Water Conditioner Question

[HopefulHobbiest]

i've heard that if you have ammonia already in your tap some water conditioners will NOT help/remove this... right now i'm using a water conditioner from aqueon

Aqueon Water Conditioner - Specialty Pet Month - Featured Products - PetSmart
bottle looks a little different but its pretty much the same stuff i currently have...

i've heard a lot of the condition called Prime and i've also heard this can help with the ammonia in my tap before its put into the tank for PWC, is this true?

also i the description says it removes nitrAtes and nitrites, is that good or bad? true or false??

i'm thinking about going to get some Prime after work so hopefull i can get some quick responses.

thanks all

 

[bud29]

Hmmm.....well, I don't know much about the kind you are using. Seachem Prime is one of the best out there, it detoxifies ammonia and nitrites for 24 hours so your bio filter can take care of it. Also, it is a very cost effective option as 1 mL of prime treats 10 gal. of water. Hope this helps.

-bud

 

[HopefulHobbiest]

that does help a lot but i'm kinda curious as to why it only work for 24 hours? any chance you know why?

 

[bud29]

Well, there are few to no items out there that lower or detoxify ammonia for very long. Stuff like ammonia reducing fizz tabs wear off too. If you have a strong biofilter, which you should, 24 hours should be enough time to process it, unless you have like 3 ppm ammonia and nitrites in your tap water. And if you have those kind of levels from your tap, you probably shouldn't be drinking it.

 

[HopefulHobbiest]

Haha no, my tap water varies from .25-1.0 any given day... I've tested my water on several different days and got different readings each time and my ammonia in my tank fluctuates because of it... I'm 3 weeks into my initial water cycle... Fish-in using 1 eclipse, 4 sunburst platy and 6 Cory's(3 peppered, 3 albino)

 

[HopefulHobbiest]

55G tank just to throw that out... Also trace nitrate and nitrite starting to show

 

[bud29]

Do you let the water you put in the tank during a water change gas off? Letting it sit overnight will slightly lower the levels of toxins in the water. That would be extremely helpful on days when your ammonia is 1 ppm (a level .4 ppm or higher of ammonia is toxic to fish)

 

[HopefulHobbiest]

Honestly no, I've never heard of doing that but I could definitely start doing that... I do use water conditioner every time I do a water change, but I don't think what I use is good conditioner so I'm goin to pick up a bottle of prime in a few minutes

 

[Borderlesscott]

Prime for me is the best and most economical on the market available to me. It converts ammonia from harmful NH3 free ammonia to nearly harmless NH4+ ionised ammonium for 24 hours or so, then any that has not been processed by your bio filter converts back to the harmful NH3. If I remember correctly NH4+ is around 100 times less harmful than NH3.

 

[HopefulHobbiest]

well that should help alot since my tank filters completely in only a few hours... thanks for the advice...

 

[Borderlesscott]

It may filter in a few hours, but turnover does not reflect how quickly ammonia is broken down, that's more to do with the amount of Nitrites you have - but these will come in time, prime will help. The more nitrites you have the quicker ammonia will be consumed, having a good turnover will help though.

 

[HopefulHobbiest]

I guess that's a very valid point that I failed to realize... Glad you're well informed

 

[Borderlesscott]

I had all sorts of issues with ammonia, it was driving me
mad, so over the course of a week I did a massive research campaign online to finally get to grips with it. So bloody confusing to start of with, another tip is ammonia is also more toxic at higher ph's, so again a tank with a level of ammonia at ph 6.5 might not be toxic, same level of ammonia at 7.5 = dead fish.