Seachem safe dosage (tanks) and purigen

[Oscar Mike]

King thanks
So the actual dosing for a 150 would be half of the 1/4 teaspoon ?

That would be the recommended dosage if your water supply contains 1.25ppm of chlorine or 1ppm chloramine. If the levels are higher or lower than that you might need more or less than 1/4 tsp, that's why RD suggested you check your local water quality report. It should be linked right on the homepage of your City's website.

Those treatment levels can fluctuate throughout the year or depending on your distance from the testing site, so it could be useful to occasionally test them yourself or dose for the highest detected concentrations. More important to know the exact numbers for chloramine than chlorine alone

 

[tiger15]

My cheap API Tap Water Conditioner,which is thiosulfate based, says that it can be used to neutralize chloramine by doubling the dosage for chlorine only treatment. It works by splitting up the chloramine bond, neutralizing the free chlorine, and allowing nitrifying bacteria to convert ammonia to nitrate. It works apparently only in an established tank with healthy BB population to detoxify ammonia.


What makes more expensive Prime and Seachem conditioner better than sodium thiosulfate based conditioner in neutralizing chloramine when BB can do as good a job to neutralize ammonia.

 

[RD.]

According to a response from one of Seachem's reps on their forum, the directions were simplified but the formulation is still the same. It used to be one tsp per 200gal removes 4ppm chlorine, now its 1/4 tsp per 300gal for 1.25ppm chlorine.

Wow, that's rather stupid IMO, but thanks for posting that info.

What makes more expensive Prime and Seachem conditioner better than sodium thiosulfate based conditioner in neutralizing chloramine when BB can do as good a job to neutralize ammonia.

Because products such as Prime/Safe are pretty much instantaneous in reaction to both chlorine, and free ammonia (NH3), and render any/all ammonia harmless to fish immediately. Plants and/or BB do not work as quickly at removing free ammonia, so depending on several factors, including but not limited to the size of ones water change, the chloramine levels in their tap water, the pH of the water, and the temperature of the water, sodium thiosulfate may be a safe option, or not so safe at all.

All of these factors can obviously vary GREATLY from one hobbyists tank to another.

A good read on the toxicity of ammonia can be found in the following article posted on the krib.

http://www.thekrib.com/Chemistry/ammonia-toxicity.html



HTH

 

[tiger15]

The driving toxicity of chloramine is chlorine, not ammonia, which is 10+ times more toxic than ammonia at the same concentration. In typical chlorimine treated water, the residual ammonia after chlorine is neutralized by thiosulfate conditioner will not exceed the lethal level. For example, regulations require residual chlorine in treated water to be 2 ppm, which results in less than 2 ppm total ammonia. According to the toxicity chart of ammonia in the link, you need 3.5 ppm of total ammonia at 86F and pH8 to be lethal. Most fish tank water has lower pH and lower temperature which requires even higher concentration to be lethal. Again, it's best to check with your water company to verify that the chloramine concentration in your water is within the regulated range.

I am curious what ingredients in Prime and SeaChem are used to neutralize ammonia instantly?

 

[jaws7777]

Feel dumb but what i found for nyc was 4 mcl chlorine..dont have a clue what this means

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[Oscar Mike]

MCL is just the maximum contaminant level set by the EPA. Your water quality report should be in a downloadable pdf file with a chart that lists the actual recorded data next to the MCL's

 

[RD.]

tiger, what I was attempting to explain in my last comment is that there can be highly variable factors involved in the overall equation, including the spceies of fish, and even the life stage of those species. Not everyone on MFK keeps the same fish, has the same water parameters, or falls under the same water regulations as those found in the USA.

I am curious what ingredients in Prime and SeaChem are used to neutralize ammonia instantly?

The following was posted in a past discussion by a research manager at Seachem.

Prime binds to things, such as ammonia, by forming salt complexes (specifically with ammonia, an imidium salt is created).

 

[jaws7777]

Anyone out there know whats in nyc water ? I dont understand any of this crap. Its says chlorine residual

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[tiger15]

Chlorine residual is the amount of chlorine in the effluent water after treatment. The treatment plant has an automatic dosing unit that adds chlorine or chloramine at higher concentration in the influent end to satisfy the organic demand present in the source water and still has residual chlorine left in the effluent end. Surface water typically has higher natural organic matter present and thereby demands higher chlorine treatment than groundwater. The water report typically lists 2 residual chlorine level range, one in water immediately after leaving the treatment plant and the other in the distribution system. In U.S. the maximum allowable residual chlorine, also known as MCL, is 4 ppm, which should be the target treatment level for your conditioner.

 

[RD.]

In U.S. the maximum allowable residual chlorine, also known as MCL, is 4 ppm, which should be the target treatment level for your conditioner.

Negative. The target treatment for ones conditioner should be designed to neutralize the level of disinfectant at ones tap source, and certainly NOT the maximum allowed by the EPA, or any other governing body.

I don't treat for the maximum allowed, I treat for what my local water treatment facility utilizes at their end, which is 2ppm chloramine year round. That equates to me being able to treat twice as much water, as the person treating for 4ppm.

With chlorine, it breaks down much faster over long distances (compared to chloramine) so even if the plant uses 2-2.5ppm as a standard, at the end of the run the residual at ones tap could be less than 1.0ppm. This is exactly why some people on chlorine systems get away without using any water conditioner. At their tap the chlorine residual is close to 0, and by the time it leaves their hose and reaches their tank it's already gassed off.