Hey Eddie,
I went the 4fishstuff.com website to look for the Seachem Safe but could not find it...did they stop selling it or did I just over look it?
You can try a few other places :
http://www.customaquatic.com/estore/...oduct=AD-SC389
http://www.dtpetsupplies.com/catalog...e-4-kg-88-lbs/
http://heartlandaquariumsupplies.com/pro529639.html
I checked last week. None of them has the 4KG in stock. They do, however, have the 250g one. The guy from HeartLand told me that they might have some 4KG next month. Good luck.
I think I got one of the last 4 kilo buckets out there, from customaquatic. Arrived today ; took 10 days to get here, but we did have some bad weather across the nation, so it probably took longer than normal to ship. Still pretty quick IMHO- I remember in the UK in my youth, there was always a sentence saying "Allow 28 days for delivery" regarding shipping of most packages, especially big/heavy ones.
One thing to consider is that the average aquarist probably does not spend the best part of $100 on water conditioner all at one time on a single purchase, so the companies selling it likely only keep a few in stock at any one time- a 4kg bucket is probably not normally a big money spinner. Now the good news- the site managers at customaquatic and other places will no doubt take note of this sudden huge increase in demand for a particular product, and order a bunch more in to meet the needs of all you guys who didn't order one in time. Indeed, I think we were lucky that people on other fish forums did not discover this deal before we did- we need this kind of thing the most, as we change water far more often than anyone else IMHO. This kind of deal is like Kenny's Discus- order those special fish quick or you may be out of luck until next time, they sell like hotcakes!!
Cheers Lads, Lasses, etc
Colin
I will check with my boss if she can order the Seachem Safe for me......hopefully I can give some feedbacks later on.
Grasshopper
Francis
If you don't have chloromines and you need large quantities of chlorine neutralizer, you could buy sodium thiosulfate in crystal form, from Fishy Farmacy or from D & T Aquarium products, etc for about $5/lb. 1 gram of crystals in distilled water makes a liter of 1% stock solution. Use 1 drop of stock solution to a gallon or two of chlorinated tapwater, and it lasts about forever...
I bought half a pound 3 years ago and just now bought more....I went big and ordered a whole pound: whoohoo!!!
Best regards,
Prime-free Harriett
Sorry to sound the caution so late. On normal water condition, normal dosage is fine, but there are certain months in the year in sg, when chloramine and chlorine is higher, I need to triple dose. You will just need to monitor your fishes during WC, cos I nearly lost a few tanks of fishes. Double dose during that time didn't help, but triple dose works.
Just to share a word of caution, so now I do triple dosage just to play safe, so how much cost does it save by using triple dosage? I never actually do any calculation.
Just a FYI - Seachem products such as Prime & Safe have a fairly minor effect on heavy metals. Just like all other water conditioners that supposedly detoxify heavy metals, it can only bind trace amounts that are legally allowed by water municipalities. (as in amounts that won't affect your fishes health)Actually, SAFE neutralizes heavy metals also, which sodium thiosulfate does NOT do. If anyone is dealing with, or knows they have heavy metals. Best to use a product that deals with it.
At one time Seachem actually removed that spiel from their labels, and their website, as they were afraid that it could be misleading to consumers. (and obviously it is) These products are not, and should not be used to remove heavy metals. (this according to the CEO of Seachem)
The most important thing to do (even if you have hard water with a high PH) is to let your taps run before adding water to your aquariums. The idea is to NOT use water that has been sitting for an extended period of time (as in overnight) as it will contain higher levels of metals than if it has ran for a period of time. (and been flushed out)
So Harriett, keep using the sodium thiosulfate, for strictly chlorine removal it's about 100 x cheaper than Safe, and just as effective.
Also, cant you just use ST and the chlorine would be dealt with, in Chloramines but the left over ammonia would need to be dealt with? Or is this just in some dechlor products? I mean if people just have chlorine in their water, an even cheaper method would be to not use ANY product and just age/aerate the water to remove the chlorine.
Eddie
Yep, one could use ST with chloramine, but you'd still need to deal with the resulting free ammonia. While aging water might be cheaper, that would depend on the amount of hydro that is required to keep the water temp stable at 82-86F. Also, not everyone wants, or for that matter even has the extra space to store hundreds of gallons of aged water.