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Question about dechlorinator.


DLMyst
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When setting up a tank and tap water was just used.  No fish are added for 2 weeks.  Would a dechlorinator still be needed?  Second part to the question, if the answer is yes, if there's fish already in the tank is it safe to use the dechlorinator?  Thanks in advance, just asking since I asked my dad if he put dechlorinator when he set up his tank a month ago and he said no.  Some of his fish died when he added them and some survived but my guess is that the tank wasn't cycled enough.  But now I'm thinking it might of been due to lack of dechlorinator too to treat the water.  Since he told me the first day he added the fish a lot of them was sucking air.  My guess to that was the gills were burning.  Again I'm totally new and got most of my info from watching YouTube vids and reading sites.

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It all depends on what's in your tap water  I would always use a dechlorinator like prime unless you no exactly what in your water source yes you can add dechlorinator  to the tank with fish already in the tank

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Thanks for the quick reply. I actually know the Chlorine (ppm) 1.2.  So I’ll add the dechlorinator when I get home.  Dad bought 3 glow fish and 2 died after 2 days. Could be due to stress since water parents looked good. I’ll post my water parameters later too. 
                       

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53 minutes ago, DLMyst said:

Thanks for the quick reply. I actually know the Chlorine (ppm) 1.2.  So I’ll add the dechlorinator when I get home.  Dad bought 3 glow fish and 2 died after 2 days. Could be due to stress since water parents looked good. I’ll post my water parameters later too. 
                       

Chlorine is extremely toxic to fish  I would use a dechlorinator ever time you do a water change with you haveing chlorine in your tap water that probably what's killed your fish

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Looking at your water parameters looks like you might 0.5 nitrites so I would do a water change to dilute the nitrites  and add prime to detoxify nitrites and ammonia the chlorine in your tap water will kill your benefial bacterial affecting your cycle I would test for ammonia as well 

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A de-chlorinator is the easiest way to do that, however you can aerate your water for several days to a week to naturally dissipate the chlorine (hypochlorite) from the water before adding it to your tank. The de-chlorinators can be overdosed safely to cover any residual chlorine or chloramine, but do not buy into their marketing hype about them being able to 'detoxify' ammonia or nitrite. Neither of those claims are backed up by the science. Do you know whether or not your tap water has chloramine?

 

How much ammonia is in the tank water? The most important thing is getting the cycle finished, and the only way to do that is time for the tank to build a bacterial load. Any excess of de-chlorinator will delay cycle completion, and water changes, if your tap water has chloramine will add to the ammonia load (ammonia is liberated when the Cl-N bond is broken in the chloramine). With your pH hovering right above 7, ammonia is your concern and the fewer fish that are in the tank, the better.

Do you have any other tanks that have established bio-media that you can use to 'seed' this newer tank?

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When I used the API master kit the ammonia and Nitrate was in 0. However, the Nitrite shows it was either 1 or 2 ppm.  So I did a 30% water change this morning and will need to check the parameters again when I get back home.  I did buy some plants to remove the plastic fake plants.  Got a couple of Vallisneria gigantea and put them in the back of the tank since those suckers grow pretty big.  My dad's 7 tetras and 3 shrimp love the plants which I found funny.  I do wish @DShelton that I had another tank to help seed my dad's tank.  However, I don't and it's been over 30 years since we had fish in our house (back then were goldfish).  So this is a new tank that's slowly reaching the end goal (hopefully) of the nitrigen cycle.

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I would limit feeding. and continue to watch the tank. With 0 ammonia, and some nitrite in the tank, your cycle is progressing and the tank is getting closer. Your plants will help with all of the waste nitrogen (NH3, NO2, and NO3), so as long as you see ammonia at 0 from the test kit, but the nitrite is toxic when approaching 2 - 2.5 ppm.  If that value is not going down, then it has to be managed by water changes (there is another way to do it, but it is not generally friendly to plants), and keeping the nitrite concentration ~1 (enough nitrite to feed the cycle, but not enough to be toxic to the fish). Nitrite affects oxygen uptake, so keeping the tank oxygenated is even more important than normal.

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Yeah had to do another water change today since one of my dad's fish died.  I checked the water and it was 0 ammonia, 2 ppm Nitrite and 0 Nitrate.  After the water change it went down to .5 ppm Nitrite.  I water vac the gravel  to remove all the waste.  There's only 15 small fish in the tank think the biggest is 2 inches long.  Been stuck in the midpoint of this Nitrogen cycle but patience is the key.  I wouldn't mind doing the water changes even more but putting the water back in sucks.  I'm using a 32oz cup to pour the water back from two 5 gallon buckets of treated (removed chlorine) water.  I need a pump or something that can help with that or this is going to be annoying.  For now until I get my dad's tank stabilized there's no way I'll do anything with my 50 gal tank. It'll stay in the packaging.  That and I still need to buy a cabinet to put it on, lol.  But my dad's tank takes priority for the moment.  

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