What chemicals to condition water?

[Judge92]

When doing water changes what do YOU put in for water conditioner etc. ?

I have Prime for my water conditioner and I have Big Al's bio support which apparently has 300 million live bacteria per teaspoonful. But I also just got "Nutrafin cycle" cause I did some stupid things (change filter cartridge and did a large water change and gravel vac thus killing all my good bacteria) so that I can get rid of my ammonia quickly

Anyways, what do you use?

 

[XimeD]

Prime + Nutrafin cycle

Occassionaly I use Prime + Biozyme

Both work well for me, but this is without cleaning filter + gravel vac same day. A lot of people seem to like Tetra safe start but I have not used it yet.

 

[mfdrookie516]

Prime. Period. We wont get in to the debate as to whether that snake oi... I mean bacteria supplement works or not though...

 

[Fishguy2727]

Nothing. I am on tap water so I don't need any type of dechlor. If I did I would probably use Prime since it is nice and concentrated.

IF, and only IF, any of those bacterial supplements actually help at all they are unnecessary once the tank is cycled since the bacteria are already there. The bacteria needed are literally in the air and are therefore not needed in order to cycle an aquarium, but some may help while others are not worth more than water.

 

[HN1]

Prime only here.

 

[bluerose]

NovAqua+. I'll probably switch to Prime once I'm done with this bottle, but I only have a 5gal so the NovAqua lasts quite a while...

 

[BigJim]

Prime only.

 

[Andrewz00]

Prime. Done.

 

[JohnPaul]

Prime. Nothing else needed. Any other additives are unlikely to do much of anything.

 

[Tarkus2112]

API Tap Water Conditioner.


It is the only one I found that:

1. Detoxifies Heavy Metals
2. Removes Chlorine
3. Neutralizes Chloramines
4. and that is all. simple and effective. no added "miracle" cures.


The rest of them have all these other needless properties. Like, removing nitrites, ammonia (if you have a sufficient bio-filter this is pointless and a great way to damage your bio-filter.) Adding electrolytes, vitamins and replenishing the fishes slime coat. Balancing alkalinity, stabilizing PH, and the list goes on.

 

[Tarkus2112]

I was just looking at the SeaChem website because it looks like a lot of people use Prime.

Product description:
"Prime® is the complete and concentrated conditioner for both fresh and salt water. Prime® removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. Prime® converts ammonia into a safe, non-toxic form that is readily removed by the tank’s biofilter. Prime® may be used during tank cycling to alleviate ammonia/nitrite toxicity. Prime® detoxifies nitrite and nitrate, allowing the biofilter to more efficiently remove them. It will also detoxify any heavy metals found in the tap water at typical concentration levels. Prime® also promotes the production and regeneration of the natural slime coat. Prime® is non-acidic and will not impact pH. Prime® will not overactivate skimmers. Use at start-up and whenever adding or replacing water."


I thought using a product that removes ammonia, and detoxifies nitrites would be dangerous if used during a cycle? What gives?

 

[DragonFish71]

I was just looking at the SeaChem website because it looks like a lot of people use Prime.

Product description:
"Prime® is the complete and concentrated conditioner for both fresh and salt water. Prime® removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. Prime® converts ammonia into a safe, non-toxic form that is readily removed by the tank’s biofilter. Prime® may be used during tank cycling to alleviate ammonia/nitrite toxicity. Prime® detoxifies nitrite and nitrate, allowing the biofilter to more efficiently remove them. It will also detoxify any heavy metals found in the tap water at typical concentration levels. Prime® also promotes the production and regeneration of the natural slime coat. Prime® is non-acidic and will not impact pH. Prime® will not overactivate skimmers. Use at start-up and whenever adding or replacing water."


I thought using a product that removes ammonia, and detoxifies nitrites would be dangerous if used during a cycle? What gives?

The ammonia is still there for the bacteria to grow on, it just binds the ammonia molecules.

 

[DragonFish71]

<-- Prime only, unless it's one of our tanks that has sensitive fish then I dose with Prime and Stress Coat.

 

[Tarkus2112]

So would Prime be useful for eliminating/detoxifying the Nitrates that are coming out of my tap water? (40ppm)

This seems cheaper than buying an RO/DI unit

 

[DragonFish71]

So would Prime be useful for eliminating/detoxifying the Nitrates that are coming out of my tap water? (40ppm)

This seems cheaper than buying an RO/DI unit

Honestly, I'm no scientist but I've used Prime while cycling all our tanks and after wards when doing PWCs and have never had adverse effects from it.


I know there's a few people on here who can give you better, more scientific answers.

I'm a word of mouth kinda of gal. I pass on from experience, to heck with science. *lol*

 

[Judge92]

My house has a water softener in it. Don't know exactly what it is or how it does it, but it removes pretty much everything bad from my tap water. No chlorine whatsoever and when I tested it, there was nothing else in it (NO2/NO3).

 

[XimeD]

Is it a DI/RO filter?

Just curious, how did you test for chlorine? I am not certain whether chlorine and chloramines show up in the ammonia test kit

 

[Judge92]

No, but we know it doesn't have chlorine in it. You used to be able to smell it in the water. Now, does that mean it removes it completely? Not entirely 100% sure. It's not really a filter...or maybe it is. It's this big bucket we have in the basement that we have to put salt in every once in a while.

And so, I think I've gathered that it's actually a BAD thing to put in the "bacteria" type chemicals? Does it really hurt it to put those in when you do a water change?

 

[XimeD]

No it doesn't hurt (at least not IME and I haven't come across anyone saying it hurt their fish yet), worst case scenario is the bacteria in the bottle are dead and you just paid mostly for water.

 

[Judge92]

And you use nutrafin cycle? I guess it doesn't really hurt lol.