[Steelwolve]

Hello all I just wanted to see what everyone uses for dechlorination, Im putting in an order online and since my 1st 8$ 100ml bottle of Prime has run out, (I just realized how much I overpaid at LFS:icon_roll), I was just going to get another bottle of prime but thought there may be a cheaper option that will serve my purpose. I do weekly changes now on a 10,20,29,and 90g not to mention 4 grow out/snail tubs. I have alot going for a new guy in this hobby but I got bit hard by the bug and had extra tanks so I kinda got carried away:icon_roll Anyways I see a product called SAFE now from seachem from what I read it seems like a dry PRIME, is that more cost effective when changing alot of water? BTW I always have to dose the entire volume of my tanks because I dont have a holding tank. So that adds up to alot of PRIME. Also are there generic or cheaper brands that anyone uses? I do not have any rare or expensive plants, fish or anything like Discus that need specific parameters. I just wanna get the chlorine out, (I assume because it will kill my benificial bacteria).
Thanks

 

[somewhatshocked]

Seachem Safe will save you tons of cash over Prime if you're treating 150 gallons per week.

Just make sure you measure appropriately and you'll be good to go.

 

[el Caspar]

Water dechlorinates overa 24 hour period. Just pump air into the water to oxygenize it. Then it's free, although that is a lot of water

 

[dprais1]

Yep, use Safe. It'll last you forever, got mine from kens fish. also removes chloramines, If you only need to deal with chlorine then, also from kensfish...

Sodium Thiosulfate, Obtain a clean one gallon jug. Dissolve the 500 grams of Sodium Thiosulfate in a large pitcher of lukewarm tap water. Stir until all the crystals are dissolved. Then transfer the solution with a funnel to the gallon jug. Top off the jug to make a full gallon of stock solution. •Add 2 drops of the stock solution per 1 gallon of the water to be treated. •One gallon can treat 37,850 gallons or more. Over-dosage is virtually impossible.

but it won't do anything for chloramines

 

[Steelwolve]

Wow thanks guys for the quick replys. I have never heard of Chloramines, I checked my citys water report but it does not list that. Im gonna do some more google searches on it but for the price of that Sodium Thiosulfate I would be crazy not to use if I could.
Also...? how much can a citys water report be trusted? for example: mine is from 2011 its the newest one that they have published. I would assume that the contaminents listed such as Nitrates would be seasonal due to farming, and many other seasonal varibles would make a yearly report very inaccurate. Do they maybe take an average from daily tests to come up with those numbers? Also by the time it makes it to my house 10miles from the plant in a 60 year old neighborhood, through old pipes I could have completely different water outta my tap? right? BTW I am also buying a new API test kit so I can see whats really coming out of my tap. I had been relying on the LFS for tests up till now but I can now buy that kit for 16.99 online where its 34.95 at the LFS.

 

[Steelwolve]

Ok so from what I just read Chloramine is used in drinking water sanitization as an alternative to chlorine, and since my citys water report does not contain that word, and it does have chlorine, am I safe to assume my tap water would be Chloramine free?

 

[fplata]

Call them and make no assumptions


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Contrl]

Seachem Safe

Is it possible to mix up a stock solution of "safe" or does it lose effectiveness when wet.... or is it that it gets really smelly if you premix.

 

[rrastro]

Call them and make no assumptions

+1 That.

 

[Diana]

I do not know how large a stock solution you could make ahead, or how long you could keep it, but I am sure that if you were doing a lot of gallons worth of water changes in one day you could make a stock solution for that days worth.

 

[lochaber]

Even if chloramine isn't added to the water, the chlorine can react with other chemicals to produce chloramine.

