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AmQuel Plus removes chlorines, chloramines, detoxifies ammonia, nitrite and nitrates, but it does not remove metals.

AmmoLock removes chlorine and chloramines and detoxifies ammonia, but also doesn't remove metals.

These are the two I know of.

Not everyone has planted tanks, besides, this is america! The more things you can fit on the label the better it'll sell! .

^_^




[hr width='40%']"There’s an emptiness inside her. And she’d do anything to fill it in.
And though it’s red blood bleeding from her now. It's more like cold blue ice in her heart.
She feels like kicking out all the windows. And setting fire to this life."

Nice tank!

I know, I'm probably blowing it out of proportion. It just seems so unnecessary to be adding all that junk if you don't need it.

i have always used start right, which says "neutralizes harmful metals" on the label. i can't speak for iron, as i don't have any kind of kits that test for iron, but my 10g and 50g planted tanks are doing quite well without adding any kind of ferts at all and no special substrate (just gravel). here's the most recent shot of the 50g, which *does* have co2 injection, but nothing else for the plants:

[/font]

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Argh - you are right!!!]:|

Well, I'll just have to give up and just keep using my Prime since everything seems to cover 101 things.

This water conditioner instantly eliminates chlorine and reduces toxicity of common heavy metals. Just 1 drop per U.S. gallon removes chlorine and chlorine dioxide.

That's from their site, same thing that my Aquarium pharmiceuticals tap water conditioner claims.

As for iron, I've noticed yellowing on the leaves of some of my plants (hygro mainly) but honestly I think it has little to do with the water conditioner and more to do with the fact that plants just plain need it. *shrug*

^_^[hr width='40%']"There’s an emptiness inside her. And she’d do anything to fill it in.
And though it’s red blood bleeding from her now. It's more like cold blue ice in her heart.
She feels like kicking out all the windows. And setting fire to this life."

Exactly my point. Why use something that covers 101 things when you are only trying to address 2 things - chlorine and chloramine.

I do know that my tap water has no measureable nitrite or nitrates. I have a copper tester and copper levels are non-existent, except when I've used copper treatment and that goes down with water changes.

I only have one lonely valisneria that I'm trying to save *crosses fingers now that co2 is running*, a couple banana plants, and a najas guadalupara (sp?) that are rooted. They are in flourite and have Flourish Tabs in the substrate. Non-rooted are hornwort, java moss, java fern. For a while, all things went yellow, until I started adding iron at someone's suggestion and things immediately improved. Then I realized I may be doing more harm than good by dosing the tank with Prime, which removes heavy metal.

Oddly enough, Acid - there is only one fish store in about 6 or 7 around me that carries that brand of dechlorinator/chloramine remover. Luckily it is across the street and I will get the biggest bottle I can find. I forgot all about it until you mentioned it.

BTW - does anyone know if copper is considered a heavy metal?

Last edited by Cory_Di at 28-Feb-2005 10:21

That's the stuff I use there in your link.

I also use some of the other stuff mentioned, but only if there is a reason. Like the Amquel, I use for shipping fish. It helps keep any accumulated ammonia down in the shipping bag. Sometimes I use stress coat, if/when moving fish around, and especially if I happen to have one jump and land on the ground. They all have a purpose to serve.

Glad I could help.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Thanks, Acid - I think that's the one I'm looking for. I actually used it early on before venturing into all that other stuff thinking I needed it. I don't think that I do, so I'm going to get more of that DeChlor from Weco.

[link=http://shop.store.yahoo.com/pet-guys/-028023100040.html]http://shop.store.yahoo.com/pet-guys/-028023100040.html" style="COLOR: #C000C0[/link]

Chlorine and Chloramine Removal - Plain and Simple!

I use the same stuff I have used for about 30 years now; DeCHLOR. The cheapest stuff out there for sale. It removes both chlorine, and chloramine. That is all it does, it does not bother anything else, it does not coat your fish with any unnessicary slime coats, it does not foul the water with "extra" things adding to it, ect ect ect.

If your plants are rooted, then they are getting more nutrients from the substrate than they are from the water column. So adding a liquid Fe fertilizer, does not do much for them. It will do a little, the small amount that soaks down to the roots, but for the most part, does not help rooted plants much. Maybe some plant root tabs are something to try.

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There is always a bigger fish...

I use stress coat, and stress szme to remove chlorine and chloramine and to help cycle any new tanks i get. They work great and i would reccommend them to anyone.







==fish1

I would like the names of some brand name conditioners in the US that would simply address chlorine and chloramine. Every time I pick one up it ends up removing heavy metals among other things. I believe it is affecting the nutrients in my planted tanks - like iron.

