I want to start Dechlorinating my own water instead of buying conditioner. You let water sit for two days and the chlorine evaporates. But what about the other bad stuff( Will doing this myself remove all of the bad stuff?
Dechlorinating water
- Thread starter George9
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after the chlorine is gone it should be ok. If there are harmful microorganisms living in your drinking water then your water supplier isn't doing it's job
jsoong
Aquarium Advice Addict
Letting water sit to "dechlorinate" only works if chlorine is used as disinfectant. Almost all municipal water use Chloramines nowadays, which does not break down (quickly) or evaporate ... so letting the water sit out for 2 days will not do the trick.
You need a dechlorinator to break the chloramine down or you risk killing your bio-filter. Also, the dechlorinator will take care of toxic metals like lead or copper which might leech out from some pipes.
The simplest is to use Prime. <Prime is so concentrated that a bottle lasts years (and it costs the same as the other dechlor, even though it is ~50x more concentrated) ... so it is a small price to pay for convenience.>
If you want to treat water containing chloramines, you will need to expose the water to bright sunlight for 1-2 weeks. People with ponds do that when they first set up their ponds, then they do small pwc's (<10%) and allow the small amount of chloramines to break down naturally ... You can have buckets sitting outside, I suppose, but it is not that practical indoors.
You need a dechlorinator to break the chloramine down or you risk killing your bio-filter. Also, the dechlorinator will take care of toxic metals like lead or copper which might leech out from some pipes.
The simplest is to use Prime. <Prime is so concentrated that a bottle lasts years (and it costs the same as the other dechlor, even though it is ~50x more concentrated) ... so it is a small price to pay for convenience.>
If you want to treat water containing chloramines, you will need to expose the water to bright sunlight for 1-2 weeks. People with ponds do that when they first set up their ponds, then they do small pwc's (<10%) and allow the small amount of chloramines to break down naturally ... You can have buckets sitting outside, I suppose, but it is not that practical indoors.
Mr. Limpet
Aquarium Advice Addict
Does an RO filter unit remove everything Prime does + the extras?
Sent from my Epic 4G
Sent from my Epic 4G
jsoong
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well, a R/O unit will remove everything from the water, including all the buffers & minerals. So although you don't need to dechlorinate R/O, you will need to add back a proper buffering salt mix to maintain pH stability.
Mr. Limpet
Aquarium Advice Addict
jsoong said:
Adding back, as in using Seachems Neutral Regulator to stabilize it for FW at 7.0?
Sent from my Epic 4G
jsoong
Aquarium Advice Addict
Yes. Or you can get cichlid salts to keep pH high, or ones for discus for low pH.
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