Water Conditioner Alternatives???

[coffeegurlo]

Hi guys/gals...

I've tried searching within this forum and others but can't quite seem to find an answer, so maybe someone can help here...

are there water conditioner alternatives? I mean instead of dumping the store bought chemicals that "eliminate cholrine, etc".... Can this be eliminated with natural tap water (PH 6)?

Is water conditioners a must? or is it just a scam to get you dumping into the tank esp when u do frequent water changes? i seems like such a waste of money.

Any input would be great! Thanks!

 

[ghinksmon]

If you have municipal water (not from a private well), then yes dechlorinators are required.

If you do have well water, then it depends on the water quality.

If your pH is what you are referring to then I recommend you not use additives as these frequently create spikes. The best bet is to keep fish suited to your pH.

To get more specific we would need to know what parameters in particular you are treating for.

 

[Roan Art]

Fish will adjust to pH. What fish cannot adjust to is a constantly changing pH caused by the addition of chemicals.

Unless yours are very extreme (such as below 6 or above 8.6) or you are trying to breed a specific type of fish that is difficult to spawn, there is no need to adjust your pH at all. Adding chemicals to your water to control the pH will cause instability and fluctuation pH levels. Not good.

If you want to raise your pH (assuming as you say your tap water is pH 6.0), then you can add crushed coral to your filter. This will "permanently" buffer your pH and KH up to higher level. I would be interested in knowing what your KH and GH are, though.

Water conditioners that remove chlorine are necessary if you are using municiple water. Many municipalities treat water with chloramines instead of chlorine. In this case you need a conditioner that will release the bond between ammonia and chlorine (chloramine) and will remove the chlorine and ionize the ammonia into a harmless form.

Roan

 

[nursie]

You can put the water in containers and let sit out for a day or 2 and the chorine will dissipate, so you don't need the declor stuff. There are a lot of people that do this, and bring it up to the tank temp so less stress on their fish when doing water changes. WHile I admire the dedication it takes to do this, I haven't figured out how to keep that much water around.

 

[daveedka]

If Chlorine is the disinfectant then you can eliminate it as Nursie said by aireating the water for a day or two. I keep a couple of Rubbermaid trash cans with airstones in them and never add any dechlorinator. I just re-fill them after water changes and let the airstones do the rest.
If you have Chloramines, they will remain stable longer. I know they too will gas off eventually but it takes a several days and the remaining ammonia will need to be run through a bio-filter to remove it.

Dechlorinators are not a scam, as most do at least part of what they claim. Most of them use sodium thisulphate (sp) to neutralize the chlorine. If you have Chloramines (compound of Chlorine and Ammonia in some form) then you have ammonia left over after you neutralize the chlorine. Only a couple of dechlorinators deal with this properly. Prime and Amquel Plus are the two most often mentioned. Almost all Dechlorinators claim to deal with chloramines but most do not handle the leftover ammonia.
Dave

 

[rrkss]

Chloramines are rather stable in water and will never completely gas off like unstable chlorine. I just use simple Wardley's Chlor-Out for my fish tank which is cheap and does the trick even though I have chloramines in my tapwater. My biofilter cosumes the trace ammonia before it can really hurt the fish. If you are worried then feel free to use prime or amquel. I just don't like how prime contains an irritant to stimulate slime coat production, fish in the wild don't need help on that.

 

[RockabillyChick]

i use wardleys as well. i've never had a problem with excess ammonia from water changes, but i really don't know if my water company uses chloramines.

 

[RTR]

I do age my water much like daveedka does as the usual disinfectant is chlorine, but my utility reserves the option of using chloramine and do whenever they see the need. So I test when I refill reservoirs. If chloramione is present I add Prime. If chlorine-only is present, it will be gone in 48 hours with tempering and circulation.

Fish do not read pH, they read osmotic pressure. Fish eggs may be sensitive to certain ions,and/or to osmolarity. Controlling the factors required for a particualr fish may be very important for breeding, or may be trivial. F0 fish (wild caught) are far more likely to be demanding than multi-generation captive bred fish.