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Water Treatments - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly


RD.
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Here you go Smokey, pin it if you feel the need. And please ignore any spellin errors. :)

Unless you have pristine unchlorinated water available for your tanks, at some point you'll need to decide which water treatment product will give you the best bang for your buck. The first thing you need to do is find out what your local water utility uses to treat the bacteria in your tap water. The water in Red Deer is treated with chloramine (which is made from a mixture of chlorine and ammonia), so I need to use a product that will not only deal with the chlorine, but also convert the ammonia into a safe form so the fish don't suffer from an ammonia spike after each water change.

I currently use Seachem Prime, but I'm about to experiment with Cloram-X. It appears to be a much less costly way of removing chlorine, chloramine, and ammonia from tap water. Cloram-X is simply the dry powder form of Amquel. (which means more bang for your buck!)

http://aquascienceresearch.com/cloram-x.html

FYI - chlorine dissipates as it runs through the water mains, and depending on where you are situated from the source in your town/city, and how much water you remove at each water change, you 'might' be able to go without adding a water conditioner. Also keep in mind that 'some' water conditioners also treat for heavy metals, so if your lines or local water is high in copper/lead etc, you might still need to condition the water.

If you have chloramine in your local water supply there's really no getting around using a water treatment. Chloramine can retain it's full strength for several weeks.

If you simply have to deal with chlorine, the least expensive way would be to use Sodium thiosulfate, which can be bought in bulk from a number of sources, such as the one below.

http://www.syndel.com/Sodium-Thiosulfate-P51C9.aspx

The following site provides a review on most of the popular water treatments currently on the market.

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/rev-cond.htm

Please note that some of the water treatment products that state on the bottle they will remove chloramine (such as Hagen AquaPlus), actually do no such thing. The info in the link above will explain why.

As stated previously, I currently use Seachem Prime, but the reality is I'm not concerned with having a slime coat additive (healthy fish already produce their own slime coat) and heavy metals aren't a concern due to the fact that our water mains in this area, as well as our house pipes, are coated with a thin layer of bacteria, as well as lime scale, so the chances of "heavy metals" leaching into our tap water is slim to none. If you live in an established area (meaning the streets & homes weren't just recently built), and your PH is 7.5 or higher, the chance of having "fish toxic" amounts of heavy metals in your water is very slim. The higher the PH, the less corrosive the water will be to your piping & joints.

The most important thing to do (even if you have hard water with a high PH) is to let your taps run before adding water to your aquariums. The idea is to NOT use water that has been sitting for an extended period of time (as in overnight) as it will contain higher levels of metals than if it has ran for a period of time. (and been flushed out)

I wrote the following over a year ago, but the info may help explain some of what takes place when using water treatments such as Seachem Prime.

Having been converted to the "dark side" by several Python users I'm now adding my water conditioner for Chloramine to the tank as I refill with fresh water via a Python.

Having said that, I wanted to make sure that my water conditioner (Seachem Prime) was indeed binding the ammonia once the chlorine & ammonia were split. Unfortunately the vast majority of ammonia test kits do NOT test for free ammonia, only 'total' ammonia so I was uncertain as to what was happening once the fresh water & Prime mixed in my tank.

I found the following info on Seachem's site & decided to purchase their Multi Test Kit. (for Free/Total Ammonia)

........................................................

"If the pH drops ammonia will not be released back into the water, and even if it did, it would be ionized ammonia (NH4+) which is totally non-toxic; only free ammonia NH3 is toxic. The only time ammonia removal products will release ammonia is if the pH goes up, WAY UP, like around 12 to 14!

That only occurs when testing with Nessler or salicylate based ammonia kits... they raise the pH to convert all

ammonia to free ammonia and test for free ammonia at pH 14.

So actually if you are using ammonia removal products and test for ammonia with these type of tests you will get false readings for ammonia. You can get a somewhat accurate result with a salycilate based kit if you take your reading right away rather than waiting the full prescribed time, but the trick is knowing when exactly to take that reading.

Our Ammonia Alert and MultiTest: Free & Total Ammonia

both use a gas exchange based sensor technology that is not

affected by the presence of ammonia removal products. Both give an accurate reading for free ammonia without any interference.

Depending on how much chloramines you have you can use either Prime or Safe. Prime is a liquid product for removing,

chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. It actually removes chlorine by converting it to harmless chloride; the chloramine is removed by breaking the chlorine-ammonia bond, the chlorine is then reduced to chloride and the ammonia is then bound until it is utilized within the biological filtration. Unless you raise your pH to 12 it will not release the ammonia back. Safe is a dry version of Prime and is thus more concentrated. Economically it is the best way to go,

however many prefer using a liquid product for ease of use.

All of the ammonia removal products on the market work chemically essentially the same way, they reduce chlorine to choride and bind up ammonia.

But, the chemical species used are all slightly different"

...............................................................

According to the info on the Seachem Prime bottle one capful should treat 50 gallons of fresh water (@ 3 mg/l of chloramine), but they also state:

"for exceptionally high chloramine concentrations a double dose may be used safely."

Ok, so I splurged & bought the Seachem Multi Test Kit which tests for both Free/Total Ammonia, and the results on 'my' tap water were somewhat surprising. In a 55 gallon tank, and when doing a 30% water change I need to use 2 capfuls of Seachem Prime in order to get the 'free' ammonia level down to .01 mg/l or less. I took the water sample & tested within seconds of my tank being filled. I also tested again a few hours later.

When using 1 capful my free ammonia reading was .05 or better, which IMO is too high a concentration for fish over an extended period of time, in a high PH water. My tap water is PH 8.0, which means a higher toxicity of ammonia, vs a lower PH. My bio filters (two AC 500's) take over 24 hours to remove the total ammonia after a water change of 30%.

Just a word of caution to people with chloramine in their tap water, if you're uncertain as to the level of chloramine in your local water, you may want to purchase one of these test kits to make sure all of the ammonia is indeed being bound by your water conditioner.

Hope this info helps ........

Edited by RD.
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Great information Neil. Thank you.

Does anyone know if Calgary water is treated with chloramine? I was looking on City of Calgary water treatment website a while back and there was no mention of it there. I asked them some time ago and have not heard back. As far as I know, Calgary's water isn't treated with chloramine, but if anyone knows for certain please let me know.

Thanks, David.

P.S. At present I treat my water by allowing it to run for a few minutes and then filling Rubbermaid containers and allowing the chlorine to evaporate. No chemicals necessary :D I do however have a product called De-Chlor that I use for any emergency water changes. I believe this is simply sodium thiosulfate without any additives.

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David - I find that's it's usually best to check with a lab tech at the water treatment facility. Some of these guys/gals can be a wealth of information, and can even let you in on any future plans the water treatment facility may have in store for down the road. That's how I first found out we had chloramine in our water. No mention of chloramine (at least at the time) on the city of RD web site, and no mention of it on the cities analytical water report. The city clerks had no idea, and even some of the staff at the water treatment plant didn't know.

The bottom line is, if they mix ammonia with the chlorine, they are using chloramine.

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Having been converted to the "dark side" by several Python users I'm now adding my water conditioner for Chloramine to the tank as I refill with fresh water via a Python.

.....

...............................................................

According to the info on the Seachem Prime bottle one capful should treat 50 gallons of fresh water (@ 3 mg/l of chloramine), but they also state:

"for exceptionally high chloramine concentrations a double dose may be used safely."

Ok, so I splurged & bought the Seachem Multi Test Kit which tests for both Free/Total Ammonia, and the results on 'my' tap water were somewhat surprising. I have a 55 gallon tank, and when doing a 30% water change I need to use 2 capfuls of Seachem Prime in order to get the 'free' ammonia level down to .01 mg/l or less. I took the water sample & tested within seconds of my tank being filled. I also tested again a few hours later.

When using 1 capful my free ammonia reading was .05 or better, which IMO is too high a concentration for fish over an extended period of time, in a high PH water. My tap water is PH 8.0, which means a higher toxicity of ammonia, vs a lower PH. My bio filters (two AC 500's) take over 24 hours to remove the total ammonia after a water change of 30%.

