Poll: Anti Chlorine & Chloramine

[stormhawk]

Don, I did another test on my tank water 2 days after setup and detected faint traces of chlorine. The following day it was not traceable.

[Navanod]

Very strange indeed...the chlorine off-gased?

[stormhawk]

I'm puzzled myself. I did not expect to detect anything because I thought Seachem Prime would deal with the chlorine and ammonia from the chloramine. Didn't take long for the chlorine to dissipate though.

[Sgguppylover]

Chlorine is an acidic gas which is present in most water drawn from the tap. With the addition of anti-chlorine and chloramine , my ph will go up a little .I would normally go for anti-chlorine and chloramine instead of just anti-chlorine as chlorine is known to react with ammonia to form chloramine which is so stable that it is unable to be removed by just anti-chlorine.

[darylets]

I can't believe that people still do not think that chlorine and chloramine are things you never want to be adding into your aquarium.

A $5.00 bottle of antichlorine/anti-chloramine goes a long way, do not skimp on this.

If you think its bad to be adding chemicals to your water to remove the chlorine / chloramine, you need to do more research on its effects and the comparatively harrmless chemical reactions involved in removing it.

Age your water whenever possible, IN ADDITION to treating it with anti-chlorine/chloramine.


For those too lazy to do the reading, in summary:

- Chlorine and chloramine kills stuff that lives in water, including your fauna.
- Chlorine and chloramine will poison your fauna slowly if they do not die immediately.
- Your flora and fauna will do better without chlorine/chloramine in your system.
- Aging and aerating the water is not an effective method of removing chloramine.
- Chemically removing the chlorine / chloramine is better than leaving it in the water.
- Activated carbon filtration is good, but you need to change filters regularly.


Super condensed version:

Chlorine / Chloramine - BAD
Aging Chloraminated water without treatment- BAD

Distilled Water - GOOD
Anti-Chlorine/Chloramine - GOOD
Carbon Filtration - GOOD

What kind of responsible aquarist doesn't already know all this?
This is not marketing spiel or superstition, this is chemistry, and biology.



More reading if you're so inclined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine
http://www.h2ou.com/h2wtrqual.htm#Chlorine
http://www.bio-elite.com/chlorine_faq.htm
http://www.petplace.com/fish/chlorin...ity/page1.aspx
http://theaquariumwiki.com/Chloramine

Completely agree with you on that. Keeping fauna and other pets alike requires responsibility. Reading up on how to improve the life of your fishes and ensuring you know what you are getting into is very important. Just doing whatever is to your convenience is not advisable, i would say if you cannot commit or put in minimal effort in aging your water and treating it, then its best you dont keep any fauna. For many fishes its not instantly lethal, but over time, they get sick and die off, that is really sad, not to mention that i cannot understand how some hobbyist's thoughts, rather than treating your water and aging it, isnt it more expensive to buy back the fishes you lose?

[kotaaro]

hi der any good anti-chlorine solutions to reco?

I'm using this $1 Ocean Free AC solution and i seriously don't think its good...

Pls do state and price and where can i get my hands on them.

I live in yishun btw.

Thanks!

[SirBest]

You can go for Aqua Plus by Nutrafin or Prime by Seachem. Both products are what I have used before that reap good results for me. However you should not be restricted to just two of what I have recommended.

[kotaaro]

thnx for the reply i think i will go with Seachem Prime then.

any idea where sells the cheapest? This brand i heard is not cheap to begin with?

[SirBest]

Kotaaro: The price is relatively fixed unless you are able to buy in bulk to enjoy wholesale price. I can provide you with places that are cheap, but factor in your transport costs, would just even out on the whole deal.

[tetrakid]

I never use any chemicals in my fish tanks, although there are hundreds of types of chemicals available. To me, the less chemicals I add, the better for my fish. As for chlorine and chloramine, a 20% water change means only minimal concentration, which the fish may not even be adversely affected. Bear in mind that humans can also drink the water straight from the tap without ill-effects due to the low concentration. In any case, activated carbon should be sufficient to remove any harmful traces of chemicals.

The only chemicals I use are when any fish needs treatment due to early onset of disease, for example ich or fin rot. But there again, I always do the treatment in a separate tank. All said, it is much better to prevent fish disease than to cure them afterwards. There's only a slim chance for a fish to recover once disease has taken hold.

I could never keep my otos alive until I started using Prime

[cheetf]

I never use any chemicals in my fish tanks, although there are hundreds of types of chemicals available. To me, the less chemicals I add, the better for my fish. As for chlorine and chloramine, a 20% water change means only minimal concentration, which the fish may not even be adversely affected. Bear in mind that humans can also drink the water straight from the tap without ill-effects due to the low concentration. In any case, activated carbon should be sufficient to remove any harmful traces of chemicals.

The only chemicals I use are when any fish needs treatment due to early onset of disease, for example ich or fin rot. But there again, I always do the treatment in a separate tank. All said, it is much better to prevent fish disease than to cure them afterwards. There's only a slim chance for a fish to recover once disease has taken hold.

Bro tetrakid is a seasoned fish keeper which have found his way to manage his water conditions. I strongly discourage newbies to use untreated tap water as chloramines can and do kill lifestock.

[felix_fx2]

Water conditions do differ with where the hobbyist is staying.

Example even in the same estate, a retired hobbyist I know. MUST age or treat the water pior to use. And he stays 2 minutes drive from my place.

Having said that, if the new hobbyist does not know. It will be safer to treat or age water. Then learning the hard way.

[tetrakid]

I prefer ageing the water anytime than using any chemical. Using chemicals is prone to create many maybe unkown side-effects to the water body.

But generous use of activated carbon is great for removing traces of harmful chemicals too.

[cheetf]

Do you test your water for chlorine/chloramines after ageing?

[bernie]

Do you test your water for chlorine/chloramines after ageing?

chlorine/chloramines is difficult/expensive to test by hobbists. Off the shelf test kits are not easily available.

[cheetf]

Not sure if there are any chloramine test kits but chlorine test kits I think are reasonable.

[aquarius]

I've done a comparison many yrs back on a few reputable Anti-chlorine brands before and found that Seachem's Prime is the Best and Most worth it (value for money). Why i say this is because if you compare just the chlorine & chloramine removal properties alone, which is the main reason why we use Anti-chlorine, it beats all the other brands hands down because it can treat much more amount of water for each ml of Prime as compared to the other brands. And if you were to add in the extras like the treatment of Ammonia, detoxification of Nitrite & Nitrate and providing Slime Coat for fishes, there's no comparisons at all.

Actually you don't need to age the water for a few days before introducing it into the tank cos even if you got rid of the chlorine, the chloramine is still in the water. In the end, it's better to just add tap water and the Anti-chlorine together into the tank instead of going through the hassle of aging it for a few days.

[Ecalyte]

I prefer ageing the water anytime than using any chemical. Using chemicals is prone to create many maybe unkown side-effects to the water body.

But generous use of activated carbon is great for removing traces of harmful chemicals too.

You can't age the chloramine that's in our tap water...

[tetrakid]

I alway use activated charcoal for the monochoramine. Very good to buy in bulk.

You can't age the chloramine that's in our tap water...

[Bieffe]

You can go for Aqua Plus by Nutrafin or Prime by Seachem. Both products are what I have used before that reap good results for me. However you should not be restricted to just two of what I have recommended.

i"m currently using some ah Beng brand of anti chlorine by LFS. I guess that maybe my problem of
dying fishes. So got a bottle of aqua plus by nutrafin from seaview $6.20 for 250ml.
Can't see seachem brand there. They donts sell? Their stuff is all over man.