My understanding is that locked ammonia is only present in an aquarium as the result of using something like AmQuel. I may be wrong on this. I only used API Tap Water Conditioner, which does nothing to lock ammonia as far as I know. Although it does "break the chloramine bond", which I believe would result in the release of free (not locked) ammonia into the water, though again I may be wrong about this.

Well I could be wrong also.

I think you are correct in this link:

Water conditioners - The Free Freshwater and Saltwater Aquarium Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit - The Aquarium Wiki

Stated that other conditioners like amquell and prime are for the ammonia.

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

so I went to the api web site:

Tap Water Conditionerâ„¢ - API

and found the msds

http://cms.marsfishcare.com/files/ms...ner_122309.pdf

which listed contents as:

(which agrees with the other site as well.)

And even more interesting is:

Bold and underline added.

Obviously don't over dose that.

Or even better let the tank set a week planted, add 1 fish and don't add food for a week, then stock up and start feeding 1 or 2 flakes per day. That and just replacing evaporative water with untreated tap results is healthy thriving active fish.

Perhaps you can see why I don't like chemicals. at best unnecessary at worse well read the msds.


my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

lol, where is the MSDS for your tap water? Chlorine and Chloramine are just as, or possibly more, toxic to aquatic life. It certainly wipes out beneficial bacteria. You put chemicals in your tank, you just refuse to believe it. Sitting the water out doesn't guarantee anything.

Gotta go with the JRMAN here on this one. Beals is getting way to technical for anyones good. This ain't chemical class 101. Its not that difficult.

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http://s1050.photobucket.com/albums/...eefingMadness/

It is interesting, though, that the data sheet associated with API Tap Water Conditioner says "very toxic to aquatic life". ;-) I emailed their tech support team to find out exactly under what conditions that's true, given that I doubt people have mass fish deaths when they drop that stuff into their tanks.

Mostly likely it's if the product is overused, but it does give me pause ...

Thats it though, if you drop the bottles in the water, its toxic. Not overuse, using them does not consist of putting any of the liquid into the tank. Its by mishap that you would kill the tank.

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http://s1050.photobucket.com/albums/...eefingMadness/

Especially when all I do is plant the tank, let it set a week before adding fish and then just replacing evaporative water with straight untreated tap.

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Yes, so I've heard. Your water contains no chlorine or chloramines, or your fish have no problem with it if it does?

Pardon me, but you guys are getting a little stupid about this. Obviously, ANY chemical is not going to be good for most aquatic life. If they were to make it edible to them or they could breath in it, it probably wouldn't do anything for YOU.

Your tap water has just as many things that you could say the same thing about. Leaving it for however long your heart desires, does NOT guarantee anything. Anyone have water test results before and after to prove the difference leaving it sit does? Dechlor ENSURES you have no issues. Not all chemicals already in your water dissipate.

Beasl is using this to confuse and misinform to support his methods, nothing more.

My water does conatain chloramine. Per local water authroity.

(if anyone wants to check it is the harvest monrovia water authority, harvest alabama)

My fish have no problem using the week waiting period and just replacing evaporative water.

Additionally I have done the same exact thing in 1/2 dozen or so towns accross the US when I was in the air force and was moving around. Of course all those towns had water safe for humans. (des moines, iowa; Rapid city, south dakota; Alamogordo, NM; Ft walton beach Fl; gosnell, AR;albuquerque, NM;Daleville, al; and finally harvest/madison/huntsville, al)

some towns were river water other aquafiers/wells and so on.

So it is not the conditions or quality of any one town's tap water.


Still just my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Why do you bother to wait for a week? Chloramine won't break down in that time period, will it? And if it does, doesn't it break down into chlorine and ammonia?

From my limited understanding, chlorine will gas out of water if it is left sitting, but chloramine will not. The only way to break the chloramine bond is to use dechlor like API Tap Water Conditioner or Tetra AquaSafe (or whatever it's called). Beasl might not be encountering difficulties because he is adding so little that the chloramine doesn't outright kill the fish, similar to mild ammonia and/or nitrite exposure.

Those of us who do large PWC's, though, need to consider the effects of chloramine more closely.

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

If it works for him (beasel) great. It probably only also works for him because he replaces about 5% per week, if that. Anything above that is just downright foolish if you do water changes like the larger part of the community does and replace percentages that are usually 25%+. It gets recommended many times here but it is just seeing how far you can push something without causing an issue. He doesn't have moving water, a motion that puts gobs of oxygen in the water. So anything he adds to the water that can deplete oxygen, although probably arguable that chloramines do the exact same thing, can cause an issue. I don't understand telling everyone else that the water is fine - jump in, when it's really only fine for his particular setup and keeping up with evaporative loss.

Agreed

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

the fish lives when I wait a week.

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden