Use a conditioner for Chlorine and Heavy Metals?

[kaylor]

Does anyone religiously use conditioner for their tap water?

I have two brackish tanks now. A 26 Gal with my Figure 8, 2 K. Gobies, 3 Sailfin Mollies and 3 large Nerite Snails this tank has been going for almost a year with no problems. Now my 2nd 30 gallon has only been up for about 2 1/2 months. I cycled it for 5 weeks before adding any fish...I used media from my other tank to help speed up the bacteria process.

Here's why I ask about the conditioner.

Ammonia levels are virtually non-existent, PH is stable, salinity .007, temp is steady. The tank is stocked with 3 Sailfin Mollies 2 Female/1 Male, 2 Orange Chromides, 3 Nerites Snails and 1 K. Goby. Over the last 10 days first one female Molly began spinning and convulsing...about a week later she died. Now the its happening to the 2nd female Molly. The other fish and snails seem fine so far. All I can think of is high levels of Chlorine or Metal in my tap water. But this is not a problem with my other tank. Should I be using Stress Coat or some other type of conditioner when I do water changes? Or is that just a marketing myth? Any other possibilites?

[blondenblue]

i use either stress coat or prime as a dechlorinator in all my tanks

[edmlfc1]

Yes, I pefer prime, and I use it on every water change.
If you don't want to use it and you have the room, you can age your water in another container. But if your water contains chloramine, no amount of ageing will work.

[Jase]

I use Prime as well.

[xspainx69]

Does anyone religiously use conditioner for their tap water?

I have two brackish tanks now. A 26 Gal with my Figure 8, 2 K. Gobies, 3 Sailfin Mollies and 3 large Nerite Snails this tank has been going for almost a year with no problems. Now my 2nd 30 gallon has only been up for about 2 1/2 months. I cycled it for 5 weeks before adding any fish...I used media from my other tank to help speed up the bacteria process.

Here's why I ask about the conditioner.

Ammonia levels are virtually non-existent, PH is stable, salinity .007, temp is steady. The tank is stocked with 3 Sailfin Mollies 2 Female/1 Male, 2 Orange Chromides, 3 Nerites Snails and 1 K. Goby. Over the last 10 days first one female Molly began spinning and convulsing...about a week later she died. Now the its happening to the 2nd female Molly. The other fish and snails seem fine so far. All I can think of is high levels of Chlorine or Metal in my tap water. But this is not a problem with my other tank. Should I be using Stress Coat or some other type of conditioner when I do water changes? Or is that just a marketing myth? Any other possibilites?

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You always use tap water conditioner! I dont care if your water is being air lifted from the white house and being pumped straight into your property pipelines, you always use tap water conditioner. I use PRIME as my conditioner and it works like a charm.
But if you cant find prime pretty much any standard tap water conditioner will do. Anytime you change water or add new water you put in tap water conditioner. If your pre-mixing your water in a bucket and adding salt, then you add the water conditioner right there before you dump it in. I personally like to be better safe than sorry.

[Myaj]

NO, you do NOT always need to use a water conditioner.

Actually, most of us frown upon "water conditioners", as they are often a marketing gimmick to get you to buy a product religiously (hence a constant income for the seller).

If you are on a city/municipal water source, then YES, you DO need a dechlorniator. You don't need one that deals with heavy metals or enhances slime coat, blah blah.. you need one that dechlorinates. So Wardley's Chlor Out, Prime, Amquel all work well for that (with Prime and Amquel having some added bonuses).

If your home's water source is a private well, then you don't even need a dechlorinator. However, most people on wells are generally out in farming areas and might have a lot of nitrates and phosphates in their water due to fertilizers, etc seeping into the groundwater.


So, on to your problem.. you need to test your water. What are your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, the real number results? When is the last time you did a water change?

"Virtually non-existant" ammonia readings are not good.. if you have ANY ammonia that is burning/toxic to your fish and can kill them easily. You want zero ammonia at all times, no trace of it at all.

