Quick question on Chlorine in water

[HueyN]

Hi all,

Quick question and needing a quick answer;p

My water out of tap is 8.0 and after aging rises and stabilizes at 8.8. It takes about 4 hours with aeration and some water movement. When the water ph gets to 8.8, does that mean there's a good chance or is it definite that the water is now free of chlorine? Is it safe enough to use? I do not have a test kit to test for chlorine:( I can go get one if that's the only way to find out.

Thanks in advance!
Huey

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

4 hours of aeration would dissapate most is not all of the chlorine. It depends upon the ppm of the chlorine, if it is high, then it would take longer. Can you smell any chlorine from the aged water?? if not, then it is safe to say that it is gone.


-Ryan

[jeep]

Be on the safe side. Use a chlorine neutralizer.

Does your water have chloramines? If so you definately need an additive.

[Howie_W]

Hi Huey,

Are you on a community water supply or do you have a well? Assuming your on town supplied water, there's probably chloramines added to your water. You can contact your town and ask for a water report...they can also tell you over the phone aprox. how it's treated.

I don't recommend adding anything to your water, as I think it's unnecessary. Ryan is correct...the amount of time required to aerate can take longer depending upon the concentration. The bond that forms chloramines is very strong, so aerating will never break it down completely. However, what it will do is break it down enough so that it's safe for your fish. When I use to live in the city, our chloramine concentration was very high...you could easily smell it out of the tap. I always aged my water for twenty-four hours and never had a problem.

HTH

Howie

[Anonapersona]

I have read that it would take a month to age chloramine treated water enough to make it safe.

[HueyN]

Thanks all for your quick responses:) My water does not have chloramine. I think the 4 hours heavy aeration and moving the water with a water pump did the job:)

Thanks again!
Huey

[HueyN]

Hi all,

Thanks again for all your responses.

I thought my water was fine. However, after the first water change, I noticed that my fish were kinda huddling towards the upper back corner of the tank. The larger fish tend to not get affected much by the water change. The smaller ones would start moving around after half an hour. A couple will still stay in that upper corner away from light for couple hours.

So, I went to the store to get the only available chlorine/chloramine test strips. The strips test for total chlorine and free chlorine. They were both 0.5ppm in my 24 hour aged water. The test strips instructions explain that if these two numbers are equal, then there is no chloramine. Luckily, I got the only dechlor product (Prime) at the store while I was at the store looking for the test strips. After using the recommended dose of prime, the test strips showed no total or free chlorine.

After using this water for the second water change (treated with prime), the fish were acting about the same. I was advised to test the aged water for ammonia. I did the test last nite and sure enough there was ~0.5ppm of ammonia. So, I added an extra dose of prime as recommended for chloramine. Retesting the treated water shows even more ammonia content in water!

I have read that some folks have not had success with prime for ph higher than 8.0 and my ph is 8.8 aged.

I was told my water does not have chloramine by someone at the water department. I guess that person could be clueless!

Does this sound like my water has chloramine? I am going to try to find some amquel asap!

Thanks in advance!
Huey

[Anonapersona]

Maybe the fish had already learned that a water change was a bad thing and were huddling in anticipation -?

I use Prime in water of 7.9 pH on occasion. I age a bucket of 20 gallons but sometimes change a bit more than that and so have to use some right out of the tap.

It may be reasonable that you'd need more Prime in very high pH water, since as pH rises there is more ammonia (bad) vs ammonium (not so bad). I like Prime for I know it also treats nitrite and nitrate and so anytime the fish look stressed, I feel safe to add a squirt of Prime in there in case the biofilter is out of whack for some reason.

Both Prime and Amquell slowly release the ammonia to the biofilter so those tested numbers would rise then slowly fall.

Your test may be showing the total ammonia, not differentiating between the toxic components and the locked up ammonia. One bottle tests will read total ammonia.

I also read that the ammonia test must be read immediately, for in a short time the indicated level will rise, falsely, when Prime or Amquell is used. The two bottle version of the Ammonia test is the salicylate based test and it ought to read zero ammonia when using Prime correctly.

And, the folks at Prime are really responsive, you might be able to find an email for them.

[aggie_67]

Are you heating your aged water? It needs to be kept at the same temp as your tank, also the warmer the water the easier it will degas (lose chlorine.)