Safe “Safe” dosage

[skjl47]

Chockful, by the looks of your water report your max chlorine residual is 2.5 ppm, which probably peaks during spring run off, and/or after heavy rain storms. Otherwise you are probably the same as I am most of the year, which is close to 2 ppm.

I still use the same formula as I have since I began using Safe several years ago.

Chlorine: use 5 g (1 tsp.*) to each 1625 L (450 gallons*) of tap water (removes 4 ppm).
Chloramine: use 5 g (1 tsp.*) to each 1250 L (300 gallons*) of tap water (removes 4 ppm).
Ammonia: use 5 g (1 tsp.*) to each 400 L (100 gallons*) of tap water (removes 4 ppm). Do not overdose!


If you have 2 ppm chloramine, like I do, then simply divide by two. So 1/2 teaspoon of Safe will treat 300 gallons. 1/4 teaspoon will treat 150 gallons, etc. Kitchen measuring spoons from the $1 store work well.

Hello; OK so your method is so much simpler and time tested by your own personal use over years. Why would anyone try my convoluted and untested method? I certainly will not.

A question. Do you use a leveled measuring spoon? By that I mean do you use a straight edge to flatten the spoonful or do you let the SAFE mound up a bit?

 

[RD.]

levelish

 

[skjl47]

Chlorine: use 5 g (1 tsp.*) to each 1625 L (450 gallons*) of tap water (removes 4 ppm).
Chloramine: use 5 g (1 tsp.*) to each 1250 L (300 gallons*) of tap water (removes 4 ppm).
Ammonia: use 5 g (1 tsp.*) to each 400 L (100 gallons*) of tap water (removes 4 ppm). Do not overdose!

Hello; Here is another question. Is one dose good for all three items; chlorine and chloramine and ammonia? By that I mean if you had all three of them in 450 gallons would the total dose be 5 g (1 tsp).?
Or would the dose be 5g (1tsp) for each of the items. 1tsp for the Chlorine; about 1 1/2tsp for the Chloramine; 4 1/2 tsp for the ammonia giving a total dose of 35g (7 tsp)?

I get that it should be unlikely for a healthy established tank to have all three but it is common for tap water to have the chlorine and chloramine.

I ask this after looking at the directions on my bottle of safe. The directions might be interpreted either way, at least by me anyway.

 

[RD.]

Chloramine is made up from both chlorine, and ammonia, so when treating for chloramine one is treating for all 3. lol This isn't exactly rocket science, so let's not make it anymore complicated than it already is for some. When doing a water change one is either treating for chlorine, or chloramine, the latter being a combination of chlorine/ammonia. Check with your local water supply company & proceed as required. My water is approx. 2 ppm chloramine, year round, so pretty simple math, even for a mathematically challenged simpleton like me.

IF one is treating for a free ammonia (NH3) spike (which means you probably have bigger problems than tap water issues) then follow Seachem's directions for treating for ammonia.

And last but not least note where Seachem states: Do not overdose!

That warning is there as both Prime & Safe are reducing agents, and when they run out of chlorine/chloramine to reduce, they will start reducing other things, such as 02. Big problem for anyone that massively overdoses, or overdoses in a tank where 02 levels are always on the fence.

Just follow the simple directions I posted above and you won't have any issues. It is due to massive confusion and stupid questions that Seachem dumbed down the directions to read what they currently do, something that happened because as the president and CEO stated to me the vast majority of consumers couldn't add 1+1 and come up with 2. I personally think that their answer made things even more complicated than they were 5 yrs ago, but at least they listened somewhat to my input. IMO the only change to the labels should have been - Please Check With Your Local Water Supply Company for Chlorine or Chloramine Disinfectant Residual Levels In Your Local Tap Water, BEFORE Calculating The Quantity of Safe Required.

 

[skjl47]

230 gallons for the total amount of water changed.

Hello; I edited my previous post after some thought. So a re-read might be useful.

Hello; I am going back to my idea of mixing enough safe in water in place of a dry measure for each tank. This is a modified thought experiment.

If 230 gallons total is changed for all tanks and only Chlorine is in the tap water, as is my current tap water, then by RD's guide I would need less than 1 tsp of safe.
230 gallons is about 51% of 450 gallons so a 1/2 level tsp should be enough for all the water used in one WC.

Because I do not have a 230 gallon container to mix the 1/2 tsp of SAFE in, I need to figure portions using a much smaller container. So far no easy ratios jump out. A rough estimate gets me to 58 oz because this is 1/4 of 230. At 1/2 tsp of SAFE in 58 oz of water then each 1 oz of that mix should treat (4) gallons of water???

 

[skjl47]

Chloramine is made up from both chlorine, and ammonia, so when treating for chloramine one is treating for all 3.

Hello; I think I get it but just to be more clear. Then a single dose of 1 tsp for 300 gallons will treat for chlorine and chloramine at 4ppm? (And this will get any ammonia that happens to be around?)

 

[RD.]

No wonder the folks at Seachem get frustrated. lol

I get that it should be unlikely for a healthy established tank to have all three but it is common for tap water to have the chlorine and chloramine.

No, it's not common at all.

Either a municipality has their water treated with chlorine, or they have it treated with chloramine. That might vary throughout the seasons, where past of the season it is treated with chlorine, and other times chloramine, or even from different water treatment plants, but they don't treat with both at the same time.

So, figure out what is in YOUR local tap water, and at what level, and use the values that I posted previously.

Then a single dose of 1 tsp for 300 gallons will treat for chlorine and chloramine at 4ppm

Chlorine: use 5 g (1 tsp.*) to each 1625 L (450 gallons*) of tap water (removes 4 ppm).
Chloramine: use 5 g (1 tsp.*) to each 1250 L (300 gallons*) of tap water (removes 4 ppm).



Are we there yet?

 

[robham777]

S skjl47 are you currently using safe for your water conditioner? As far as pre mixing in water goes, my opinion is that you are still directly dosing the tank in a round about way. The instructions state when doing so to "base dose on aquarium volume". So if you are changing 230 or 2300 gallons I believe you should be dosing for the entire volume of your aquariums even if you are pre mixing in water. You can contact seachem directly for clarification on dosing via support. Also note that safe does not have any stabilizers which would allow you to store it in liquid form so any mix you make will need to be used at that time.
http://www.seachem.com/contact-support.php

 

[RD.]

The CEO & head chemist at Seachem told me a few yrs back that if Safe is mixed with water, that it should be used within 30 days. As Robham stated, unlike Prime, Safe has no stabilizing agents. The following statement also came from the CEO, Dr. Greg Morin.

"some people prefer to just add the new untreated water directly to the tank... if they do that then we recommend the amount of Prime they add be based on the total gallonage of the aquarium rather than just what they added. The "extra" amount speeds up the rate of removal."

 

[robham777]

The CEO & head chemist at Seachem told me a few yrs back that if Safe is mixed with water, that it should be used within 30 days. As Robham stated, unlike Prime, Safe has no stabilizing agents. The following statement also came from the CEO, Dr. Greg Morin.

"some people prefer to just add the new untreated water directly to the tank... if they do that then we recommend the amount of Prime they add be based on the total gallonage of the aquarium rather than just what they added. The "extra" amount speeds up the rate of removal."

Maybe I am looking at it wrong, but I just really don't see the point of premixing it. Since the issue for many seems to be the measuring to get the correct dose, premixing it just makes it more complicated. Now you have to measure to make a solution and then measure the solution to dose the source water and make note of when you made the solution in the first place.