Any time a fish is in distress the first thing to do is a water change. Clean water is the best possible thing for your fish. If you haven't done water changes in a while, start out with several smaller, more frequent changes so you don't change any parameters drastically and shock the fish or biofilter.

[xspainx69]

NO, you do NOT always need to use a water conditioner.

Actually, most of us frown upon "water conditioners", as they are often a marketing gimmick to get you to buy a product religiously (hence a constant income for the seller).

If you are on a city/municipal water source, then YES, you DO need a dechlorniator. You don't need one that deals with heavy metals or enhances slime coat, blah blah.. you need one that dechlorinates. So Wardley's Chlor Out, Prime, Amquel all work well for that (with Prime and Amquel having some added bonuses).

If your home's water source is a private well, then you don't even need a dechlorinator. However, most people on wells are generally out in farming areas and might have a lot of nitrates and phosphates in their water due to fertilizers, etc seeping into the groundwater.


So, on to your problem.. you need to test your water. What are your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, the real number results? When is the last time you did a water change?

"Virtually non-existant" ammonia readings are not good.. if you have ANY ammonia that is burning/toxic to your fish and can kill them easily. You want zero ammonia at all times, no trace of it at all.

Any time a fish is in distress the first thing to do is a water change. Clean water is the best possible thing for your fish. If you haven't done water changes in a while, start out with several smaller, more frequent changes so you don't change any parameters drastically and shock the fish or biofilter.

Actually you do need tap water conditioner.....Most people dont frown on it, because most people that do use it have no dead fish at the end of the day....or better said "having Molly's going in circles convulsing"


"You don't need one that deals with heavy metals and enhances slime coat blah blah..."- Well then what happens when your water has heavy metals? How do you know what the chemical composition is thats coming in through his pipes? I would rather be safe than sorry....but thats just my opinion.

You should buy the one that treats heavy metals and dechlorinates the water.....Im sure everyones water is perfect.....But personally i'd rather play it safe than sorry, or unless some people here enjoy seeing Molly's twich & convulse, rather than "give the constant income to the seller"

[kaylor]

I appreciate all the responses. As I said my tank upstairs is fine, no problems for nearly a year now...so I really thought my towns tap waters chem levels were low enough to not need a conditioner. But the newer tank is having problems, so maybe its time. I was also hesitant as I've read Stress Coat is just BS when it comes to water changes. That conditioner use...isn't really proven. I didn't want to throw money away if that was the case.

Funny though my Goby in the "problem" tank is more active and colorful then the two upstairs. And my Chromides are such a deep deep orange I wouldn't have known anything was wrong; until the Molly died.

So I think I'll give the Prime a shot...that seems to be the most popular. I'll just mix it in the bucket when I do another water change this weekend. Hopefully this will solve my problem.

Oh and of course I did a 30%-40% water change when the Mollies started having their problems. These are my first brackish tanks, but I've had other fresh water ones for many years in the past. Never used a conditioner in the past. That was at my old place, which was well water...hmmmm.

[xspainx69]

I appreciate all the responses. As I said my tank upstairs is fine, no problems for nearly a year now...so I really thought my towns tap waters chem levels were low enough to not need a conditioner. But the newer tank is having problems, so maybe its time. I was also hesitant as I've read Stress Coat is just BS when it comes to water changes. That conditioner use...isn't really proven. I didn't want to throw money away if that was the case.

Funny though my Goby in the "problem" tank is more active and colorful then the two upstairs. And my Chromides are such a deep deep orange I wouldn't have known anything was wrong; until the Molly died.

So I think I'll give the Prime a shot...that seems to be the most popular. I'll just mix it in the bucket when I do another water change this weekend. Hopefully this will solve my problem.

Oh and of course I did a 30%-40% water change when the Mollies started having their problems. These are my first brackish tanks, but I've had other fresh water ones for many years in the past. Never used a conditioner in the past. That was at my old place, which was well water...hmmmm.

