Does API TAP WATER conditioner remove Heavy Metals, Chlorine and Chloramines?

[Essjay]

Chloramine is an ammonia and a chlorine joined together.
All dechlorinators split chloramine up into chlorine and ammonia and all dechlorinators remove the chlorine part.
API Water Conditioner splits chloramine and removes the chlorine part by turning it into chloride which is not the same as chlorine.

 

[Rollxr]

Chloramine is an ammonia and a chlorine joined together.
All dechlorinators split chloramine up into chlorine and ammonia and all dechlorinators remove the chlorine part.
API Water Conditioner splits chloramine and removes the chlorine part by turning it into chloride which is not the same as chlorine.

So the chloramine is detoxifed too right? So it can’t harm my fish??

 

[Essjay]

Yes, dechlorinators remove the chlorine half of chloramine so that it cannot harm fish.

 

[Rollxr]

Yes, dechlorinators remove the chlorine half of chloramine so that it cannot harm fish.

So if half of the chloramine is removed then there is still chloramine in my fish tank?! So it can harm my fish?!

 

[Rollxr]

Perhaps semantics, but water conditioners don't remove anything since removal would be extraction. What they can do is neutralize or detoxify chlorine, chloramine, and/or heavy metals. But there's a 'price to be paid'. It has been written that heavy metal detox prevents plants from taking them in which would even be a detriment if one was also using a plant fertilizer product. Also, with chloramines, although the chlorine/ammonia bond is broken and the ammonia is neutralized or converted to relatively harmless ammonium, the tank (plants and/or beneficial bacteria) must deal with the result...(see Partial Water Changes: A Possible Failure).

What do you mean by? "Also, with chloramines, although the chlorine/ammonia bond is broken and the ammonia is neutralized or converted to relatively harmless ammonium, the tank (plants and/or beneficial bacteria) must deal with the result." The ammonia or chloramine is still in my tank and still going to harm my fish? Is this what you're trying to say?

 

[AbbeysDad]

What do you mean by? "Also, with chloramines, although the chlorine/ammonia bond is broken and the ammonia is neutralized or converted to relatively harmless ammonium, the tank (plants and/or beneficial bacteria) must deal with the result." The ammonia or chloramine is still in my tank and still going to harm my fish? Is this what you're trying to say?

If you read the article, what I'm saying is that the with the exception of uptake by fast growing plants, the ammonia or ammonium will be processed by beneficial bacteria into nitrites, then nitrates. Since our primary reason for routine partial water changes is to reduce nitrates, this can present a problem. As I wrote in the article, if/when source water is treated with chloramine, fast growing plants and modest water changes (along with other good housekeeping) may be the answer to keeping nitrates low. (See Lowering Aquarium Nitrates).

 

[Essjay]

So if half of the chloramine is removed then there is still chloramine in my fish tank?! So it can harm my fish?!

That is not what I said.


Chloramine is chlorine and ammonia joined together. API Tap Water Conditioner splits it up into separate chlorine and ammonia and it removes the chlorine made from the chloramine but leaves the ammonia in the water. Plants and bacteria remove this ammonia.

 

[GaryE]

You can get into serious water treatment at serious expense and use of space, or you can live with some very minor irritants in the water. Millions of aquarists unknowingly keep fish in less than ideal water, and trace elements of lead, etc, which occur in water in many places, are far less of a concern than that. Try to match your fish choice to KH and GH, plant the tank to consume wastes and do regular weekly partial water changes. Use the products that seem sensible if you have chlorine (as you said you do) and use different strategies if you have chloramines.

You can sit down and research the effect of impurities on your fish, if indeed the concentrations are high enough to do harm. That's the first thing to check. You gave no indication of general location, so it's impossible to say if you're in a zone known for agricultural pollution, etc. You can look that up. That's local to you.

 

[Rocky998]

Look at getting API "Aqua Essentials". Its made for water with chloramines.
It will take care of the chlorine AND ammonia a

 

[Rollxr]

You can get into serious water treatment at serious expense and use of space, or you can live with some very minor irritants in the water. Millions of aquarists unknowingly keep fish in less than ideal water, and trace elements of lead, etc, which occur in water in many places, are far less of a concern than that. Try to match your fish choice to KH and GH, plant the tank to consume wastes and do regular weekly partial water changes. Use the products that seem sensible if you have chlorine (as you said you do) and use different strategies if you have chloramines.

You can sit down and research the effect of impurities on your fish, if indeed the concentrations are high enough to do harm. That's the first thing to check. You gave no indication of general location, so it's impossible to say if you're in a zone known for agricultural pollution, etc. You can look that up. That's local to you.

My indication of general location is New Jersey, Monroe township.I live in New Jersey, Monroe Township.

 

[Byron]

The API Tap Water Conditioner is in my view the best conditioner we can use. It deals as well as any product--and better than most of them--with chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals. The level of heavy metals in municipal water (which people drink and use) is by law limited, so we/you are not dealing with significant heavy metals in the first place. If you have live aquatic plants, they will assimilate the nutrient heavy metals (iron, copper, zinc, manganese). As for chloramine, from what I have read most conditioners if not all of them detoxify chloramine in much the same way.

You do not, rpeat not, need Prime or API Aqua Essentials to deal with any of this, and it is better not to use these generally speaking. You (@Rollxr ) have not indicated any reason to go beyond the basic API Tap Water Conditioner, so use this. Use it no higher than at recommended dose. The less chemical substances entering the tank water the better for the fish, and overdosing conditioner just like overdosing medicine is not safe nor sensible.