chemicals for saltwater tank

[stan450z]

do any of you use any detox or chemicals such as prime, stress coat, ammo lock, or any of the stuff that says they will remove all ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites from your water? if so what brand and what chemicals do you ad? API, Kent? anything else?

after having a tank for a few months with livestock already in it i think it might be a good idea to do this to avoid any unnecessary stress or fish dying, sick fish, and algae problems.

Also RO water, I have the columns that i pour my tap water through to get me good water. I did see in the store there are chemicals you can add to regular tap water to clear the tap water of all the additives to make safe water to add to a fish tank. Do any of you use this? Which is best, or does any method work better for you? 2nd way seems cheaper and less time involved to make a mixture.

 

[HN1]

RODI is the only way to go IMO. It gives you a known starting point. No need to add chemicals.

 

[mtlion]

I use RODI and also use prime along with it for the stress coat

 

[thincat]

I use just the RO/DI water. Are you having any issues? Don't get into the habit of adding chemicals and don't add anything you can't test for.

 

[Copepod]

I don't use any chemicals and don't use RO/DI either. My water is good and I just aerate it for several days and then add salt/heater and powerhead for a couple of days and leave it in the Brute with heater/ph until I am ready to use it. Unless you find your water has Nitrates in it this will work. With Nitrates I think you have to go further.

Also, if you are into corals you might prefer the RO/DI...most do.

 

[roka64]

I use RO/DI water as well but I am also on well water but I do not use any chems either.

 

[melosu58]

RO/DI water and PWC`s is all I need.

 

[stan450z]

ok i use RO/DI water too
http://www.mops.ca/graphics/roaf-175-2.gif 2 of these side by side.

i was just asking if i could use some detox additives to make sure ammonia, nitrite, nitrates are perfectly 0 instead of just counting on partial water changes and waiting. I would like to keep my water stress free.

On a side note, I think my damsels are hiding and losing color either maybe my levels are bad, or some damsels are really going at eachother and attacking eachother.

I have 2 black and white and 3 blue yellow tails. One b+w is really big and chasing everyone i want to get rid of him. 2 of the 3 yellow and blue hide in my rock, away from the big damsel, one is very light blue color, another is darker, but its tail is frayed, looks attacked. doesnt come out much. One has died already, I dont know if it was because it was attacked, or just stressed from one weekend when my temp went up real right and i lowered it the next day.

i dont trust my redsea test kit anymore. i heard lots of other people think they suck too. would rather get API or check it for good at my LFS. My yellow tang is scared to approach me in the tank and usually hides in the back. the damsels come up to me when feeding - of course the ones that are scared and hiding now. At least all of them used to do it while they were all healthy and together.



All my fish tend to be on the twitchy scared side so I want to make my water more perfect. and add prime to these damsels to see if they are sick or just stressed from attack. Thoughts people? Looks like I have to do lots of trial and error. Want to get it right with these damsels or get rid of them so I can add more fish like angels, clownfish, tangs expensive fish. want the water to be right and make sure i do everything right before adding them.

 

[melosu58]

You have cycled the tank right?

 

[CaptainAhab]

http://www.mops.ca/graphics/roaf-175-2.gif

What is that? A DI chamber w/ a added carbon chamber?

Do you test your water parameters?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Your filter looks no different than one of these...

Tap Water Filter (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals)

If so, then you're NOT using RO/DI water... just DI. When the cannister is new, you're probably getting pure water but after about 50 gallons it probably isn't doing much. It all depends on the purity of your incoming water. You should probably get a hold of a TDS meter and check the purity of the output on that thing.

RO/DI water first passes through a RO (reverse osmosis) membrane and then a DI (deionizing) resin. Those two things in parallel give you pure water. If you're using actual RO/DI water, there would be no reason to put any of the water conditioning additives in it since it would be pure to start with. But if you're NOT using RO/DI water, then yeah... you should be using some type of dechlorinator at the least.