fishforme Posted October 17, 2010 Report Share Posted October 17, 2010 Hi, Just finished my weekly water changes and am almost out of water conditioner. I usually use Nutra Fin Aqua Plus but found an old opened bottle of Tetra Aqua Safe when I packed our house to move. It does not show an expiry date and I can not remember when I bought it. It does have an ugly smell to it but maybe that is normal?It is about 3/4 full so would be a shame to have to throw it out but if it kills my fish that is obviously not good either. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas to share? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishMommy Posted October 17, 2010 Report Share Posted October 17, 2010 i'd play it safe and not use it. go get yourself a bottle of Prime, it's the best dechlor out there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fshkpr4evr Posted October 17, 2010 Report Share Posted October 17, 2010 Prime is good, but may I add that Nutrafin AquaPlus is the only water conditioner that is patented to reduce stress on fish. It is also a Canadian made product which is used exclusively by the University of Guelf in their aquaculture labs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishMommy Posted October 18, 2010 Report Share Posted October 18, 2010 i've recently switched from AquaPlus to Prime and i see no difference in the stress level of my fish. i've done some reading and apparently AquaPlus does not deal with chloramines the way Prime does. and what with Edmonton water being treated with chloramine, i'm not taking any chances with my fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishforme Posted October 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2010 i've recently switched from AquaPlus to Prime and i see no difference in the stress level of my fish. i've done some reading and apparently AquaPlus does not deal with chloramines the way Prime does. and what with Edmonton water being treated with chloramine, i'm not taking any chances with my fish. Thank you for the heads up - we have Edmonton water out here in Vegreville, I knew it had chlorine but not chloramine too. I let the water sit in pails overnight as the chlorine is supposed to evaporate off, not sure if it is the same for the chloramine. I treat the water about 10 mins before I use it. The Aqua Plus has instructions on the bottle to double the dose for chloramine treatment. Is it possible to overdose this stuff? I am afraid I do not treat the water properly as I use one capful for every 5 gallon pail of water and have 20 gallon aquariums. My fish, shrimp and turtles seem very happy with this water as where we moved from the water had iron, uranium and a variety of other uglies in it and the ph was about 8! No wonder I lost alot of shrimp. I have heard alot about Prime and will give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishMommy Posted October 18, 2010 Report Share Posted October 18, 2010 (edited) Edmonton water has just chloramine, which is a mix of chlorine and ammonia, from what i have researched. the chlorine is bound to the ammonia and that is why the chlorine component cannot off-gas. the problem with chloramine is that the ammonia becomes 'freed' when certain dechlorinators are used, such as AquaPlus, and that dechlor does not detoxify the ammonia. Prime will convert it into ammonium, which is non-toxic to fish. ammonium will still read as ammonia on your test kit though, but if you are using the correct dose of Prime you will know that it is not harming your fish. i used to overdose on the AquaPlus myself, just to be on the safe side, and saw no detrimental effects to the fish. one thing i have noticed since switching to Prime is that i no longer get as much soft sludgy gunk on the hard parts of my hob filters. maybe it was the aloe vera in the AquaPlus doing that? Great thing about Prime is that you need so much less to make the water safe for your fish. literally 2 drops or so per gallon! granted, i do use a tad more than that, due to my paranoia about chloramine, lol. wonderful link to Epcor to get all the stats for our water: http://www.epcor.ca/...es/default.aspx just click on which water report you would like to view. i view these on a regular basis to ensure there are no big surprises when i do water changes. Edited October 18, 2010 by BettaFishMommy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fshkpr4evr Posted October 19, 2010 Report Share Posted October 19, 2010 A few facts on ammonia / ammonium and how AquaPlus & Prime relate: The amount of ammonia freed when the bond of chloramine is broken is not going to be a toxic level given the usual conentration of chloramine that is used for water for human consumption. Biological capacity exisiting within the aquarium is all that is required to metabolize it. If the pH is below 7, then ammonium is not toxic. Ammonium is related to pH only, it is unrelated to the use of Prime. Aqua Plus does not contain aloe vera. It contains colloids that will not interfere with fish gills in any way. Aqua Plus is the only water conditioner that features a US patent in regards to stress prevention; important when perfoming tank maintenance as well as when new specimens are being introduced etc. The exact composition of Prime is proprietary, so it leaves me to speculate onto the make of the product. A few tests done on Prime lends some certinity that it contains a compound named sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate (Also found in Amquel, Kordon under the name of sodium hydroxymethylsulfinate). This causes the peculiar aroma of the product. Why onto a half bottle it is more evident than first opened? Basically it is a question of airspace (O2) above the product. Does oxygen deplete the integrity of Prime. Perhaps?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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