Time for dechlorinator to work

[starsman20]

I've stopped mixing equilibrium/alkaline base/acid base to get the ph where I want it with RO water and just started mixing in tap. 8.3 out of the faucet. I keep the RO in a bunch of gallon jugs and started keeping 2 gallons of tap water in jugs as well. I am adding either prime or stress coat to the tap to dechlorinate. I am wondering if I do this ahead of time a day or 2 if I can use just enough to treat the gallon and not the entire planned tank. Question is how long does it take for the prime to work?

[lefty o]

i dont know about prime, but stress coat is pretty much instant. just treat the water you are adding, no point in adding for the entire tank.

[GardenStateGoldfish]

I have a very bad chloramine problem that caused a regular dose of prime to not be enough to remove all the chloramine. I was having to double dose to get the water safe enough for the fish, so I switched to seachem safe so I don't blow through a bottle of pime every month haha. 

 

[Coronal Mass Ejection Carl]

34 minutes ago, GardenStateGoldfish said:

I have a very bad chloramine problem that caused a regular dose of prime to not be enough to remove all the chloramine. I was having to double dose to get the water safe enough for the fish, so I switched to seachem safe so I don't blow through a bottle of pime every month haha. 

How much Safe do you use?

[GardenStateGoldfish]

@Coronal Mass Ejection Carl It depends on the tank to be honest, but I use more the the recommended dose on all of the tanks except the 270g, which I treat with 300g dose when I do a 50% water change, so I guess as I was typing to answer the question I usually use 2x the dose, because I add the tank amount not the new water amount. I add the safe right as I am adding the water and the fish do not appear stressed like they were before during water changes, I add the safe right onto of the hose I have adding the water, kinda have a jimmy rigged water change system. 

 

[FishyThoughts]

On 12/30/2020 at 8:04 PM, GardenStateGoldfish said:

 

I have a very bad chloramine problem that caused a regular dose of prime to not be enough to remove all the chloramine. I was having to double dose to get the water safe enough for the fish, so I switched to seachem safe so I don't blow through a bottle of pime every month haha. 

 

 

My municipality uses chloramine and prime seemed to do fine for me when I was using it. I always added prime to the new water prime to adding to the tank. Basically just add prime, mix slightly (stick hand in bucket swirl once) and then add water to the tank. I switched to Fritz Guard recently since I’m trying a new setup on the tank and not wanting the detoxifying ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, but same process. 

We’re you mixing it in the water prior to adding the water to the tank? If adding as you described in your last post maybe it’s just the chloramine is reacting with everything in the aquarium prior to the prime having a chance to detoxify the new water. 

[Christian West]

I just add the prime directly to the tank and have never had a problem. however i dont know what the actual time. i have friends who do the same with discus, and other more tempremental fish and they havent had a problem either

[Ken Burke]

If you are holding water in gallon jugs, chlorine will vent off in a few days so no de-chlorinater needed.  Chloramine won’t vent so check with your water company.  

[GardenStateGoldfish]

8 hours ago, FishyThoughts said:

My municipality uses chloramine and prime seemed to do fine for me when I was using it. I always added prime to the new water prime to adding to the tank. Basically just add prime, mix slightly (stick hand in bucket swirl once) and then add water to the tank. I switched to Fritz Guard recently since I’m trying a new setup on the tank and not wanting the detoxifying ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, but same process. 

We’re you mixing it in the water prior to adding the water to the tank? If adding as you described in your last post maybe it’s just the chloramine is reacting with everything in the aquarium prior to the prime having a chance to detoxify the new water. 

I add it directly to the tank and have a TON of water to change, that is why I switched to seachem safe, if I only had 1 or two tanks I would stick with prime. I also add the seachem safe just right when I add the water and they do fine. 

 

[Struggle]

I use seachem safe due to the amount of water that I change as well.

[Coronal Mass Ejection Carl]

On 12/30/2020 at 10:21 PM, GardenStateGoldfish said:

@Coronal Mass Ejection Carl It depends on the tank to be honest, but I use more the the recommended dose on all of the tanks except the 270g, which I treat with 300g dose when I do a 50% water change, so I guess as I was typing to answer the question I usually use 2x the dose, because I add the tank amount not the new water amount. I add the safe right as I am adding the water and the fish do not appear stressed like they were before during water changes, I add the safe right onto of the hose I have adding the water, kinda have a jimmy rigged water change system. 