 

[discuspaul]

More and more city &/or municipal water supply facilities are using chloramines instead of straight chlorine, or a combination of chlorine and chloramines for sanitizing tap water, so do check with your local supply - as was said, don't assume they're not adding chloramines.
A number of inexpensive de-chlorinators, containing only Sodium Thiosulfate, will only deal with effectively with chlorine, but not chloramines, whereas Prime and Safe deal with both chlorine and chloramines, as well as mitigating, or neutralizing, the toxicity of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates when used in the proper dosages.
I believe Safe is much less costly than Prime, so should save you money, but I haven't used Safe so not sure.
Better to be safe than sorry, in my view, particularly if keeping discus, as I do, or Altum Angels, as examples.

 

[Jeff5614]

Is it possible to mix up a stock solution of "safe" or does it lose effectiveness when wet.... or is it that it gets really smelly if you premix.

Not recommended by Seachem.

http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Safe.html

 

[Darkblade48]

Even if chloramine isn't added to the water, the chlorine can react with other chemicals to produce chloramine.

What...? No it can't. Are you suggesting that the trace amounts of ammonia in water (if even present) would act as a nucleophile?

 

[m00se]

While I use (and recommend) sodium thiosulfate as the most economical dechlor there is, you might also consider Chloram X. It's even cheaper than Safe.

http://www.kensfish.com/moreinfo/cloram-x.html

http://www.reedmariculture.com/product_cloram_x.html

Even if you have chloramine in your water, the residual ammonia released may or may not be problematic if you have a pH below 7 and/or you have enough plants to absorb the free ammonia.

 

[lochaber]

What...? No it can't. Are you suggesting that the trace amounts of ammonia in water (if even present) would act as a nucleophile?

Eh, granted, I don't even know what chemical is used to add the chlorine to the water, I had just repeated what I had heard/read numerous places. I seem to distinctly remember numerous sites/publications claiming that the chlorine could react with ammonia to produce chloramines, and that this could happen with other organic compounds as well (no idea on the rate/frequency or anything).

I'll freely admit I'm a bit rusty on my chemistry, but I was guessing it could possibly be produced via ionic reaction, with Cl- pairing up with NH4+?

 

[Darkblade48]

Eh, granted, I don't even know what chemical is used to add the chlorine to the water, I had just repeated what I had heard/read numerous places. I seem to distinctly remember numerous sites/publications claiming that the chlorine could react with ammonia to produce chloramines, and that this could happen with other organic compounds as well (no idea on the rate/frequency or anything).

I do not know how they do it on an industrial scale, but I would imagine it would involve bubbling in gaseous chlorine.

Either that or they do the same as in pools with a hypochlorite salt, though I would imagine the former would be much cheaper and probably the method used.

Chloramine is generally formed under aqueous condition with hypochlorite being attacked by ammonia.

I'll freely admit I'm a bit rusty on my chemistry, but I was guessing it could possibly be produced via ionic reaction, with Cl- pairing up with NH4+?

No; you are thinking of ammonium chloride, which is a completely different compound.

This is produced when (say) you mix hydrochloric acid with ammonia.

 

[lochaber]

I do not know how they do it on an industrial scale, but I would imagine it would involve bubbling in gaseous chlorine.

Either that or they do the same as in pools with a hypochlorite salt, though I would imagine the former would be much cheaper and probably the method used.

Chloramine is generally formed under aqueous condition with hypochlorite being attacked by ammonia.


No; you are thinking of ammonium chloride, which is a completely different compound.

This is produced when (say) you mix hydrochloric acid with ammonia.

Thanks, like I said, my chemistry is pretty rusty :/ I know nothing about how it's actually done, but I'd assume that logistics (transportation, storage, etc.) would favor adding a salt over bubbling gasses. Anyways, back to the chloramine bit, obviously I don't really know the specific chemicals, let alone the proper reactions going on...

But I've run across the chlorine + ammonia/organic substances = chloramine numerous times, to the point where I was under the perception that it was pretty much common knowledge. If this is wrong, well, it wouldn't be the first time that public perception was 180off of what was supported by data. If you have a link or anything explaining this, I'd appreciate it.

 

[beedee]

i use API.

 

[AVN]

I age my water weeks before I use it, no dechlor ftw.