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Re: chloramine treated water

> > to get rid of the green water?  One thing I'm concerned about is that when
> > I do a water change, the tap water treated with de-clorinator tests positive
> > for ammonia.  Assuming my bio-filter just converts the ammonia into nitrates,
> > am I ADDING food for the green water 'algae' by doing water changes?
> > 
> It is possible that your water is treated with chloramine rather than 
> chlorine.  In this case, the dechlorinator will break the chlorine-ammonia
> bond and you will have ammonia in the water.  This will eventually be
> converted to nitrates by your bio-filter.  However, before that it will
> stress your plants and your fish, neither of which can handle free ammonia.
> 
> You should add an ammonia reducer (e.g., Amquel) to avoid the stress.  
> However, you will still be adding to your nitrate load.  There is no
> easy solution to this, AFAIK.
Hmmm... I disagree slightly with this suggestion. I would suggest purchasing
a chloramine test kit FIRST. You may find the amounts of chloramine present
in your water to be negligible. I found none in my tap water and almost no
chlorine however, the water here is not typical of water elsewhere. I don't
know the correct procedure for dealing with chloramine as far as plants are
concerned however, ammonia is GOOD for plants in that it provides the
ammonium ion at medium to low pH (why pH should not be high in plant tanks).
I don't know what Amquel will do so I would be very leery of adding this. 
Perhaps there is some treatment that can be performed on chloramine water 
BEFORE you add it to a tank such as aging it one or two days. Even better 
would be to use rain water, distilled water or water from an RO unit. 

Anyone with practical experience in dealing with chloramine?

 - Steve