Aquarium Water Treatment additive & Cycling?

[Stickleback]

I have a bottle of King British "Safe Guard" which I purchased to remove Chlorine & Chloramine from the tapwater.

I am thinking about topping up the tank (still FL Cycling) and reading the bottle again, I have noticed that it claims to "remove excess ammonia created from the reaction with chloramines" and "coats the fish with a barrier of Aloe Vera to help sooth damaged fish tissue"

This "removing ammonia" thing....will this cause false readings in the ammonia tests? Or could it have any adverse effect on the nitrogen cycle?

Thanks in advance

 

[BigJim]

Someone brought this issue up concerning Prime a little while ago. I believe the consensus after consulting Seachem was that the dechlorinator will remove some ammonia, but it won't remove 4ppm worth of ammonia unless you're overdosing the tank with the dechlorinator. It shouldn't have any serious effects on cycling.

 

[Stickleback]

Thanks Jim....I won't worry then if I have to top-up

 

[JohnPaul]

And the flipside is, if your water has chlorine/chloramines of significant concentration, then if you put it in your tank untreated it will simply wipe out all of your filter bacteria, period. Then you won't have a merely stalled or delayed cycle, you will have a complete crash and have to begin again from the beginning.

I've cycled many tanks in my life and always treated my tapwater with something for chlorine/chloramines, and never had any problems with the cycle occurring.

 

[jsoong]

"remove ammonia" is a short hand for binding it. This is present in all modern dechlor, as chloramines is broken down to ammonia & chlorine, both needed to be bound so they remain safe.

The bound ammonia is still available for the biofilter. Indeed, it is the biofilter that eventually gets rid of the bound ammonia so it doesn't accumulate. So no worries about using the dechlor during cycling (or after).

A Nessler ammonia test will read both bound & unbound ammonia, so yes, the result might be off if you are interested in the free ammonia level which is the toxic form. <Eg. after the tank is cycled, you might read a low level of ammonia immediately after a water change from the bound ammonia.> If you are really paranoid, you can get a salicylate ammonia kit (the salt water version), which can read free ammonia correctly. However, for most people, it is simple enough to read the ammonia before a water change to get the correct reading & avoid the expense of a second test kit.

 

[Stickleback]

Thanks JohnPaul & jsoong

I decided against topping up...just moving the spray bar down a bit more, and am I glad I did !

Since I started this thread, my nitrite plunged to 0ppm, and my nitrates rocketed to 40/80ppm ! My Ammonia had been dropping from 4ppm to 0ppm for a few days before this.

0ppm, 0ppm, and 40/80ppm ! 50% water change coming up, and minnows coming in !!!