Best Dechlorinator for Planted Tanks?

Porter10

Porter10

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Dec 20, 2006
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Shrewsbury, MA
I have been using Amquel to dechlorinate my previous tanks but now I am wondering if that is not the best thing to do as it also removes nitrates, nitrites as well.

I've heard of Prime and Stress Coat - any good?

- Jeff
 
I swear by Prime
 
As you mentioned, you keep plants, so nitrates are useful. If you want to keep nitrates around for the health of the plants, Prime is not the best choice. Also consider, when choosing a water treatment, that there are also additives you may or may not desire, such as that to increase the fishes slime coat. These additives or multi-use products are advertised as a good thing, but maybe it is more than you need for your situation. My fish don't need to increase their slime coat. I use ADP Tap Water Conditioner, because I only want to remove the chlorine. If I had room for a large tub to hold water between water changes, I let the water sit so that the chlorine would dissipate naturally. I used to have a link describing which products contained what.. but I can't find it just now. Will keep looking tho.

[Edit] Found it! http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/rev-cond.htm
 
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On the bottle of Prime it states...

".... detoxifies nitrite and nitrate, allowing the biofilter to more efficiently remove them".
 
Rex Grigg said:
Many cities are switching to chloramines. This treatment doesn't dissipate from the water, that's why they are switching.

Not sure where you get the idea that Prime and nitrates don't mix. When used at normal levels Prime has no effect on nitrates.

Prime is my choice.
Click to expand...

where did you get this info it states on the bottle that it detoxifies nitrites and nitrates which helps your bio filter remove them.
 
From Seachems website...Prime FAQ:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Q: How does Prime make a difference in reducing Nitrates?[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A: The detoxification of nitrite and nitrate by Prime (when used at elevated levels) is not well understood from a mechanistic standpoint. The most likely explanation is that the nitrite and nitrate is removed in a manner similar to the way ammonia is removed; i.e. it is bound and held in a inert state until such time that bacteria in the biological filter are able to take a hold of it, break it apart and use it. Two other possible scenarios are reduction to nitrogen (N2) gas or conversion into a benign organic nitrogen compound.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I wish we had some more "concrete" explanation, but the end result is the same, it does actually detoxify nitrite and nitrate. This was unexpected chemically and thus initially we were not even aware of this, however we received numerous reports from customers stating that when they overdosed with Prime they were able to reduce or eliminate the high death rates they experienced when their nitrite and nitrate levels were high. We have received enough reports to date to ensure that this is no fluke and is in fact a verifiable function of the product.[/FONT]
Click to expand...

Here is my question...if Prime 'detoxifies' Nitrite and it still available to the bacteria/biofilter...then how do we know that the Nitrate is not available to the plants? Test kits will still show Nitrite and Nitrate but they are chemically bound so as not to harm the fish yet are still available to the bio-filter.

I may not be using the right stuff...I use Prime.
 
I am kind acurious myself, as I have always used Big Als water conditioner, and it has aloe vera in it. I really havent come aross any reliable claims this is bad, but I probably would stop using it if needed. I have also used genesis water conditioner which isnt reviewed in that link. It doesnt have aloe vera in it, but says naturally stimulates fish to produce thier own slime. Again, the jury is still out on that. The only pain with the genesis, is that dosage is listed as 1 drop per gallon. WTF? What if you had a 180G tank, are you really suppose to count 180 drops? LOL. I use it on my 40g and smaller tanks since I havent bothered to convert the drops to some more usuable measurment yet.

As for the debate with prime, if you have a measurable amount of Nitrites in your tank the least I'd be worried about is wether prime is going to make them unavailable for the plants.
 
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