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Can anyone tell me if the chemicals used for freshwater tanks expires? I "inherited" several chemicals a while back that are a few years old. The ones that had exp dates I ditched already, but some have no dates on them.

The chemical list:
Algae Fix
Waste Control
Salt Level Test Kit
to list a few. I think there may be 1 or 2 more, but can't remember what they are.

Thanks again for the info.

amackattack

What is the best way to ditch these if they are bad?

They do degrade as they age, and usually they are stored badly too which can make then degrade faster than the expiry date would suggest.

I would not rely on test kits that are out of date and require chemical reactions as they are likely to be less than accurate. Unless you can test it to make sure it is correctly calibrated, I'd ditch them.

The Algae Fix and Waste Control are not things that I use, but I wouldn't imagine they'd have too many problems other than being less effective. I'd be wary of using them though, just because if there is a problem, you could stuff up your water. If you had many tanks that were lightly stocked or not stocked, you could test, but if you only have one, I'd leave them alone too.

Other thing to watch out for is if they've gone off and are full of bacteria, or if they shoot your ammonia level right up.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I think if you look closely at any chemical supplies for fish tanks will have a UBD.
I do know that test kits as they get older they become more unreliable in their results.

In your case use the old safe method "If in doubt toss it out"

Keith

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