# Freshwater chemicals. Are they necessary?



## 4537256 (Jun 7, 2009)

Lots of water conditioners, chlorine removers, water clear, bacteria starters, ph balancers...etc, its all pretty expensive.

I just put water in my tank yesterday for the first time in a couple years. i have used this stuff in the past. I was buying some water conditioner and bacteria starter and the fish store guy told me these arent necessary, their just marketing gimmicks to sell stuff. that all i need to do is let it sit for 7 days with filter on and change 10% water monthly and its as good as its going to get.

i bought them anyway but curious what you guys think about these products.
kind i got claims less water changes and removes various metals and contaminates, calms fish, prevents new tank syndrome..etc...is it all true?

is there anything particular i should get, like salt or PH balancer?
i tried some ph balancer years ago that was white powder and it made a horrible mess inside my tank, all these white flakes everywhere laying about and it never went away, i always wondered about what happened there.*pc


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## bikerider (Mar 12, 2009)

well I know the water treatments remove chlorine which is good for the fish, the Cl will "evaporate" from the water eventually but I couldn't pin point 7 days. Other factors would effect the rate of evaperation like size of tank, weather conditions, ect. 
With the pH stuff I think you are supposed to mix it in some water before you add it to your tank. when I need it I take some water from the tank and mix it up then add it back, if you couldn't get it to mix, maybe you added to much? Added it all at once?


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## fishfinder (Aug 31, 2008)

I've tried letting the water sit in large covered garbage cans, but it went bad, bacterial bloom. At the very least you should get the chlorine removers, and ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kets. If you keep fish that thrive in your water conditions, you won't have to change the ph and hardness. I like fish who thrive in extreme ph and hardness conditions, so I have to treat it. I use discus buffer to lower the ph for those fish who like a low ph, and african rift lake buffers to raise it for my cichlids. Pricey at first, but with small tanks it lasts a very long time. I've only had problems of cloudiness in the water when I tried baking soda to raise the ph. Won't try that again. Hope this helps.


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## Oldman (May 25, 2009)

If you have decent tap water, the only chemical you should need is the Prime to treat the chlorine / chloramine. Chlorine will gas off on its own after a day or two but chloramine is intended to be more stable than chlorine to make the water safe to drink. Being stable means it will still be there next week if you draw water into a bucket. Use the dechlorinator. For me all of the other stuff stays at the fish shop, I refuse to clobber my tank with chemicals and it pays me dividends. A light fish stock using only dechlorinator for water changes gives me healthy fish that just go on and on. 
If you just put water into the tank, the thing your LFS could give you to help out would be some mature filter media to help get your filter cycled.


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## 4537256 (Jun 7, 2009)

bikerider said:


> With the pH stuff I think you are supposed to mix it in some water before you add it to your tank. when I need it I take some water from the tank and mix it up then add it back, if you couldn't get it to mix, maybe you added to much? Added it all at once?


i followed directions, i cant recall what it was called but never tried any since. i dont know if i really need to balance the ph or not. i think the water conditioner i got balances it.


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## Chickadee (Nov 15, 2008)

A lot of people would disagree with me but there is one product that I would never use and that is Cycle. It gives you an artificial cycle and when you stop using it then the actual cycle has to start over. So if you really want to waste money that is one to waste it on. At least in my opinion I never seemed to have luck with it. You DO need Prime or Amquel+ or Novaqua or one of the others which ever you choose (Prime is generally considered the best as it goes further) to remove the chloramines in the water and the heavy metals. The chlorine can be boiled out or allowed to set out overnight but the other things will not do it. Most ground waters anymore do contain trace amounts of heavy metals that need to be neutralized also or they concentrate in the tanks. Remember evaporation only takes out the water not the things in the water. In order to get rid of those you have to do water changes. So if you are doing nothing but topping off the loss from evaporation the heavy metals are becoming more and more concentrated if they have not been neutralized with a conditioner and the fish are suffering for it.

Under no circumstances would I ever mess with pH buffers either up or down. Fish that are from your area stores have generally adjusted themselves to your local pH already and if they are not adjusted it is better to allow them to adjust on their own than to try to do the adjusting of the water. Or better yet to try to get fish that fit into the pH system that you have. The dangers of the buffers is that they are unstable or too easily mismeasured and it is too easy to have fluctuations which are more dangerous than a high or low pH would be to the fish to begin with.

Most additives are not needed unless they really provide some benefit for the fish. Medications for a whole tank of sick fish are a necessity, but to medicate a whole tank for one fish is not good. Set up a hospital tank for that one fish and treat it seperately. Additives for the sake of additives are just a hobby's way of getting money off of hobbists that dearly love their pets.

I have to agree with the gentleman that said they are not for the most part needed but you do need every time to condition tap water and in most cases now even well water though I know it is not chlorinated. It still contains those heavy metals that I spoke of due to the chemicals we now are putting on our fields and on our lawns. Runoff from fertilizers and bugkillers and weedkillers and such are leeching into our water and making it unsafe for the tanks and if you want to see what your water contains ask for a report from your water board. They have to have them and I think you will be amazed.

Rose


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