What chemicals to condition water?

[Fishguy2727]

A water softener just exchanges one Ca or Mg for two sodium so the total dissolved solids actually goes up. There are probably other filters (carbon is usually used for chlorine). I thought the same thing about mine but even the "0" readings I got proved to be inaccurate. Eventually the tank was just a hair algae farm and it took a long time to get it back to where it needed to be. This was in a reef though. I use my tap for all my freshwater tanks without any alteration.

 

[XimeD]

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

Yeah that's what I use, though I haven't run any controls to see if it really makes a difference. Maybe I will when both my tanks are running......

 

[Judge92]

It seems to work for me, since yesterday I tested and got a reading for nitrates when i havent got a reading for that in weeks.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

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

From what I understand, while Prime will bond Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate into non-toxic forms (not sure even about Nitrate) it does so for about 24 hours, the bond is only temporary or something. So if you have an ammonia/nitrite spike or are doing a cycle with fish, you would have to add Prime daily to keep the water safe.

As for RO/DI for FW, that would be ideal to remove source Nitrates, however you then have to add everything "good" back into the water, as RO/DI is basically stripped pure water and is highly unstable (your pH will go wacko). Not the case for SW since you mix in the salt. So RO/DI would be a last resort for FW IMO.

 

[Tarkus2112]

From what I understand, while Prime will bond Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate into non-toxic forms (not sure even about Nitrate) it does so for about 24 hours, the bond is only temporary or something. So if you have an ammonia/nitrite spike or are doing a cycle with fish, you would have to add Prime daily to keep the water safe.

As for RO/DI for FW, that would be ideal to remove source Nitrates, however you then have to add everything "good" back into the water, as RO/DI is basically stripped pure water and is highly unstable (your pH will go wacko). Not the case for SW since you mix in the salt. So RO/DI would be a last resort for FW IMO.

Yeah after a little more research I found this on the Seachem website

Q: How does Prime make a difference in reducing Nitrates? A: The detoxification of nitrite and nitrate by Prime (when used at elevated levels) is not well understood from a mechanistic standpoint. The most likely explanation is that the nitrite and nitrate is removed in a manner similar to the way ammonia is removed; i.e. it is bound and held in a inert state until such time that bacteria in the biological filter are able to take a hold of it, break it apart and use it. Two other possible scenarios are reduction to nitrogen (N2) gas or conversion into a benign organic nitrogen compound.

I wish we had some more "concrete" explanation, but the end result is the same, it does actually detoxify nitrite and nitrate. This was unexpected chemically and thus initially we were not even aware of this, however we received numerous reports from customers stating that when they overdosed with Prime they were able to reduce or eliminate the high death rates they experienced when their nitrite and nitrate levels were high. We have received enough reports to date to ensure that this is no fluke and is in fact a verifiable function of the product.

haha..they don't even know how it happens.

 

[XimeD]

This is JMO based on what I know about chemistry:

I think they probably have a better idea about how it happens, but they would have to tell you the compounds they put in it to explain (which I am assuming is a trade secret or something like that)

The fact that they are saying "the other possible is reduction to N2" is suspicious to me, I mean reducing agents are well known in chemistry and there are ways of testing how strong a reducing agent something is, so they either put something in there capable of reducing nitrates to N2 or they didnt.

 

[carpus]

Seachem...

Seachem seems to really like to think that they have products that take the various nitrogen compounds to N2 gas.

I told them that in test that I did recently of some bio-filter additives, their Seachem Stability did not show any nitrates in the test beaker. Their guy said that he was surprised that Stability was able to make N2 without any dedicated bio-media in the beaker. I had to break the news to him that I thought that was not happening, as Stability seemed to stall at a limited production of nitrites, with the rest of the ammonia remaining untouched.

I don't know what they know. Or don't know. They do a good job of representing their products as state-of-the-art though, don't they?

The fact that they are saying "the other possible is reduction to N2" is suspicious to me, I mean reducing agents are well known in chemistry and there are ways of testing how strong a reducing agent something is, so they either put something in there capable of reducing nitrates to N2 or they didnt.

 

[carpus]

You may not have seen my test results...

I try to base my opinions on some factual or experiential foundation, so I just had to know. The results are not far reaching, and is only a first cut at more work, which I might eventually get around to, but:

I compared Tetra Safestart, Microbe-Lift Special Blend, and Seachem Stability in beakers with ammonia in tank water with a light suspension of substrate particles/dust and no bio-media.
Tetra Safestart made nitrates, NH3 was low, NO2 absent
Microbe-Lift Special Blend made nothing, all NH3 was still there
Seachem Stability converted some NH3 to nitrite, plenty of NH3 still there.

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

 

[Tarkus2112]

I try to base my opinions on some factual or experiential foundation, so I just had to know. The results are not far reaching, and is only a first cut at more work, which I might eventually get around to, but:

I compared Tetra Safestart, Microbe-Lift Special Blend, and Seachem Stability in beakers with ammonia in tank water with a light suspension of substrate particles/dust and no bio-media.
Tetra Safestart made nitrates, NH3 was low, NO2 absent
Microbe-Lift Special Blend made nothing, all NH3 was still there
Seachem Stability converted some NH3 to nitrite, plenty of NH3 still there.

Are you aware that you are supposed to use "Nite Out II" in conjunction with the "Special Blend"? That is the only way it will establish a bio-filter.

How long did you let the beakers set before you tested them? Did you add airstones to create oxygen? What was the temperature?

I am by no means an expert, but I believe that your experiment is flawed and proves absolutely nothing. That's just my opinion though.

 

[Gus]

I tried those hocus pocus magical formulas, and never did anything for me.