The reason I ask is because the recommended dose of Prime neutralizes 6.2 times more chloramine than Safe so if a single dose of Prime wasn't enough, a double dose of Safe would definitely not be enough.

[GardenStateGoldfish]

2 hours ago, Coronal Mass Ejection Carl said:

The reason I ask is because the recommended dose of Prime neutralizes 6.2 times more chloramine than Safe so if a single dose of Prime wasn't enough, a double dose of Safe would definitely not be enough.

Are you sure about that? 1/4 a tsp treats 300 gallons of chlorine/chloramine, it only treats 75g of ammonia, (1/4 tsp) for safe. I believe you I just never heard that prime is 6.2 times better. either way, the safe is way more cost effective for me then the prime because I would need 6 cap fulls of prime to treat that same amount. (1 cap = 50 gallons of prime) 

[Coronal Mass Ejection Carl]

10 hours ago, GardenStateGoldfish said:

Are you sure about that? 1/4 a tsp treats 300 gallons of chlorine/chloramine, it only treats 75g of ammonia, (1/4 tsp) for safe. I believe you I just never heard that prime is 6.2 times better. either way, the safe is way more cost effective for me then the prime because I would need 6 cap fulls of prime to treat that same amount. (1 cap = 50 gallons of prime) 

100% sure. The numbers also match what you can derive from the amount of Prime or Safe Seachem suggests you use to neutralize bleach after recharging Purigen.

Safe is only 3 times more cost effective than Prime when you correct the dosage.

[GardenStateGoldfish]

5 hours ago, Coronal Mass Ejection Carl said:

100% sure. The numbers also match what you can derive from the amount of Prime or Safe Seachem suggests you use to neutralize bleach after recharging Purigen.

Safe is only 3 times more cost effective than Prime when you correct the dosage.

If I am understanding you correctly, either way, safe is more cost effective then prime though which is why I use safe. A 17 ounce bottle of prime (13 dollars) only treats 5,000 gallons where a bottle of safe (10 dollars) treats 60,000 gallons. I am a huge prime fan but its just way more expensive for me to use then safe. 

[Coronal Mass Ejection Carl]

9 minutes ago, GardenStateGoldfish said:

If I am understanding you correctly, either way, safe is more cost effective then prime though which is why I use safe. A 17 ounce bottle of prime (13 dollars) only treats 5,000 gallons where a bottle of safe (10 dollars) treats 60,000 gallons. I am a huge prime fan but its just way more expensive for me to use then safe. 

Prime neutralizes chlorine (actually chloramine since that's what my tap water has) at a rate of 122 mg/mL. Safe neutralizes it at a rate of 0.515 grams chlorine per gram of Safe.

The recommended dose of Prime (1 mL / 37.85 L) then neutralizes 3.22 mg/L chlorine and that of Safe (1 mg/L) only 0.515 mg/L.

3.22 / 0.515 = 6.25

You can also calculate that 1 mL Prime = 237 mg of Safe.

For perspective, the solubility of sodium thiosulfate is 700 mg/mL so if API maxed out the ST in their Tap Water Conditioner they could blow away Prime in concentration.

500 mL Prime is $12.79 and neutralizes 500 mL * 0.122 mg/mL = 61 g chlorine.

250 g Safe is $9.99 and neutralizes 250 g * 0.515 = 128.75 g chlorine.

12.9 g chlorine per dollar for Safe and 4.77 g/$ for Prime making Safe 2.7 times more cost effective.

If you go big:

4 L Prime 6.51 g/$
4 kg Safe 20.6 g/$

[Ryan F]

Just wanted to chime in with a little factoid I picked up from one of Cory's videos. If you are treating your water ahead of time. Make sure to aerate it as dechlorinators tend to remove oxygen from the system and idle water will stagnate. It can make water changes rougher on the fish than they need to be. 

Personally I add my dechlorinator while I'm filling my water bucket with a mix of tap/RO, as much as they say it works instantly...it's chemistry, not physics, so I give it at least a few minutes to work before adding to the tank. Sometimes that's just enough time to let the water come to room temp before adding it to the tank.