Unless you have pristine unchlorinated water available for your tanks, at some point you'll need to decide which water treatment product will give you the best bang for your buck. The first thing you need to do is find out what your local water utility uses to treat the bacteria in your tap water. Our local tap water is treated with chloramine (which is made from a mixture of chlorine and ammonia), so I need to use a product that will not only deal with the chlorine, but also convert the ammonia into a safe form so the fish don't suffer from an ammonia spike after each water change.

Up until last year I had been using Seachem Prime, but thanks from a tip from a fellow hobbyist I switched over to ClorAm-X. It's by far a much less costly way of removing chlorine, chloramine, and ammonia from tap water. Cloram-X is simply the dry powder form of Amquel. (which means more bang for your buck!)
Both Cloram-X & Amquel contain the same active ingredient - 100% sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate.

Amquel - 1 tsp per 10 gallons
ClorAm-X - 1 tsp per 41.5 gallons

To give you an idea of how little of this product one needs to use ....... when performing a 50% water change on my 55 gallon tank (approx 20 gallons of actual water when you take into account the substrate & rocks), I need to use only 1 tsp of ClorAm-X when performing my weekly water change. At the rate of 1 tsp (5 grams) per week, a 5 pound container should last me approx 8 1/2 years!

I simply mix the tsp of ClorAm-X into a cup full of water, then slowly trickle it into the tank as I refill via my Python water changer.

My test results show that ClorAm-X does not affect (or lower) the PH of your tank water. (some conditioners can affect the PH)

ClorAm-X is non toxic to humans (at test rates of 21%), is stable for an indefinite period if kept in its original container, and is not known to be toxic to any fishes, amphibians, aquatic invertebrates or aquatic plants. The United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that the use of the chemical that constitutes ClorAm-X in water with fishes intended for human consumption, does not come under FDA jurisdiction.


In the US ClorAm-X can be ordered here:

http://cloramx.reed-mariculture.com/

A link to the manufacturer:

http://aquascienceresearch.com/cloram-x.html

In Canada it can be ordered here:

http://www.islandscallops.com/cloram-x.htm



Chlorine dissipates as it runs through the water mains, and depending on where you are situated from the source in your town/city, and how much water you remove at each water change, you 'might' be able to go without adding a water conditioner. Also keep in mind that 'some' water conditioners also treat for heavy metals, so if your lines or local water is high in copper/lead etc, you might still need to condition the water.

If you have chloramine in your local water supply there's really no getting around using a water treatment. Chloramine can retain it's full strength for several weeks.

If you simply have to deal with chlorine, the least expensive way would be to use Sodium thiosulfate, or perhaps now, ClorAm-X, which can be bought in bulk from a number of sources.

Water sources & additives can fluctuate through the various seasons,and some areas may use chlorine during the Fall/Winter months, and Chloramine during the Spring/Summer when the bacteria numbers rise. Keep this in mind when purchasing your water treatment.

The following site provides a review on most of the popular water treatments currently on the market.

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/rev-cond.htm

Please note that some of the water treatment products that state on the bottle they will remove chloramine (such as Hagen AquaPlus), actually do no such thing. The info in the link above will explain why.


As stated previously, up until last year I was using Seachem Prime, but the reality is I'm not concerned with having a slime coat additive (healthy fish already produce their own slime coat) and heavy metals aren't a concern due to the fact that our water mains in this area, as well as our house pipes, are coated with a thin layer of bacteria & lime scale, so the chances of "heavy metals" leaching into our tap water are extremely remote. If you live in an established area (meaning the streets & homes weren't just recently built), and your PH is 7.5 or higher, the chance of having "fish toxic" amounts of heavy metals in your water are probably quite remote. The higher the PH, the less corrosive the water will be to your piping & joints. One note of caution, if you notice any type of water main repairs in your area, consider holding off on any water changes until those lines have been repaired, and flushed for a few days. Lots of nasties can be released into the water column when repairs/construction take place.

Although conditioners such as Prime state they will remove heavy metals (or at least safely bind them) in reality no water conditioner truly 'removes or binds' excessive heavy metals, they only handle the amount of heavy metals typically found in tap water. (in other words, trace amounts in the low ppb range)

That info came directly from Dr. Greg Morin of Seachem, and John Farrell Kuhns, the inventor of AmQuel. Prime actually removed the "removes heavy metals" statement on their Prime containers, although Dr. Greg Morin did tell me last year they would be adding it back, with a slight caveat to that claim.



If you're concerned about heavy metals in your water this site will help explain some of the ins & outs.

https://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/etf/Corros.htm

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 etc than if it has ran for a period of time. (and been flushed out)

I wrote the following over a year ago, but the info may help explain some of what takes place when using water treatments such as Seachem Prime and/or Cloram-X.


My water change routine is performed by adding my water conditioner for Chloramine to the tank as I refill with fresh water via a Python.

