Water Conditioner

[Jozlyn]

If I let my buckets of fresh water sit for a few days prior to doing my water change (to allow the chlorine to evaporate) do I still need to use water conditioner?

 

[crazie.eddie]

The thing is, some water supply companies use chloramine, which does not dissipate. It can only be removed chemically. You must use a dechlorinator that binds with ammonia as well, because if you remove chlorine from chloramine, the bi-product is ammonia. Prime is one of the commonly preferred dechlorinators to use, since it binds with chlorine and ammonia.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

agreed, if your unsure if you have chloramine in your water i'm sure you can get a test kit for it and find out

 

[thegnu]

water company's put all this stuff into their (our) water to kill the bacteria so its safe for us to drink. unfortunately it cant tell good bacteria from bad bacteria, so if not treated will kill your lovely bacteria you have lovingly tended and nurtured and is growing in your filters and all over your tank and without it your fish could not live

 

[andywg]

If you just have chlorine that can be fine.

If your tank is somewhat mature (6 months or so) then it does appear that chlorine and chloramine do not have a noticeably detrimental effect on the tank. This is because the chloramine is broken down into ammonia (which is consumed by the filter bacteria) while the chlorine gasses off. Also, remember that a fully cycled filter has far more bactreria than is usually found in the pipes, so the dose does not kill enough of the bacteria to uncycle the tank.

This does leave the problem of heavy metals and how to prevent them accumulating to dangerous levels.

I know of a few keepers who don't use any dechlorinator and pipe water straight into the tank and the only change noticed is the apprent brighter colours.

The safe approach is to use it, but it is not a copmlete definite.

 

[The-Wolf]

I know of a famous fishkeeper/breeder/article writer for PFK that as never used a dechlorinator in his life.
lucky or not?
myself I'd not risk the stock by saving a few pounds.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

before i knew better i used no dechlor on my community tank for 3 years, can't say if i experienced problems or not though really as i didn't know what i was doing so also scrubbed the filter media under the tap and overstocked the tank horribly

had a few bouts of disease but they could have been for any other reasons

 

[Killi]

For what a bottle of water conditioner costs, its not worth risking it to be honest
I use Nutrafin Aqua+ and this also has things in (scientific wordage lol) that de-stresses/relaxes fish, which is a bonus especially if your adding new ones fish to the tank

 

[Angel98]

So how do you clean out a filter?

 

[newtotropical]

Just rinse it out in tank water that you have removed

 

[andywg]

So how do you clean out a filter?

That depends very much on the filter and the media.

Most cannisters have some mechanical media (such as a sponge or wool) that can be rinsed under the tap to get all of the detritus that clears out. I haven't used internals so can't really comment on them, but I assume they use a sponge that can be rinsed in tank water just as the biological media from a cannister will be.

I myself use wet dry filters so I just rip out the filter floss while doing a water change and spray it with the shower on full bore to blast out the detritus. About every 3-6 months I put new filter floss in, and I plan to rinse the bioballs in tank water about once every 24 months or so.

 

[crazie.eddie]

I know of a famous fishkeeper/breeder/article writer for PFK that as never used a dechlorinator in his life.
lucky or not?
myself I'd not risk the stock by saving a few pounds.

All depends on the circumstances and the fish. They could also be using a drip method for water changes.

So how do you clean out a filter?

You should probably start a new thread regarding this, so you don't hijack this thread.

 

[Jozlyn]

Thanks everyone, I had no intention of not using the water conditioner, I was just curious about whether or not I had to use it.

 

[thegnu]

I know of a famous fishkeeper/breeder/article writer for PFK that as never used a dechlorinator in his life.
lucky or not?
myself I'd not risk the stock by saving a few pounds.

i know of discus breeders who never use it but they do 100% water changes every day with absolutely no filtration of any kind

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Don't quote me but i think Discus breeders use RO water which removes the need for water conditioners