Dechlorinators: pretty much the same?

Basically, what's in the title. If you're just doing routine water changes, does it matter what dechlorinators you use?

I have a bottle of Seachem Prime, but from what I've read you should limit how often you use it... true? Or is that only a warning against putting it into a tank for the purpose of binding to ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Is it safe to use when adding tap water as a dechlorinator... or is it overkill?

For water changes I've been using . Again, just as good as anything else?

 

Basically, what's in the title. If you're just doing routine water changes, does it matter what dechlorinators you use?

I have a bottle of Seachem Prime, but from what I've read you should limit how often you use it... true? Or is that only a warning against putting it into a tank for the purpose of binding to ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Is afe to use when adding tap water as a dechlorinator... or is it overkill?

For water changes I've been using . Again, just as good as anything else?

I strictly use prime. You can probably overdose the tank with any of the products out there and should really just dose as instructed. I use it with every water change. Typically once a week. Sometimes twice.

 

I've never heard of limiting how much you use it but I guess you could be right about using it for other purposes, not just water changes.
I use prime with every water change. I dose for the whole tank size. Never had any problems.

 

I use Prime with all water changers. Alison

 

I also use API tap water conditioner on regular water changes because my tap water does not contain ammonia. However, I still keep Seachem Prime around for the odd case when I may suspect an ammonia/nitrite spike.

 

Some are better than others - the most heavily used is Seachem Prime, and pretty much everyone on this forum will give a +1 for it's use.

As far as i'm aware, Prime also removes some heavy metals and other impurities as well as Chlorine.

 

Prime all the way!

 

The base ingredient for removing chlorine is sodium thiosulfate, which you can buy if you have a lot of tanks and really want to keep costs low. Prime does bind ammonia and some heavy metals, at least temporarily. It reduces the oxygen content in the water when doing so, which is why overdosing can be harmful. I find that Prime is the most cost effective besides using sodium thiosulfate.

 

The base ingredient for removing chlorine is sodium thiosulfate, which you can buy if you have a lot of tanks and really want to keep costs low. Prime does bind ammonia and some heavy metals, at least temporarily. It reduces the oxygen content in the water when doing so, which is why overdosing can be harmful. I find that Prime is the most cost effective besides using sodium thiosulfate.

I agree about its cost effectiveness....when priced out per the number of gallons it treats, prime comes in much cheaper than API or tetra products.

 

Some conditioners don't remove chloramine, so make sure that yours does.

 

Chlorine disappates out of water in 24 hours, if you have a large tank you really don't need to dechlorinate.

 

Chlorine disappates out of water in 24 hours, if you have a large tank you really don't need to dechlorinate.

Chloramine doesn't. Chlorine will react with the organics in the tank almost immediately so whether it dissipates as gas is irrelevant.
Chlorinated water is an irritant to fish and will reduce the effectiveness of the biological filter. It won't kill your filter unless you make a very large change or wash the media in tap water.
The tank size is irrelevant, it's the proportion of water you change that matters. Under 10% and you can easily get away with not using it imo

 

Chloramine doesn't. Chlorine will react with the organics in the tank almost immediately so whether it dissipates as gas is irrelevant.
Chlorinated water is an irritant to fish and will reduce the effectiveness of the biological filter. It won't kill your filter unless you make a very large change or wash the media in tap water.
The tank size is irrelevant, it's the proportion of water you change that matters. Under 10% and you can easily get away with not using it imo

Is it worth the risk?

 

I had a 150gal fw tank running for over 30 years and many fish were over 10 years old and never added anything to the water. Aside from the cost I just don't like useing chemicals that aren't really necessary. To me the biggest key to success is using multiple filters. If a filter dies your fish don't.

 

Some days I am really happy that my water comes from a private well.

 

Thread of interest, this topic has been heavily discussed in past threads:



Prime claims to be a combination of hydrosulfite salts. Most if not all dechlorinators will "detox" both chlorine and chloramine, the issue when treating chloramine with only using a dechlorinator is that ammonia will separate from the chloramine and increase the level of ammonia in your tank. Kordons Amquel along with Prime both claim to bind to ammonia and maintain it in a inert state for a period of 24-48 hours which in turn makes it less dangerous to fish.

Best of luck.

 

What happens during and after the 24 to 48 hours? During that time can the bound ammonia be eliminated by other processes, like nitrifying bacteria? And after, does that mean you get an ammonia spike?

 

If you have a healthy cycle in your tank, once the ammonia is bound, it will be processed out. even with using prime or like-products you will still get the ammonia readings until it's processed out.