# Chlorine



## summit (Aug 22, 2010)

Just curious as to others thoughts on this as I have heard many different opinions on chlorine in BC here.

When starting a tank, or doing a water change I always use prime to treat for Chlorine/Chloramine, but I am curious about others practices on the smaller scale, such as a water top up, with open tops I lose about 1.5L from my osaka 260L every day, and probably 1L from my osaka 155L, would you bother treating 1L of water when it would be added to already 155L of water? Is there much risk of killing bacteria when the dillution is that much? What amount of chlorine does it take to kill fish or beneficial bacteria?

Taking it even one step further, when you rinse the filter sponge out in tap water, do you soak it in treated water before putting it back in the filter? or do you just squeeze the tap water in and put it back in place, not worrying about the chlorine water that might be left from rinsing the sponge?

I ask because as much as you want to be on the safe side, and perhaps take that extra step to be absolutely sure, is it really necessary to spend the extra time and effort to do it? I have to be honest, grabbing a jug and filling it, throwing it in the tank for top up would be alot nicer than having to treat it first and figuring out the really low dose for 1L of water, relatively minor I know, but it gets tedious to do everyday.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

I always use water conditioner even for very small water changes like 1 litre, but I use a less concentrated water conditioner like Aquasafe or Shrimp Safe rather than Prime for small amounts. It's just easier for me to figure out the required amount that way.

I don't think that there'd be enough chlorine to worry about in a sponge that you'd rinsed under the tap and then squeezed out, but the chlorine might kill the beneficial bacteria in that filter sponge.


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## christhefish (Nov 8, 2010)

i dont treat my water unless i have some really sensitive fish but then its just water aged for a day sometimes i change up to 50% but my fish are probably more tolerant of a little chlorine than most as i have been doing this for years with them
but for just a top up like that 1% i dont think you should worry about it


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## gwcana (Apr 22, 2010)

I let water sit in a tub for small tanks before I use it
Larger tanks if I'm doing a mass change I take the fish out...change the water and let it sit for a day before I put the fish back in...


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## summit (Aug 22, 2010)

interesting, so is it true that most chlorine is removed right from the facet since its aggitated and introducing air into it with the strainer on the tap?

Also a good idea about using a different tap water conditioner for smaller water volumes, its tough with prime sometimes, thanks for the tip, I dunno why I didnt think of that


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## TeriyakiSawce (Jan 6, 2011)

I just let the water set for 24 hours in those blue office water dispenser containers.


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## hi-revs (Nov 3, 2010)

i put it in straight from the tap, even at 50% water changes. The i add dechlorine-izer into the tank. Never had any problems whatsoever
sometimes i'll add some live bacteria, and thats it.
water stays clear and everyone seems fine.


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## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

From my personal experiences, when i need to clean out any sponge media i just take out a bit of aquarium water(bucket) and just rinse it out in there.Valuable bacteria lay on the sponge and i assume any water from the tap might wipe out some of it.Small or large water changes always get treated with a conditioner.


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## JohnnyAppleSnail (May 30, 2010)

I keep at least 8 18.9L Water Jugs filled with water aging for a week+ at a time,I don't fill right to the top leave a little area space,when I add I never use conditioners.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

For smaller water changes, like in my 20 gallon, I have a rubbermaid tub which I heat and circulate the water with a powerhead to dissipate chlorine. Minimum of 12 hours. Anything less than that I add dechlorinator.

There were many posts in the pre-crash forum documenting tank crashes/livestock wipeouts because of chlorine. You can never predict when the city decides to up the chlorine because of a high bacterial count situation (especially at spring). One particular case that comes to mind is sNApple who had his entire 90 gallon tank wiped out after a water change.


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## summit (Aug 22, 2010)

thanks for the input everyone, I think I am just going to keep some extra 1 gallon milk jugs around of pre-treated water for my water top ups, it seems like I could probably get away with the top up 1.5L of tap water straight from the tap to my 260L tank, but does not seem like its worth the possibility of a risk.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

The price of Prime is such that if you get a 4L jug it's 0.1 cent a gallon so I wouldn't worry about the jugs if space is a concern. Or if you have enough tanks get some Seachem Safe/ClorAmX or bulk Sodium thiosulphate and now you're down to half of that per gallon treated. Pretty cheap by anyone's book.


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## summit (Aug 22, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> The price of Prime is such that if you get a 4L jug it's 0.1 cent a gallon so I wouldn't worry about the jugs if space is a concern. Or if you have enough tanks get some Seachem Safe/ClorAmX or bulk Sodium thiosulphate and now you're down to half of that per gallon treated. Pretty cheap by anyone's book.


Yeah its not really the price, it was more my lazy side speaking haha, I was just trying to streamline my daily aquarium maintenance, dosing and filling the water top up container was the most tedious task being as it was such a small amount, in reality its not a big deal, just seeing if I was taking unecessary steps, but doing it once per week with a few 1 gallon jugs and storing the water for top ups makes it that much easier


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

There is an additional benefit to aging the water, and that's the degassing of the CO2, which is in the pipes. Going straight from the taps will charge the water up with more than equilibrium levels of CO2.


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

hi-revs said:


> i put it in straight from the tap, even at 50% water changes. The i add dechlorine-izer into the tank. Never had any problems whatsoever
> sometimes i'll add some live bacteria, and thats it.
> water stays clear and everyone seems fine.


I do the same with my discus tank, except I never bother adding any bacteria back in. Drain the tank, sometimes up to 75%, start the python refilling the tank and add the prime to the tank. Let it fill and I am done. For a small amount, like 1L, I would just dump it in.


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