Having said that, I wanted to make sure that my water conditioner was indeed binding the ammonia once the chlorine & ammonia were split. Unfortunately the vast majority of ammonia test kits do NOT test for free ammonia, only 'total' ammonia so I was uncertain as to what was happening once the fresh water & the conditioner mixed in my tank.

I found the following info on Seachem's site & decided to purchase their Multi Test Kit. (for Free/Total Ammonia)

........................................................

"If the pH drops ammonia will not be released back into the water, and even if it did, it would be ionized ammonia (NH4+) which is totally non-toxic; only free ammonia NH3 is toxic. The only time ammonia removal products will release ammonia is if the pH goes up, WAY UP, like around 12 to 14!
That only occurs when testing with Nessler or salicylate based ammonia kits... they raise the pH to convert all
ammonia to free ammonia and test for free ammonia at pH 14.

So actually if you are using ammonia removal products and test for ammonia with these type of tests you will get false readings for ammonia. You can get a somewhat accurate result with a salycilate based kit if you take your reading right away rather than waiting the full prescribed time, but the trick is knowing when exactly to take that reading.

Our Ammonia Alert and MultiTest: Free & Total Ammonia
both use a gas exchange based sensor technology that is not
affected by the presence of ammonia removal products. Both give an accurate reading for free ammonia without any interference.

Depending on how much chloramines you have you can use either Prime or Safe. Prime is a liquid product for removing,
chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. It actually removes chlorine by converting it to harmless chloride; the chloramine is removed by breaking the chlorine-ammonia bond, the chlorine is then reduced to chloride and the ammonia is then bound until it is utilized within the biological filtration. Unless you raise your pH to 12 it will not release the ammonia back. Safe is a dry version of Prime and is thus more concentrated. Economically it is the best way to go,
however many prefer using a liquid product for ease of use.

All of the ammonia removal products on the market work chemically essentially the same way, they reduce chlorine to choride and bind up ammonia.
But, the chemical species used are all slightly different"

...............................................................


According to the info on the Seachem Prime bottle one capful should treat 50 gallons of fresh water (@ 3 mg/l of chloramine), but they also state:
"for exceptionally high chloramine concentrations a double dose may be used safely."

Ok, so I splurged & bought the Seachem Multi Test Kit which tests for both Free/Total Ammonia, and the results on 'my' tap water were somewhat surprising. I have a 55 gallon tank, and when doing a 30% water change I need to use 2 capfuls of Seachem Prime in order to get the 'free' ammonia level down to .01 mg/l or less. I took the water sample & tested within seconds of my tank being filled. I also tested again a few hours later.

When using 1 capful my free ammonia reading was .05 or better, which IMO is too high a concentration for fish over an extended period of time, in a high PH water. My tap water is PH 8.0, which means a higher toxicity of ammonia, vs water with a lower PH. My bio filters (two AC 500's) take approx. 24 hours to remove the total ammonia after a water change of 30-50%.

When testing the recommended dosage for ClorAm-X, I found that the ammonia was completly bound using the formula they suggest. Again, this means more bang for your buck!

Just a word of caution to people with chloramine in their tap water, if you're uncertain as to the level of chloramine in your local water, you may want to purchase one of these test kits to make sure all of the ammonia is indeed being bound by your water conditioner.

Another thing that should be mentioned is that most Pond products are the exact same formulas (and strength) as the regular products. Seachem Pond Prime is the exact same formula as the regular Seachem Prime.

Seachem explains why this is in their FAQ for Pond Prime.


http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/PondPrime_faq.html


Q: I am using Prime (not Pond Prime) for my weekly 10% water changes in a 1200 gallon pond. I do not have a way to dechlorinate the water outside of the pond, so I have to add the fresh water (with chloramines) and Prime directly to the pond. Do I base the required Prime quantity on the volume of the pond, or the amount of fresh water being added? Does a UV sterilizer have any interaction with Prime? What is the advantage of Pond Prime vs Prime?

A: Prime and Pond Prime are the same product even though the dosages are different. Based on the dosage, Pond Prime will treat more only because a pond is more of an open system and chlorine has a better opportunity to naturally gas off hence needing less product. If you are having to dechlorinte your water going directly in the pond without having the ability to dechloriante before hand, I would definitely base the dosage of Prime/Pond Prime on the total gallons of the pond. Not just the amount of water changed.



Q: What is the difference between Pond Prime and Prime? Do I have to buy both for my aquarium and pond? Can I use either product?

A: The products are actually the same. However, the instructions are different. Given that most pond are more of an open system compared to a typical aquarium, chlorine tends to gas off more readily in a pond in effect having to use less Prime. The dosing instructions are as follows:
- for aquarium use, 1 ml per 10 gallons
-for pond use, 2 tablespoons per 600 gallons






Hope this info helps ........