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Re: Amquel and rotifers....
> Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2001 14:35:31 -0500
> From: "James Purchase" <jppurchase at Home_com>
> Subject: Re: Amquel and rotifers....
>
> Wright wrote:
snip...
> ... The chloramine removers are deadly to small
> inverts, so I avoid them when carbon filtering (cartridge GAC or block,
> never
> in-tank) will do the job. That means my fish get some live foods, whether I
> buy them or not."
>
> I've heard this before, in connection with Daphnia.
Actually, I'm pretty sure they kill most infusoria, too, but my main real
tests have all been with higher forms of life, like Daphnia, Ostracods, Mos.
larvae, etc. "Amquel," "Prime," and "Ammo Lock 2" all kill them easily.
I have even used "Amquel" to kill hydra, when I was too lazy to walk back to
the fishroom and get out the formaldehyde. All those dechloraminators seem to
be formadehyde-like compounds that cross-link proteins and act a bit like
tanning agents.
> How would you suggest
> you treat chloramine treated water if you want to prevent killing the
> microfauna in your tank?
Minimal percent changes or GAC filters.
> I have a tank out on the patio which has "swamp
> water" in it -- it has produced Daphnia and lots of other small critters all
> summer. Now that winter is fast approaching, I'd like to brinng the culture
> inside but will eventually need to add some water to it - and Toronto's tap
> water is treated with chloramine.
Interestingly, I don't see that Daphnia-like critters are very sensitive to
chlorine, but they do seem to suffer from any ammonia after it has been
released from chloramine. [That could have been partly due to my high-pH hard
tap water. IDK]
>
> If I limit my water exchanges below, say 20%, would the raw chloramine do
> any damage?
I really doubt it. Just don't release any ammonia with a shot of Novaqua,
hypo, o/e and they probably won't even notice it. [Just guessing. Test,
please. At least keep a starter aside.]
> I thought about using aged tank water, but it has all been
> treated with Prime (similar to Amquel).
I found that a storage barrel with a swamp-cooler shutoff valve, filled
through two carbon filter cartridges in series, gave me lots of
chloramine-free change water. A drip-irrigation valve slowed the fill to a
trickle, for long, slow carbon contact. At slow flow, I never could measure
any chlorine (all you need to test for) until the first cartridge showed
"punch through." That was about every six months or so. At that point, I
swapped out the used-up cartridge with the nearly-new second one and put a new
one in the place of that 2nd one.
GAC does not adsorb ammonium/ammonia, well, but it apparently does when
ammonium is attached to chlorine. Any that does leak through or gets released
was always so low I couldn't measure it or perceive any effect on my fish.
Ammonia is dissipated to the air fairly quickly, in any case. Put an airstone
in your holding tank, if worried about it.
Wright
--
Wright Huntley 510 612-1467 - 879 Clara Drive, Palo Alto CA 94303
"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get
yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to
go about repeating the very phrases which our founding
fathers used in the struggle for independence."
-- Charles A. Beard (1874-1948), U.S. historian