Chlorine removal (North American products)

[GaryE]

I have good old fashioned chlorine in my tap. No chrloramines, no worries about heavy metals, no need for aloe or additives. I just want to dechlorinate, and I want to buy a large jug of something.

So drop for drop, what is the most economical chlorine remover? The chemistry is the same for all of them, but which gives the most bang for the buck?

 

[Byron]

API Tap Water Conditioner. This is the most highly concentrated (one drop per gallon) so you use less which means less chemicals entering the fish. It is very effective. It deals with chlorine (and chloramine, they mostly all do now) and heavy metals. The latter is not a bad idea, just in case.

I have a 2 liter jug of this I bought several years ago when I had a fish room of tanks. It is slightly more expensive per volume [in the smaller sizes], but considering you use half of what you would need with other conditioners like Prime, and up to ten times less than what you need with some other brands, long-term it saves money.

 

[enricosonic]

Byron beat me to it. X2 on API’s Tap Water Conditioner. It does not contain Aloe Vera like is sometimes incorrectly reported in online searches.

 

[Essjay]

Make sure it is Tap Water Conditioner as other API products contain aloe vera and something to detoxify ammonia.

If you want to buy it in a large bottle, it comes in 32,and 64 oz and 1 gallon bottles and these are even more concentrated than the smaller bottles.

 

[Oblio]

How does a more concentrated solution result in less chemicals? It is my limited understanding of chemistry that you must have enough reactant molecules to combine with the Chlorine (or Cloramine) for a given volume and chlorine concentration in the tap water. Isn't this just a difference in conditioner molar concentration that yields the equivalent amount of reactant with a smaller dose volume?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Seachem Safe (powder), if you are looking for "large jugs"...

Seachem - Safe

seachem.com

 

[GaryE]

The seachem product claims to deal with ammonia, and that's a treatment I don't want to add. It's unneeded.

I usually allow chlorine to gas off in tanks, but I have a couple of daily spawning species that won't spawn for 3-5 days after water changes, so it's time to go back to the sodium thiosulphate as I set up my new fish area. I haven't used a dechlor for 15 years, but I will get some of the API stuff. Thank you all.

 

[itiwhetu]

I still don't understand how one drop can cure a gallon and do all the other things as well.

 

[Essjay]

1 drop of API Tap Water Conditioner contains as much dechlorinator as 5 ml of other brands. It is very concentrated, other brands are very dilute.

 

[GaryE]

I still don't understand how one drop can cure a gallon and do all the other things as well.

The original question was a hunt for a product that didn't do unnecessary things, and that just dechlorinated. A lot of bells and whistles get added to water products, but I don't need a bottled solution to ammonia, don't need aloe, don't need botanicals, have no chloramines... If I could get a water treatment that could clean my glass, water the plants and cut the lawn, I'd be impressed, but beyond that, I wanted a product that was "clean". I'll try this one happily. It seems a simple, cost effective solution to a simple problem - the last surviving simple dechlorinator.

The industry is into competitive meaningless or at times harmful innovation sometimes. What works isn't good or profitable enough, so cycle crippling inserts go into filters to replace stable, reusable sponges, unnecessary chemical gimmicks get added to dechlorinators, and so on.

I haven't dechlorinated unless I did a massive water change for many years, with no issues. Most chlorine gasses off if you agitate the water. Chloramines, no, they are trouble, for newcomers reading this.

 

[Oblio]

I haven't dechlorinated unless I did a massive water change for many years, with no issues. Most chlorine gasses off if you agitate the water. Chloramines, no, they are trouble, for newcomers reading this.

Makes sense to do a no chemical change if possible.
I usually change 50-60 gal (50%) weekly and use API Tap Water Conditioner, and I'm not ready to outgas that much even though the water company specifies chlorine and not chloramine.
Have there been any studies on the effects of Sodium Thiosulfate on fish?

 

[GaryE]

I've never found any studies. It is a salt and hardens the water a tiny bit, but it seems tiny. It's been used for many decades with no alarms I've seen.

Above 30% I use whatever dechlor I stumble across, but I rarely do changes like that. I have a couple of rainforest killies people often want eggs from but I find zero production for several days after a water change. I am wondering if it could be the residual chlorine in the water, even at 30% changes, and there's only one way to start finding out. They are also fish that hate change. I'm very glad they can't vote.

I am building a space for my fishkeeping, and I will probably have drilled overflows with water changes via a valve on a reservoir where I can prepare the water. Instead of going tank to tank with drain and fill hoses, I will have a lot of tanks plumbed where I can treat the fresh water, turn a valve and let it run to overflow change every 5 days or so. But if the chlorine isn't my issue, that will be counter-productive.

Adding all the crap the companies put in for marketing would cloud the issue. Plus I am very cheap and want concentrated.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have yet to find a fish that prefers dirtier water.

The product you want is FritzPro Concentrated Chlorine Remover. It will handle both chlorine and chloramine but will not detoxify ammonia nor does it do anything for heavy metals.
https://fritzaquatics.com/products/fritzpro-concentrated-chlorine-remover

Safe from Seachem is a cheaper powder form of Dechlor but it does detox ammonia and more.

Safe™ is the complete and super-concentrated dry conditioner for both fresh and salt water. Safe™ removes chlorine, chloramine and detoxifies ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. It contains a binder which renders ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate non-toxic, allowing the biofilter to more efficiently remove them. It will also detoxify any heavy metals found in the tap water at typical concentration levels.

 

[Oblio]

I have yet to find a fish that prefers dirtier water.

The product you want is FritzPro Concentrated Chlorine Remover. It will handle both chlorine and chloramine but will not detoxify ammonia nor does it do anything for heavy metals.
https://fritzaquatics.com/products/fritzpro-concentrated-chlorine-remover

Safe from Seachem is a cheaper powder form of Dechlor but it does detox ammonia and more.

If only all the aquarium chemicals had that info, detailed dosing info, even an SDS!