I believe in the old days, before the use of Chloramine, it ws sufficient to just let the water sit for a day or two before adding it to your aquarium. Free chlorine would dissipates pretty rapidly into the atmosphere and the aged water would be safe enough for aquarium use.
You are right that Chloramine does not get dissipated easily. In fact, it is such a stable compound that it does not break down naturally. Chloramine (NH2Cl) combines ammonia with chlorine, which gives it the advantage of being more stable than chlorine by itself. Obviously, to us, ammonia is also very toxic to fish. This means that we NOW need to treat the Singapore tap water for both chlorine and ammonia before adding it to the tank.
From what I heard, when we age the water, micro bacteria also forms in the water. I don't know how true this is, but the experiment I was told to do was that when we leave a tank of water unattended, the sides of the tank will have a thin layer of slipery film. That's suppose to be a layer of bacteria. Perhaps somebody more knowledgable can verify.
Cheers,
I have dwarf cichlids in my tanks! Do you?
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