prime per 50 gallons (200L) of water" so as the_lock_man said, it lasts quite a while.

Agreed, always best to be on the safe side and add a tap conditioner which will help get rid or detoxifies these harmful toxins and chlorines etc etc
 
There are many different brands of water conditioners out there on internet and at LFS's.
 
But by far, the most popular brand of conditioner used by many on this forum is Seachem Prime, these are, at first glance, more expensive but due to its concentration each water change uses very little Prime.
 
For example 100 litres only requires 2.5ml of Seachem Prime, whereas on another brand I used, Nutrafin Qua Plus used 25ml is needed for 100 litres of water, 10 times the difference! Which meant the bottle of Nutrafin water conditioner ran out far quicker than Prime, so in the long run, Prime is much cheaper to use and is proven to work very well providing you use the correct dosages.
 

 
Not actually trying to sound like a salesman or a rep for Seachem 
Just giving out a recommendation....

There's also seachem safe. Powdered form of prime and can be more cost effective, paticularly if shipping is an issue.
 
http/www.seachem.com/support/forums/showthread.php?t=142

Ok, thanks again everyone. One last question in this section! Once the conditoner has been added, is it best to let the water come to room temp before adding to the tank or does anyone "heat" their water to tank temperature?