Dechlorinator or aged water

[chicago1847]

Don't bother with filtering the water.

 

[Liz]

I use amquel. It contains the basics and none of that extra snake oil stuff.

 

[mishi8]

I wouldn't bother filtering it. Not only is it relatively expensive, it likely won't do as good a job at preparing tap water for your aquarium. Best to stick with a water conditioner such as Prime, AquaPlus, etc. However, if you're positive you have only chlorine (as opposed to chloramine) in your tap water, then aging the water may be good enough without the need to filter it too.

 

[Kasakato]

Filtering the water is usless unless you are using it because you are have a problem with it. Just stick with some Prime.

 

[Gambusia]

I use Prime and Amquel Plus

 

[RustyRay]

Ammonia toxicity is pH dependent. The lower the pH, the less toxic the ammonia. As the pH drops ammonia is turned into the non-toxic ammonium ion.

So if your aquarium has a pH around 7, and you perform water changes using a product like Stress Coat, it realy does'nt matter if your tap water has chloramines. The ammonia is going to be in the non-toxic form anyway. Stress coat is fine in this type of case.

 

[RTR]

Ammonia/ammoniun ion and pH and temperature have a complex relationship, and toxicity can vary tremendously with any of those parameters.

For a good and relatively simple discussion of this, see:

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

Making broad-brush recommendations is dangerous without a lot more information.