Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hi all - just a question - the tapwater here (Singapore) contains flouride, chlorine and chloramine. I usually add water conditioner to my tapwater for a weekly 10% water change.

So far the water has not affected any of the fishes I keep but would water conditioner affect shrimps adversely? If it helps, I using Aquamed's Water Guardian.

Thanks for your help again.

If you have to use water conditioner because of chloramines, then there is really no way around it I guess. I personally do not use water conditioners so I cannot comment on their toxicity. I have heard that people did just fine with water conditioners, but I personally try to keep any unnecessary chemicals out of my tanks.

Mustafa

how about RO water? good to use?

Pure RO water? You will have to add back minerals to it. Best way is to mix it back with normal tap water.

Here's some information on combined chlorine (chloramine):
http://www.ci.millbrae.ca.us/pdf/chlora ... ersion.pdf

To break the bond between chlorine-ion and amine-ion, to neutralize the effects of chrolamine, you can either use ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or sodiumtiosulfate (NaS2O3).
I prefer ascorbic acid, because it's cheaper, it also improves health of critters in aquarium and it's hard to overdose. The extra amount of ascorbic acid will be consumed by bacterias in filtermedia.
Before adding any ascorbic acid to your water make sure your KH level is high enough to stop pH falling too low, due to vitamin C's acid nature!!!

1 mg/liter of ascorbic acid will neutralize 0,4 mg/l of chloramine.


To remove chlorine and fluoride you can either use water conditioners or you can airrate the water for 24 hours before adding it to aquarium.

Our water here has the same stuff you listed and we have to use really good dechlorinators on the tap water for the fish (makes the water reek too). What we've been doing, since we do weekly water changed in all the fish tanks, is siphoning off the clear mid-water from the fish tanks into clean water bottles (don't use the gunk off the bottom), and use that water for the shrimp. The plants and fish (and whatever) somehow neutralize whatever chems were added to the fish water so it is no longer harmful to the shrimp. This water recycling has been working well for us.