Yeah if you can get a hold of Prime then definetely get it. I have been always been a firm advocator for tap water conditioners. There is nothing more disturbing than to watch a fish get gill burns and go into convulsions because of elevated levels of chloramines and chlorine. I never bought Stress Coat so Im not sure how BS it is? I stick to what works for me. I use Prime and Hagen Aqua plus Tap Water Conditioner and both have served me well.

If it was useless i'd be the first person to tell you that its BS. I learned the hard way on a lot of things...... Water Conditioner is not BS. Good luck on the brackish tank. We are always here to help anyone that may have trouble.

[PuffnStuff]

I age my water for a week with salt in it and nothing else. I don't add water conditioner and my puffer tank has been fine for 1 year now. I do use water conditioner in my FW tanks where I don't age my water due to space issues.

[Iliveinazoo]

"They" say that chlorine will dissipate after 24 hours if you aireate. My tap water tates foul due to the amount of chlorine in it and you should see the levels that water companies (at least here in GB) are allowed to supply you with - 50ppm nitrates for example which would kill many fish.

Water companies take their water from many sources so the amount of heavy metals and nitrates/phosphates will vary throughout the year and so you will never know what you are putting into your tank unless you test it every single time.

I always use Tetra Aquasafe because that's what my LFS has in stock and it works for me.

[Myaj]

xspain, there is a difference between a decholorinator and a "conditioner" that does all kinds of things you might not need it to do. Some of the "conditioners" actually seem to inhibit gill function and irritate the skin (sure, they "enhance" the slime coat.. they burn the skin so the fish produces more slime, "hey look, their slime coat really IS thicker!") As far as "heavy metals", well, I have yet to read or see anything about anyone that actually has had issues, other than maybe old copper pipes.. and a water conditioner that treats for "heavy metals" isn't going to do much of anything to compensate for old, leeching copper pipes.

If you are on any sort of city/town provided water source, you will want to use a dechlorinator.. Chlorine, the old way of sanitizing water sources DOES dissipate after 24 hours or so.. however, most water companies are switching to chloromines because they do NOT dissipate.. meaning they stay in the water longer, keeping it safer, longer. This is good for drinking, but not for fish, obviously. So in that case yes, you do need to use something to decholorinate because the old way of leaving the water out to sit won't work any more.

Prime is a very good product and I use it myself.. but be warned, it smells pretty strong. Sort of a sulfur smell. Just telling you now as most people wonder if their bottle is "bad" when they open one for the first time and catch a whiff of it!


There could be plenty of things wrong with the fish causing the spinning and convulsing, parasites, diseases, high nitrates, a toxin, etc..

Again, simple ammonia, nitrite and nitrate tests can rule out the obvious, easy to fix problems. If that doesn't give you some answers, another thing you could do is call your water company and ask them if they've treated with anything recently, or changed anything.. Also take a look at anything you've used in or around the tank.. cleaning products, perfumes, lotion on your hands, someone may have used a bucket intended for water changes to wash the floor, etc. Or maybe some decor is falling apart or something, people have had issues with paint coming off gravel and poisoning the fish when they eat it..

[ryverrat]

If your original 26g is fine and you have been doing your partial water changes, I wouldn't blame your water for the problems in the new tank since you use the same water to replenish both. I would check any decorations in the tank and make sure the ammonia is at 0. Is it a new or used tank? I know you cycled it but did you cycle for the amount of fish you were going to add? Did you get all the fish at once? Were did you get the fish- were there sick fish in the tank with them? Did you quarantine the new fish? How is the male treating the females- I'm not familiar with mollies but males in most species can get pushy- may be stressing the females and making them susceptible to disease.

[goby1kenobi]

Yes, use a dechlorinator that also specifically says it removes chloramine. We use Prime and AmQuel Plus.

However, so far, everyone is assuming that it was something in the water that caused the molly to die. But "spinning and convulsing" sounds to me like whirling disease, especially when you're talking about mollies. If the fish started spinning like a top, head down, that's what it was. Do some research on that; I'm not sure what the current thoughts are on treatment (if there are any treatments that work for this). Meanwhile, I'd move any remaining mollies into a hospital tank.