Active life of tap water conditioner

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BassetsForBrown

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Dec 2, 2012
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Boston
When you add enough conditioner to effectively neutralize all the chloramine/chlorine in water, does any excess conditioner in the water remain active, or does it just become worthless? To be more clear, if I had 10g of water, and treated it with twice the necessary dose of conditioner, could I add more untreated water to the 10g afterwards and have the excess conditioner deal with it?

Sorry if my post is written confusingly.
 
I've always wondered this also. Will be interesting.

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Both safe and prime are active for about an hour. This has been told to me directly from a seachem tech.

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Prime/Safe are reducing agents based on hydrosulphide salts. This is why Prime reacts with chlorine compounds, which are oxidising agents. If there is no chlorine present left to reduce it will find something else to reduce, such as oxygen. The time that it takes to completely dissipate in a closed system such as an aquarium will vary from tank to tank based on a number of factors. In your example, as long as "afterwards" is shortly after filling your tank, chances are the excess water conditioner will still be active.
 
as above stated, and
Do you remember in chemistry class when you were assigned a problem such as this, and maybe thought the exercise was useless
4 NaClO + Na2S2O3 + 2 NaOH → 4 NaCl + 2 Na2SO4 + H2O
all the molecules will react in a predicted way, for a certain amount of time with known substances.
This is very similar to what happens in our aquariums, all the time.
The sodium thiosulphate in water conditioner reacts when in contact with chlorine and /or chloramine and is oxidized into a less dangerous substance.
 
The period of activity is relativly short so it is not in there waiting. It is recommended to wait at least a half hour after treating a tank befor adding some meds such as Meth blue or malachite green for exactly the reasons stated above. Good question, I'm sure many members have also woundered about this.
 
Good question. It took me between 30 to 45 minute to fill up my 125 gal after WC. I add dechlor to the tank before filling directly from the tap, so it ought to remain effective throughout the duration of my WC. I can't imagine I can add water next day and expect the dechlor to be effective.
 
Treat the spike, if/when it spikes again, treat it again. According to Seachem reps;
All water conditioners only have the ability to bind to ammonia, nitrites and/or nitrates for a limited period of time; Prime actually will do this for a longer period than any other product available. You're correct; in an established tank, the beneficial bacteria will consume these things within this time period. However, in a new setup or cycling tank, we recommend dosing Prime every 48 hours to keep the ammonia/nitrites detoxified. As long as you are using Prime as directed, there is no harm in adding it this frequently for an extended period of time. Every 24 hours should not really be necessary, as it will remain active for up to 48 hours. We hope this answers your questions!
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Any question involving Seachem products can be found in the following link (Seachem Support Forums)

http://www.seachem.com/support/forums/index.php
 
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