Product to remove chlorine/ides

[lionfishlover]

Hi there, i am going to be getting a new tank soon, and have read up on fishless cycling, and on Chris Cow's guide on how to do it, he says to use a product to dechlorinate the water but to use one which doesnt also remove the ammonia and nitrite from the water when doing water changes.

Could someone please advise a product to do this.

Also could someone advise wether or not it would be bad to order the above product and the pure ammonia from the internet or to get it locally, just thought i would ask as i didnt know it the amount of time it could be potentially be sat in storage.

And if you think ordering them from the internet would be okay, what are the best sites to get them from.

I know its a few questions and some of them slightly trivial but i would prefer to look slightly dumb and get it right then be snobby and potentially get it wrong.

Cheers guys and girls, Scott

 

[Tempestuousfury]

I'd suggest a fish store or a large retailer. Walmart in the U.S.

Internet is only worth it for bulk items or otherwise expensive items, IMO, and not worth it in this case.

As for what to get: "Stress Coat" "Aquasafe", two names. They label all their functions on the front, so look for one taht does not say anything about nitrates and ammonia. Since they are trying to get people to buy these products because of the product's ability to remove these substances, it should be rather easy to figure out.

 

[SRC]

I guess I've not read up too much on fishless cycling..but isn't the end point to get your ammonia and nitrite level to zero? Why would you want to add these things to the water, on purpose?

 

[Tempestuousfury]

The fish tank does it on its own. The point isn't to gte the ammonia and nitrites to zero. The point is to cultivate bacteria (nitrosomus and nitrobacter) that convert ammonia to nitrites to nitrates, each subsequently less deadly to fish. If you keep lowering the initial ammonia to zero, there will be nothing for the bacteria to use in order to survive, let alone thrive.

 

[SRC]

So, when I take readings from my tank and they are:

Ammonia : 0 ppm

Nitrite : 0.25 ppm

This is not a good thing?

 

[Tempestuousfury]

If it is a new tank, then you just have to cycle it. If it is an old tank, you have added new fish or changed the water chemistry in a negative way. However, it should settle back down to zero. A water change would help in bringing it down.

 

[SRC]

It's a fairly new tank, almost a month old. That has been my reading since day 1. I have vaccumed the gravel..which also takes out about 2-4 gallons of water each time, every saturday since I got it (the ghost shrimp I have are extremely messy critters).

It's a 10 gal.

I was thinking that was a pretty good reading actually. Is it a fair reading? Or is it not so good?

Edit: Actually it is probably a little lower then .25ppm. It has a color chart to go by, and the best is a light blue, the next is a medium purple shade. The shade of my water is not quite the medium purple but a very faint purple color instead, but not a blue at all.

lol this is so confusing.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Then it makes me think that your water supply might have nitrites. You sure it's nitrites, with an i, right?

What else is in the tank, other than ghost shrimp?

 

[SRC]

Yes, it is a Nitrite test kit. I read that there are 2, one with an A and one with an I..so I was sure to purchase the one with an I..as I have no live plants in my tank.

There are 6 ghost shrimp, 2 corydoras, and a soon to be vacant Bala Shark (bad impule purchase by my son's grandmother..but the pet store has agreed to take it back lol).

The levels I stated have been the same since I set the tank up..I have yet to have a spike in levels. I added the 2 cory's first (ther was a ADF in there but he wasn't eating properly so I took him out soon after), then a week later I added 3 ghost shrimp (2 large ones and a medium sized one), then at 4 weeks(last weekend) I added the other 2 ghost shrimp (1 small and 1 extra small one).

 

[Tempestuousfury]

There's the problem. You have to have the number of fish in the tank stable. Also, you should try to feed less, every other day or so. this allows for a bearable degree of nitrogenous wastes and time for the bacteria to culture.

Also, I meant to ask if you have tested your water supply for ammonia and nitrates as well. My guess is that a stable reading for the nitrate and no ammonia (never, right) might just mean that it is the tap water.

Sorry about hijacking this thread, lionfishlover. )

 

[SRC]

Yeah I tested the water right after I saw you mention it earlier to someone else. It was at 0 ..the light blue.

lol I will try the feeding them less.

I too am sorry ) hehe

 

[gale]

I just read this at the marineland site but I know the aquasafe bottle says nothing about ammonia removal:

IMPORTANT: BIO-Spira is a "live" bacteria culture that is sold refrigerated and must be kept refrigerated until used. It can not be overdosed. Repeated dosing of your aquarium with ammonia removing liquids (such as BIO-Safe, Amquel, Ammo-lock and Aqua-Safe) can inhibit the beneficial action of BIO-Spira. Ammonia removing liquids should only be used to initially treat tap water. It is normal to have a small (<2 ppm) amount of ammonia or nitrate during the first few days after set-up. These concentrations are not harmful and will quickly drop to zero with proper use of BIO-Spira.

 

[gale]

me again. It says this on the tetra site about aquasafe: AquaSafe® makes tap water safe for your fish by neutralizing chlorine and heavy metals present in municipal water supplies. AquaSafe® also neutralizes chloramines by breaking down the bond between chlorine and ammonia while reducing both fish-toxic chlorine and ammonia components. In addition, AquaSafe® provides slime coating to help wounds heal and protect fish from abrasions.

I guess I'll either find some bio-coat or use stress coat when I use the bio spira.

 

[Slyspy]

I use stress coat, which is available in most UK petshops. Does the job nicely.

Birospira is designed to help cycle the tank, not merely as a dechlor. Also it is not available in the UK. Ordering it from the States would be a waste of money IMO.

As for ammonia: It is very difficult to get pure ammonia (ie lab grade) in the UK without either knowing a source in the chemical industry or getting flagged by the authorities for trying to import bomb-making materials. I suggest that you do not try to buy off the internet. Even domestic ammonia solution is hard to find and is not stocked in most big stores. Find a small, independent hardware or household shop nearby that sells a non-foaming (no soap) ammonia cleaning solution. This will do the trick. The yellowpages and a phone are the most useful tools here, not the internet!

 

[gale]

Birospira is designed to help cycle the tank, not merely as a dechlor. Also it is not available in the UK. Ordering it from the States would be a waste of money IMO.

Yeah I know that bio spira is not for that. I just happened to get some recently and was reading up on it, and saw that blurb at the marineland website which reminded me of this thread. I wasn't trying to imply that bio spira is for water conditioning--only mentioning that marineland says that aquasafe removes ammonia (which it apparently does, according to the tetra site).

Also I could have sworn I'd read messages from UK people that said they bought it locally.