water conditioner

[lisajellytot]

Hi
I am new to this forum so apologies if i shouldnt have asked this question but couldnt seem to find any other questions on it.

I have been keeping rcs for a few weeks and originally did not use any water conditioner. The shrimp were breeding really well. I read that shrimp were sensitive to chlorine etc and that it was essential to use water conditioner so i started to use one and all my problems began. i have lost c50 of my shrimp. I lost more with every water change so stopped using the conditioner and the remaining shrimp are much happier. can anyone point me in the direction of shrimp safe water conditioners please? The one i used had a stress coat in it so can only assume this was the problem.

Thanks

[Mustafa]

I usually recommend just simple dechlorinators (that also take care of chloramines) without any "slime coat" enhancing chemicals, or similar stuff, added to it. Prime and Amquel Plus do a good job, although I found that in high chloramine areas using twice the dosage recommended on a bottle of Prime is the way to go. Here in San Diego, a normal dosage does not do the job. I have never used Amquel Plus, so I can't comment on what dosage is appropriate if you have really high chlromamine levels. Having said that, you may have been ok without a dechlorinator because your water supply may only have simple chlorine, which gasses out rather quickly (and you probably did not do huge water changes). I would recommend checking your local "water quality report" to find out if you have chlorine or chloramines in your water supply and go from there. If you only have Chlorine, all you may have to do is just let the change water sit in a bucket overnight with an air stone added, although using a dechlorinator is still the safer method.