Chlorine test kits

[AJ356]

Hi,

Does anyone include these in their arsenal? Is it likely true that some, or even all, water providers will occasionally treat tap water with much higher doses of chlorine than normal, but still within the legal maximum limit for human consumption? Be it chlorine or chloramine? Would our regular dose of tap safe protect our fish/set-up in this scenario?

In terms of tap water, is chlorine the most likely thing to wipe out, or partially wipe out (overnight), an otherwise very well functioning and stable set up?

 

[seangee]

Your conditioner should do the job.
Try to find out when your water company treats its water. E.g. ours is chlorinated on Fridays to anticipate higher weekend demand in a residential area. So I usually try to fill my pond on a Thursday - tanks don't matter because I use RO.
It depends what you mean by wipe out. Doing a partial water change with chlorinated water in a well established tank (especially if there are plants) probably won't do too much harm to the nitrogen cycle. But chlrine does affect fish gills and their ability to breathe, and this can cause short and long term harm.

 

[Colin_T]

Contact the water company by phone or website and find out if you have chlorine or chloramine in the tap water.

If there is a damaged water pipe or work gets done on the water pipes, the water company normally adds a lot of chlorine or chloramine to the water to make sure there is nothing alive in it. This can be two or more times the normal level and regularly exceeds the safe maximum level. The water companies do not normally tell you if they have done work on the pipes or added extra chlorine or chloramine. The only time they tell you this information is if they are turning the water off to your area for a period of time and they will send you a letter saying we are shutting off the water on this day for maintenance.

eg: The recommended safe level is 2. My tap water regularly has 6-8 in. I'm not sure what it's measured in (ppm or something else) but my tap water kills fish under normal circumstances and is toxic for all living creatures that ingest it straight out of the tap. I'm in Perth Western Australia. When they do work on the pipes, we have had chlorine levels over 10.

If they do work on the pipes and add extra chlorine or chloramine, the high levels usually remain for 2-3 days and then it goes back to normal levels.

If you have chloramine in the water, the chlorine test kit might not read chloramine and you might have to add a dechlorinater to break the chlorine ammonia bond and then measure the chlorine. This would entail having a container of tap water, testing it for chlorine. If there's no result then dechlorinate the water and vigorously aerate it for 5-30 minutes, then test again.

 

[AJ356]

Contact the water company by phone or website and find out if you have chlorine or chloramine in the tap water.

If there is a damaged water pipe or work gets done on the water pipes, the water company normally adds a lot of chlorine or chloramine to the water to make sure there is nothing alive in it. This can be two or more times the normal level and regularly exceeds the safe maximum level. The water companies do not normally tell you if they have done work on the pipes or added extra chlorine or chloramine. The only time they tell you this information is if they are turning the water off to your area for a period of time and they will send you a letter saying we are shutting off the water on this day for maintenance.

eg: The recommended safe level is 2. My tap water regularly has 6-8 in. I'm not sure what it's measured in (ppm or something else) but my tap water kills fish under normal circumstances and is toxic for all living creatures that ingest it straight out of the tap. I'm in Perth Western Australia. When they do work on the pipes, we have had chlorine levels over 10.

If they do work on the pipes and add extra chlorine or chloramine, the high levels usually remain for 2-3 days and then it goes back to normal levels.

If you have chloramine in the water, the chlorine test kit might not read chloramine and you might have to add a dechlorinater to break the chlorine ammonia bond and then measure the chlorine. This would entail having a container of tap water, testing it for chlorine. If there's no result then dechlorinate the water and vigorously aerate it for 5-30 minutes, then test again.

Great suggestions, thank you. My water supplier uses chloramine.

 

[AJ356]

Your conditioner should do the job.
Try to find out when your water company treats its water. E.g. ours is chlorinated on Fridays to anticipate higher weekend demand in a residential area. So I usually try to fill my pond on a Thursday - tanks don't matter because I use RO.
It depends what you mean by wipe out. Doing a partial water change with chlorinated water in a well established tank (especially if there are plants) probably won't do too much harm to the nitrogen cycle. But chlrine does affect fish gills and their ability to breathe, and this can cause short and long term harm.

Thank you. Smart move on trying to select water change days according to the data you have from the supplier. Something tells me not to rely on it, but worth knowing.

 

[GaryE]

Chloramine and chlorine are different problems. I have never had to deal with chloramines, and am glad of it. Around here, water gets a solid shot of chlorine, and that's all.

I pour water from a hose, and it enters the tank very agitated. Now for a confession - for 20 years, I used no dechlorinators at all. None. I never lost fish, or a tank. What I did observe was a drop off in breeding for some species (non Cichlids) for 2 or 3 days post water change. So I started using a dechlorinator, and now they breed the second day after a change. Cichlids don't care, they breed hours after a change.

Again, no chloramines, which would have killed fish. But I had very long lived fish through the no dechlorinator period - the after effects of a storm killed my last group of healthy 7 year old cardinals, and lifespans longer than that would have been normal. I use a dechlorinator now because it's cheap and it can't hurt. Plus, I do more water changes now that I'm retired, and having to wait for the breeding was tiresome.