De-Chlorinator's your choice and why?
- Thread starter Star_Rider
- Start date
Prime. I use RO/DI water now for all my tanks, FW and SW (for the FW tank I buffer it first), but I keep Prime around in case of emergency - there's nothing better for neutralizing ammonia IMHO, and it doesn't overactivate protein skimmers. I like that it doesn't contain aloe or any other 'slime coat' ingredients like many other conditioners; it neutralizes chlorine, chloramines, nitrite and doesn't contain extras I don't need.
I used dechlor. it costs 4 bucks for a bottle that treats a ton of water and handles both chlorine and chloramine. you only use 1 drop per gallon for chlorine and 2 drops for chloramine.
Unless DeChlor has changed its formula, it was sodium thiosulfate only, which means that it neutralizes chlorine at regular dosage, at souble dose it breaks the chlorine-ammonia bond of chloramines and neutralizes the released chlorine , BUT it does nothing for the released ammonia. That is not a good choice if your water has chloramines. If your water is chlorine-only it is fine.
I use the cheapest reputable brand I can find as long as it has no added ingredients of questionable value (ie aloe-vera, slime coat inducers etc.). Basically that means I just use a big cheap bottle of sodium-thiosulfate, there are no chloramines in my water though so I don't have that concern. Would be interesting to read some studies with regards to chloramine toxicity in fish, I'll try track some down, it is used a lot in hatcheries as treatment for various parasites. I am curious to see what concentrations are deemed harmful, from memory pH plays a big part in toxicity also.
Well pH does play a role in chloramine toxicity. At a pH above 7, it is in the monochloramine state which is what we want for water disinfection. Chloramine kills fish in a manner identical to Nitrites. It binds to the hemoglobin rendering it useless. Blood from fish undergoing chloramine poisoning also turn brown and the symptoms are the same as nitrite poisoning.
I don't know anout Australia, but in the USA chloramines are the standard now and for the future. The transition is in progress, starting initially with the largest cities, but eventually will include all public water supplies.
Where I'm living at the moment there's enough chlorine in the tap water to make my eyes water as it gasses out. It's like drinking swimming pool water if you don't let it settle for a few minutes.
another vote for prime. I switched several years ago. I was using one made by Tetra I believe but with a 125 and 20 gal getting water changes every week or so it got expensive. Prime is the best I have found.