Great info RD.

I note that the instructions state that when you add the Sea Chem Prime to the TANK rather than to the new water prior to adding, you have to base the amount on total tank volume rather than on the new water addition volume.

Since you are adding ro remove chloramines as well as chlorine, a double dose would be called for, and 2 capfuls would be the appropriate amount for a 55 gal tank.

Since you have the fancy kits, perhaps you might want to try adding the Prime to the new ater first- as an experiement- at the regular dosage, and lert us know the results? ^_^

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I note that the instructions state that when you add the Sea Chem Prime to the TANK rather than to the new water prior to adding, you have to base the amount on total tank volume rather than on the new water addition volume.

Since you are adding ro remove chloramines as well as chlorine, a double dose would be called for, and 2 capfuls would be the appropriate amount for a 55 gal tank.

Directions: Use 1 capful (5 ml) for each 200 L (50 gallons) of new water.

If I treat the entire tank volume, which I do, that 'should' be 1 capful on a 55 gallon tank. I have to use 2 capfuls when performing a 30-40% water change on my 55, when using a python to add the water directly to the tank. (a double dose)

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No problem, I assumed you were thinking about the instructions on your AquaPlus container. From the link posted above:

* Note: Products where the second "Y" is in brackets are those which state that they remove chloramine, but in most cases contain only sodium thiosulfate (the same as standard dechlorinators for chlorine only). Usually, a higher dose is recommended for chloramines - this is to make sure the chlorine part is split from the chloramine and neutralised - however, this releases the ammonia part, so the chloramine is not fully dealt with. An example of the manufacturers' awareness of this, is shown by the fact that API recommend Ammo-Lock in conjunction with Stress Coat, if you need to deal with ammonia.

In cases where the ingredients are not stated for standard dechlorinators, it is highly likely that the dechlorinator is sodium thiosulfate.

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  • 1 month later...

Just a quick update. I've been using ClorAm-X since Since Sept 26th, and it indeed does exactly what it says it will do. Even 2 day old Tang fry had no adverse reactions to the ClorAm-X, during a 30% water change in a 29 gallon tank. The dry powder formulas (Seachem Prime also makes one called SAFE) will save you a TON of money over the long haul.

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  • 3 years later...

In reading this wonderfully informative article on water quality i was interested in what is in Edmontons' water. I did a good ole google and found Epcore's

Edit

Daily water report

http://www.epcor.com/water/reports-edmonton/Pages/wq-daily.aspx

It not only give you the numbers but does a great job in the description area as well. I hope this might help some people

L

Edited by Ishkabod
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So Edmonton uses Chloramine according to the link. Good to know. I'll adjust my water change habits accordingly...

Great article and resources.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 5 months later...

Well after 5+ yrs of using ClorAm-X, I'm going to be switching again, to Seachem Safe. (another dry powder product)

With regards to treating for just the new water being added, or the entire tank volume, here's my take.

If one has chloramine treated tap water, such as in Edmonton and Red Deer .......

When adding new water directly from the tap, and dealing with certain species of fish that are known to be overly sensitive to ammonia, or young fry/juvies of some species, it might be prudent to treat for the entire tank volume, and not just for the amount of new water being added to the tank.

Depending on the species (and perhaps size/age of the fish), the volume of water being added, the overall water circulation in the tank, the temp of the tank water, and even the pH, may determine what is safe for the fish, and/or what might be causing the tank inhabitants long term stress.

What might be considered safe for an adult Oscar, might not be overly safe for a 2 day old Discus, or a marine invertebrate.

When chloramine tap water is treated with products such as Prime, Safe, or ClorAm-X, the chlorine/ammonia bond is broken, resulting in a certain amount of free ammonia (NH3) that needs to be bound or reduced into a safe non toxic form. The toxicity of free ammonia is highly dependent on both temperature, and pH, so this can vary GREATLY from one hobbyists tank to another.

A good read on the toxicity of ammonia can be found in the following article posted on the krib.

http://www.thekrib.com/Chemistry/ammonia-toxicity.html

HTH

Edited by RD.
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