dechlorinators/ water conditioners

[jacblades]

for those of you that dont know, i work at petsmart and i always recommend amquel and novaqua to people who ask for a water conditioner.
another coworker of mine (the only other person besides myself that knows anything about fish) always recommends aquaplus.
now i know products like aquaplus, novaqua, stresscoat, etc... are slime coat protectors as well as dechlorinators and i know amquel is for reducing ammonia as well as dechlorinating. some have electrolytes, some dont. (also-how do electrolytes benefit fish? i thought electrolytes were just a mix of salts?)

i wonder, does it really make a difference what conditioner we use? my friend swears by by aquaplus and im definately a kordon babe B) i would probably never use a cheap brand like wardley or tetra (yeah-im a aquatic product elitist. sue me.) but does it really matter? are they all just the same?

what do yall think? does anyone have some links to some articles that can explain the brand differences?

if only hikari made water conditioners...

 

[CFC]

I always use stress coat, and the reason? Because it treats the most ammount of water volume per teaspoon and works out the cheapest which is a major concern when changing 150 gallons of water a week.

 

[jacblades]

I always use stress coat, and the reason? Because it treats the most ammount of water volume per teaspoon and works out the cheapest which is a major concern when changing 150 gallons of water a week.

stress coat has the same dosage as most other products
1 tsp per 10gal.

 

[CFC]

The only other products that i have found locally available are Tetra Aqua safe, Waterlife Haloex and King British Safe Guard, all of which work out more expensive to use either because of poor volume treated to volume used ratio's or price, the King British would work out the cheapest at £5.45 for enough to treat 2250 litres but does not treat saltwater which makes it useless for my heavy brackish tank.

 

[cometcattle]

I've always used stress-coat, also. Mainly because it was my first, and I have never had any problems. Plus, it has aloe.

I just found out that Petsmart sell it for $4.99 (16oz) online, as opposed to 9.99 in-store. I wish I would have known this 5yrs ago.

 

[freddyk]

As far as I'm concerned, these products are really there to do one thing - neutralize chlorine and metals in the water. They all do that, it's just a question of how else they like to market the product. The cost can add up with larger tanks, so like CFC I go with the best cost alternative.

 

[Da_Oz]

I like Prime it removes everything that needs to be taken out. And don't add alot of stuff you don't need. There is not much reason to add aloe everytime you change your water. Unless for some very odd reason you have to net out all the fish. If done anywhere near right a pwc is not stressfull to the fish. More of a stress remover. That is why alot of fish spawn right after it.

 

[blue_ram]

I always use stress coat, and the reason? Because it treats the most ammount of water volume per teaspoon and works out the cheapest which is a major concern when changing 150 gallons of water a week.

stress coat has the same dosage as most other products
1 tsp per 10gal.

Same dosgae does not mean same potancy. For example, 1 teaspoon of the following product treats:

• Prime treats .6 ppm ammonia, and 3 ppm chloramine
• Novaqua treats 3.75 ppm of chloramine
• Amquel treats 1 ppm ammonia, 3.2 ppm chloramine
• Bio-safe treats 1 ppm ammonia and 10 ppm of chloramine

For this reason, I use Bio-safe for quarantine tank and neturalizing bleach when disinfecting new plants.

But for my planted aquarium, I use Wardley's Chlorine remover. It leaves the ammonia, and other heavy metals in the water for the plants. It's cheap and effective.

I'm not so sure how useful aloe and electrolytess are. I guess they COULD be useful for fish under stress, but I'm not too crazy about adding stuff like aloe in the water.

 

[Flyaway_Firefly]

ive personally always used aquasafe, ive just found it good to use.....i cant remember but i think when i first started out i used a different type and my fish still died, but it could have been because of other things rather than just the declorniator!.

 

[BobK]

I've always used Aquasafe too. Why, oh I don't know. Maybe I got a sample of it at one time. For some reason I trust Tetra products and have always had good luck with them. I don't like to add a lot of chemicals either, the less the better. I guess I probably should compare prices with other products like some of you do.

 

[Undawada]

I switched to what I thought was a cheaper dechlor and it ended up costing me more. Let me explain.

I usually use Aqua-safe, but I recently figured I'd switch to a local brand (Big Al's) thats cheaper per volume. I bought my Big Al's dechlor for the same price as Aqua safe, but the bottle is much larger, and it also maintains its 1 tsp / 10 gallon ratio... the maths says that I could treat more water, thereby saving money... it makes total sense, except....

the Aqua-safe conveniently has a 1tsp cap so 1 capfull treats 10 gallons, making measuring very simple... Big Al's doesnt have a screw-cap, instead opting for a squirt nozzle... this makes measuring more difficult, more often than not I just spray a generous spritz of dechlor into a bucket instead of actually measuring out 1tsp... I avoid using kitchenware for products since it was washed in dishsoap etc...

Anyways, I ended up using up the larger Big Al's squirt bottle quicker than the handy measuring cap Aqua Safe that's the same price. Next time I'm going to buy Aqua Safe

 

[BobK]

Has anybody ever used Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap Water Conditioner? drsfostersmith.com has 16oz for 4.99 and 128oz for 25.99. 16 ounces treats 9,600 gallons. This seems like the cheapest tap water conditioner I've ever seen. Just wondering if it's any good. Thanks.

 

[BobK]

Undawada, I once called Tetra about how much Aquasafe s/b used to treat 1 gallon of water. They said take an eye dropper and put 8 drops in per gallon. That's the most accurate way to measure it (according to Tetra). I use that method when doing pwc's on my 5 gallon. You can also buy a cheap measuring spoon set and use that.

 

[clutterydrawer]

I use the one that is simpelst to work out the dosage of. I used to use one (king british i think?) where i had to add summat like 2.75 pipettes to each bucket i changed, the one i use now i just have to add two drops, so its easier to work out. im lazy.

 

[catwoman]

check out this link http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/rev-cond.htm

also interesting that aloe is NOT recommended "substances like aloe vera are certainly adding to the organic waste load in a tank".