Tap Water Conditioner Question

[Night Crawler]

Hi guys. I have been keeping tropical fish for a little while, but I still have a question.
Every time I do water changes I add my tap water conditioner as it says on the bottle, mix it up, then I leave it for a few mins then add it to the tank. Now, I have been using Tetra Aqua Safe since I started and it says to use 5ml of the stuff for very 10 litres of water. I have recently purchased a bottle of API Tap Water Conditioner because I am getting low and where I went didnt have any of the Tetra stuff at that time. It says on the API bottle to only use 1 drop for every 3.8 litres (1 US Gallon) to detoxify heavy metals and remove chlorine or to detoxify chloramines use 3 drops.
My first question is... Is it realy that strong compared to the Tetra Aqua Safe?
My second question is... Which is best to do? Remove chlorine and detoxify heavy metals (1 drop) or detoxify chloramine (3 drops)?

 

[kribensis12]

Hi guys. I have been keeping tropical fish for a little while, but I still have a question.
Every time I do water changes I add my tap water conditioner as it says on the bottle, mix it up, then I leave it for a few mins then add it to the tank. Now, I have been using Tetra Aqua Safe since I started and it says to use 5ml of the stuff for very 10 litres of water. I have recently purchased a bottle of API Tap Water Conditioner because I am getting low and where I went didnt have any of the Tetra stuff at that time. It says on the API bottle to only use 1 drop for every 3.8 litres (1 US Gallon) to detoxify heavy metals and remove chlorine or to detoxify chloramines use 3 drops.
My first question is... Is it realy that strong compared to the Tetra Aqua Safe?
My second question is... Which is best to do? Remove chlorine and detoxify heavy metals (1 drop) or detoxify chloramine (3 drops)?

I use amquel+, it removes chlorine, chlomines, ammonis, some nitrite, some nitrate, and detoxifys heavy metals.

 

[Christine1014]

It's virtually impossible to overdose a fish on water conditioner, so go with the 3 drops to be safe; that will detox the heavy metals and break the chlorine/chloramine bond. As far as one water conditioner vs another, yes they're all very different and have their own sets of instructions/measurments.

 

[Night Crawler]

Ok, thanks for that Christine. It just kinda puzzled me with how much difference there is between them for doasge.

 

[-germ-]

SeaChem prime....
The cheapest and the best IMHO

 

[Miss Wiggle]

if you are going to make the descision to use a water conditioner (which is increasingly becoming optional not accepted as essential) then you should go with the 3 drops to detoxify the chloramines. chloramine is significantly more dangerous to your bacteria colony than chlorine

 

[andywg]

chloramine is significantly more dangerous to your bacteria colony than chlorine

Hmm, not necessarily. There is evidence to indicate that the bacteria are becoming immune to chloramine, and can even utilise the ammonia part of it as food for the colony.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

chloramine is significantly more dangerous to your bacteria colony than chlorine

Hmm, not necessarily. There is evidence to indicate that the bacteria are becoming immune to chloramine, and can even utilise the ammonia part of it as food for the colony.

if you say so

i handed my notice in today and went the pub at lunch..............

i'll happily concede that i may have got my facts muddled up somewhat

 

[Night Crawler]

Thanks for your help guys.

if you are going to make the descision to use a water conditioner (which is increasingly becoming optional not accepted as essential)

If water conditioner is becoming optional, what should I be using instead? I have always been told that I should treat any water that goes in the tank with some form of conditioner to get rid of the nsaties (chlorine, heavy metals...).

 

[gilaesther]

Thanks for your help guys.

if you are going to make the descision to use a water conditioner (which is increasingly becoming optional not accepted as essential)

If water conditioner is becoming optional, what should I be using instead? I have always been told that I should treat any water that goes in the tank with some form of conditioner to get rid of the nsaties (chlorine, heavy metals...).

The only time I've heard people mention not using water conditioner is when they have very established tanks. I could be wrong. However, it does make sense that once the bacterial colonies are very well established, the impact the chlorine and such would have would be much lessened.

 

[Night Crawler]

So if I had a good sized tank going for say... 5 years, I could just do water changes with just tap water?
Sounds a bit dodgy to me. I think I'll play it safe and keep using the water conditioner. After all. It wont do any harm

 

[themissingelf]

I thought Chloramine was not something to worry about in the UK? Isn't it just the States and perhaps one or two other countries that add Chloramine to their water???

I only dose to remove Chlorine.

EDIT: Based on the results of a 5min search of the interweb, I could not find any reference to Chloramine being used specifically in the UK (or NOT being used either for that matter), however, I did find a Wiki reference stating the Chloramine was displacing Chlorine as a drinking water disinfectant as it is more stable/reliable bla bla bla).

From now on, I will mostly be dosing to remove Chloramine!

 

[part-timer]

I've always used API stuff and have never been unhappy with it. Because my tank is established, I don't use a dechlorinator now, just 10-15% water changes twice weekly with a few drops of stress coat. A fully established decent size tank will cope, but if you are using anything under 10 or 15g then the volume of water changed compared to living space for the fish makes a dechlorinator worthwhile.

 

[-germ-]

if you say so

i handed my notice in today and went the pub at lunch..............

i'll happily concede that i may have got my facts muddled up somewhat

Too much lambrini Wiggles? Hope all your fishy business is going well......
Erm... Yeah, seachem.

 

[Night Crawler]

Well, I have 2 tanks going at the mo. A 60L (13.2 UKg, 15.9 USg) and a 20L (4.4 UKg, 5.3USg). Sorry, not sure exactly which units everyone works with.
The 60L tank has been running for about 8 or 9 months with an Aqua Pro 1 external filter and a small cheap internal bio filter. The 20L tank has its own filter system in the hood and a small external canister with no name. Thats only been running for about 2 or 3 weeks. The external was running in the 60L tank for about 6 months and I used that to seed the 20L.
I think I'll be using dechlorinator all the time. I dont realy fancy killing off any of my bacteria even if the tanks have been running years. Its better to be safe than sorry. And like someone said already, 'It's virtually impossible to overdose a fish on water conditioner'.

Part-Timer. Doesn't the stress coat already have some dechlorinator stuff in it? Or do the also do just a stress coat?
Personally I didnt see the need to buy any stress coat as all my fish are happy and healthy. Appart from the odd new fish I put in the tank. Theres always 1 that gets eaten within a few days.
I have read some things about stress coat and other forms of replacing or creating more slime on the fish and I wasnt realy happy with what I read. Thats why I just got the water conditioner on its own with nothing else in it. But then again, thats just me