Chloramine in Edmonton

[digital-monk]

I live in St. Albert, and as far as I know we get our water from Edmonton. I looked on the EPCOR site in the 2007 archives and in these two links:

2008 Monthly Reports

Daily Reports

I found no mention of Chloramine or Ammonia in the water, only Chlorine. When I looked through the forums it seemed that a lot of the threads (although they were older) said that Edmonton has Chloramine in the water. So, I didn't discover this until today and I have been only leaving a 5 gallon pail sitting for 48-72 hours without a bubbler. I have mbuna fish that have been fine for over a week, and tropical fish that have been in it for 8 weeks.

- Should I be treating my water differently than I am?

- What should I use? I've read that "Prime is the best" but Cloram-X is much cheaper

Suggestions? Thanks!

[Parachromis1]

chloramine is chlorine + nitrogen?

i know someone who works for epcor and i was told our water is treated with chloramine

[NatureNut]

I lived in Edmonton for several years. We lost a bunch of fish when they switched from Chlorine to Chloramine (we had no idea that they did this). I now live in a town where they say they NEVER use anything but Chlorine. I treat my water with products that eliminate both Chlorine and Chloramine EVERY time, at the dose for Chloramines. My take on it? You spend a heap of money on fish, they're counting on you to take care of them, why take the risk when it really costs very little more to get a chloramine removing product over what you'd pay for removing chlorine.

[geleen]

If you search the epcor site under FAQ you will see that they use Chloramine

Your fish are at great risk without treatment!

I use prime works great.

J

[digital-monk]

Thanks for the replies, I must have mis-read that it was ammonia and Chlorine. I see that in the FAQ's it's listed.

So what about Prime alternatives? Or is it more of a why would you want to try anything else?

[NatureNut]

I just recently switched to Prime and so far I love it. The up front cost is more than some of the alternatives (I used a store brand), but it also treats a lot more/capful than the others aquarium products I've had. One thing I did for awhile, and it worked fine, was to buy pond water treatment. The cost was the same as for aquariums, but it treats much more water.

[RD.]

Chloramine is a chemical combination of chlorine and ammonia.

One thing I did for awhile, and it worked fine, was to buy pond water treatment. The cost was the same as for aquariums, but it treats much more water.

In most cases pond formulas are the exact same formula as their aquarium counterparts, Pond Prime included.

The reason that these pond formulas appear to treat more water, is that the dosage rates are set for large open water systems, where chlorine will dissipate much more readily, hence you need to use less of the product.

[jvision]

The reason many of us prefer Prime is that it sequesters the ammonia when it breaks the chloramine bond. Many other products only break the bond and bind up the chlorine, leaving the ammonia free in the tank - not good for your fishies.