Thus far, I've used Prime, Stress Coat, Chlor-x-change. The last one I thought was a simple chlorine/chloramine remover and it turned out to also remove heavy metals (fine print) ]:|

flourite IME by itself doesn't help plants soley, i always added Fe directly to the water column, as there are plants that get the nutrients out of the water, and also some that are root feeders (crypts, lotus etc).

But I don't see how having an iron rich substrate will show iron in the water - hence the adding of iron in the water.

That's the part that is concerning me is that i always get zero for my iron readings. Plants were yellowing. I started to add iron and the yellow went away.

I have some flourite in the tank, but after having my entire population of habrosus cories lose their barbels, I'm going to be removing it. It's a long story, but my little guys are in a bare bottom tank where I'm seeing their faces and barbels regrow. I love them more than the plants, so an alternative substrate will go in this spring - maybe Eco-Complete.

I've been having Phosphate troubles and never considered any of my conditioners. My phosphate topped out at 5.0. I found up to 1.0 in tap. Stepped up water changes didn't help and food had minimal phosphorous in it. I finally used a phosphate reducing Phos-Zorb yesterday and overnight it got me down to 0.5 . I pulled it out so I would have some left. I had previously suspected Pimafix and Melafix, which I use whenever my white clouds or rasboras get into scrapes.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 27-Feb-2005 13:04

well, the sodium thiosulfate BREAKS down the chloramine to ammonia form. All chloramine is is ammonia/chlorine.

So if you pretreat your water, add the sodium thiosulfate to remove chlorine, but you'll have to add something to remove the ammonia.

Now, there are some out there that bind with iron, making it unavailable to plants. Here's an interesting discussion about it :

[link=prime vs. novaqua/amquel]http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-14414.html" style="COLOR: #ffcc99[/link]

from another site :

Regarding the "binding" of other metals, as I understand the process it's a very low level that gets bound. So yes some iron along with and lead or mercury would be part of the binding process. The theory is that since those toxic metals are in such really low quantities that all the toxic metals gets bound, some of the essential metals get bound, but there is still plenty of essential metals left for the plants. Adding a bit more traces via a product like Flourish, Tropica Master Grow, or Plantex would solve any deficiency problem while still not interfering with the binding of the toxic metals. The theory seems to work well in real life. I have used Prime for several years in my planted tanks and never noticed any trace deficiency issues.

In terms of prime, I was ADDING iron to my tanks, and IF it was removing it, it was only doing a very small amount of removal. Now, from other articles i've read, in order for it to effectively impact iron and other heavy metals (ie remove it all), you'd have to use something like the 5 times the dose to remove it (talking about prime dosage here).

I do not think you'll have issues IF you're adding iron also. I had a laterite base, was dosing iron, also, and never had any problems with prime affecting my plants.

If all else fails, get a Fe testing kit, dose with prime, and see if it affects the Fe levels. That is one way of telling if it is really affecting your iron levels.

Apart form that, if your plants aren't flourishing, I'd be looking into an underlying problem as well.

Are you using any fertilisers? whats the lighting like? substrate? are you using any other products in your tank?

I use Tetra's AquaSafe. Which should be available in the US.

However, the information on the back of the bottle says "Removes chlorine and harmful metal ions". Whether this incudes iron I can't say. But, as a bonus, it allegedly contains fish-protecting colloids and vitamin B1.

I'll fire up the Tetra site and grab more info.

Tetra Water Treatments Etc.

Thsi may prove helpful to everyone. I use AquaSafe and have done since the prehistory of fishkeeping (well, not quite but you catch my drift). And thus far, it has probably been a contributory factor in the well-being of my fish.

The site doesn't give a breakdown of which metal ions it removes, but I suspect that an E-Mail to the Tetra people would fill in the information gaps.


Last edited by Calilasseia at 27-Feb-2005 09:43

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Yeah - chloramine concerns me moreso than chlorine. My bottles sit out a week and age so much of the chlorine is probably gone.

The reason I want to steer away from anything that removes heavy metals is that it makes no sense to dose a tank with iron and then use something that removes it. I don't know that it is removing it or not, but would rather use something that does not touch heavy metals.

Hi,
Meriadoc, I tried a PM but your mailbox is full.
For 50 years I have known that Sodium Thiosulfate was the
active ingredient in chlorine removers. But I thought
another chemical was mixed with today's "removers" to
bind the Chloramine.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

try this :

[link=http://seachem.com/products/product_pages/Safe.html]http://seachem.com/products/product_pages/Safe.html" style="COLOR: #ffcc99[/link]

I use Wardley's Chlor Out to neutralize the chlorine and chloramines in my tap water. It says nothing anywhere on the bottle about removing heavy metals from the water as well.(Not even in fine print) It simply does nothing more than remove chlorine and chloramines.

Last edited by Cichlid Keeper at 26-Feb-2005 23:14