Re: [Killietalk] Water

[LeeH920226 at aol_com]

In a message dated 12/4/04 11:45:11 AM, dwake at iopener_net writes:

<<  I must be missing something somewhere. What is the good word on this?  >>

I have probably killed more fish in 60 years of keeping tropical and cool 
freshwater fish by not completely dechlorinating the water than by all other 
methods combined. Therefore I recommend both dechlorinating and testing. I now use 
carbon filters for much of my water but for the very large tanks that I 
refill partially from the tap, I use sodium thiosulfate. I highly recommend the 
chlorine test kit that Charles Harrison offers. Yesterday, I tested my carbon 
filtered water and detected chlorine, so I am now changing the carbon, after 
about 4 months. I use Norit PK, which is the basic carbon used in Black Diamond or 
Black Magic activated carbon. BY testing I estimate that my tap water has 2-3 
parts per million of chloramine. It used to have 5 ppm of chlorine. The only 
concern I have with using sodium thiosulfate for dechlorinating is that it 
does liberate ammonia from the chloramine. Therefore for my alkaline tanks for 
Tanganyikan fish, I don't change more than 10% at a time or I also add Amquel or 
Ammolock after the sodium thiosulfate. I have not tried other commercial 
chloramine removers.

Lee Harper
Media, PA USA

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