We need fish police

Ok…. Question; and no this is NOT a troll, is decholrination REALLLLLLLLY such a big deal? I do 50% changes weekly, and NEVER decholrinate; how much of this is legitimate science, and how much of it is clever marketing by someone trying to peddle the new snake oil?
I will remind you there was a point not too long ago that people paid big bucks to drink radioactive water….. because….. “Radiation is naturally occurring in the environment” so it must be a good thing….
 
Walker_ said:
Ok…. Question; and no this is NOT a troll, is decholrination REALLLLLLLLY such a big deal? I do 50% changes weekly, and NEVER decholrinate; how much of this is legitimate science, and how much of it is clever marketing by someone trying to peddle the new snake oil?
I will remind you there was a point not too long ago that people paid big bucks to drink radioactive water….. because….. “Radiation is naturally occurring in the environment” so it must be a good thing….
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i do THE EXACT same thing DOOD i was afraid to post before i read this
 
From **************** BTW, great mail order fish. I've used them several times.


Elsewhere we recommend changing 20% of the water in your aquariums and ponds twice each week. If you change 20% or less, you don't need to add water conditioner, but it's risky to change more than 20% even if you add conditioner. Only a worrywart needs to add conditioner when changing 20% or less of the water in your aquarium or pond. Click here for more information about Changing Water.


http://www.****************/information/water_conditioner.htm#top2
 
theres animal cruelty all around us
surely you cant compare it to when someone sets a dog on fire or beats kittens over the head with baseball bats.
those things get me upset, but carnival fish in a tupperware just doesnt do it for me sorry
 
I've also read in a bood by Ad Koning (very respected in the hobby) that dechlorination is not needed when doing changes of 30% or less. If doing 50%, I would be more concerned for the state of my bio-filter than the fish. The cholorine could cause a die off that results in a short ammonia/nitrite spike that ends up stressing out the fish every time you do a water change. My "Dechlor" brand water conditioner treats 2,000 gallons for $5.00. I'm still using the same bottle I bought two years ago.

It should also be noted that chlorine levels vary between municipalities, so what is Ok for some, might cause real promblems for others. Finally, there is the every growing use of chloramine (instead of cholorine). Chloramine does not gas off within 24hrs as does chlorine. Failing to condition water that contains chloramine would be "No bueno". Water companies don't sent out flyers or take out adds when they switch to it. They just do it.
 
Where I used to live chlorine was used. They used alot of it. My eyes would burn in the shower from the amount of bleach put it the water. My husband forgot to dechlor one day (this was a large waterchange) and the fish were dead in less than 10 minutes. We live in town now and we have chloramine instead. Needless to say, I always dechlor, however, I realize that for some people, it may not always be needed. I'm not willing to take that chance with my fish.
 
i use it too with every water change. i just dont feel comfortable if i dont use it
i can smell the chlorine coming out of my tap. here in PA i think were ranked #3 as the worst water in the usa lol
nitrates out of the tap are 10 ppm :thud:
but back in nyc i never used to use it and the fish never suffered.
guess it does depend on where you live
 
Dechlorators are not always required - I hope that most of the long-term hobbyists here understand that. I do have grave reservations about novices or even oldtimers who have not really tried to understand water chemistry in captive environments or what utilities do to process "drinking" (aka potable) water.

Tank water is almost by definition to a scientist polluted - the organic load, the microbial load, the mineral and metabolite loads are greater than in the comparable source FW. That is why we do water changes, right? But some of those same materials (specifically the organics and the microbes & infusoria) are exactly what the chlorine is put in the water supply to guard against. Enough is used to protect the water through the (imperfect) piping supply lines and some period in the pipes of your house. Your tank has many times the load of the tap water, so chlorine is going to fight those things in your tank and is in the process used up. The catch is that the worse your tank is, the safer tap water is to use without dechlorinator - because it has more organics and more bugs uinless it in OTS (when the highly acidic conditions reduce the bugs a bit). This is one of those awful paradoxes where the worse your care is, the more careless you can be. But what about those of us who are not overstocked, don't over feed, and do large scale partials regularly and religiously? We are at greater risk. Ditto for folks near the water utility versus those by pipe much farther from the source. And what about those periods where the utility has the break int the network for repairs, etc, or if surface water is used and it is a high rainfall period? In both and in other cases the utility boosts the chlorine levels. You may get away with changes at some scale of 10-50% with "normal" chlorine, but if it is up 3x and you do not know this, the usual change level can exceed the normal chlorine-burnout use and the residue can harm your fish or filter or both plus other problems. Dechlorinators or dechloraminators are cheap insurance IMHO.
 
Thanks for the interesting science lesson RTR. You learn something new every day (or at least you should ;) ). I'm with you though...

RTR said:
Dechlorinators or dechloraminators are cheap insurance IMHO.
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