Really Stupid Question About Bog Wood

[Birdie]

I've got some bogwood which I intend to soak and scrub before putting it into my Betta's tank. Will the wood absorb cholrine or chloramine from the tapwater?
Do I have to do at least the final soak in dechlorinated water?
Or is that just ridiculously OTT?
Go on, laugh - I can take it

 

[bobbicus]

you can use a de-chlorinator to remove the chlorine in the tap water

bog wood will NOT absorb the chlorine from the water

a way of not buying de-chlorinator is to leave tap water in a bucket for a day or two and the chlorine is released naturally apparantly- although i have also heard that using boiled water and leaving to cool also removes the chlorine

but i dont take that chance - i add "aquaafe"

hth?
rob

 

[Birdie]

Thank you. I do add Aquasafe to all the water that goes into the tank - but then I started worrying that the wood would absorb chlorine when soaking in tapwater,- and then once I put the wood in the tank, I would be inadvertently introducing chorine, and killling off my filter bacteria.
Thanks for the reassurance that that isn't the case

 

[raptorrex]

you can use a de-chlorinator to remove the chlorine in the tap water

bog wood will NOT absorb the chlorine from the water

a way of not buying de-chlorinator is to leave tap water in a bucket for a day or two and the chlorine is released naturally apparantly- although i have also heard that using boiled water and leaving to cool also removes the chlorine

but i dont take that chance - i add "aquaafe"

hth?
rob

yep that will work for chlorine, but tap safe also removes any heavy metals in the tap water. so its worth using.

 

[bobbicus]

to be completely honest - i soak my bogwood in tap water and then just pop in the tank

i do however use a tad more aquafsafe than it says per 10 litres as i like to think i am adding a bit more vit b5 and the likes to protect from abrasions etc etc

 

[andywg]

As a quick money saving tip, head down to a pond supply store (such as Manor Koi in pound lane just off Saddler's Farm roundabout) and buy some pond dechlorinator. I pay £16.50 for about 750ml where 10ml does 80 imp gallons (so the bottle does about 60,000 imp gallons).

 

[Birdie]

Top tip, Andy - thank you

Does the pond stuff include any form of stress coat type ingredient? Or is that a totally useless marketing gimmick anyway, aimed at separating fools like me from their money ?

Haha - is it OK to go off topic if it's your own thread?

 

[andywg]

Most stress coat things are pointless gimmicks.

The dechlor is at best to do three things:

1) break any chloramine into chlorine and ammonia

2) neutralise any chlorine

3) bind to any heavy metals

Now we all know that chlorine is a gas and can be gassed off. Research shows that chloramine can actually be used by our filter bacteria with little harm. Provided you have a cycled filter then it does appear that de-chlor may be unnecessay. However, when you can do 60,000 imp gallons for £16.50 then it isn't really worth risking any problems.

When buying dechlor just look at how much water it treats per price and compare on that.