Prime Conditioner to remove chlorine/chloramine - any good?

[jorgeblen]

Hello all,

Reading about chloramine in some aquarium forums I came across this Prime conditioner and it seem to be very popular with the fish ppl. Has anybody tried it ? If it really does what it says that would be a good and cheap solution to get rid of this shite.

Please see description

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Prime™ is the complete and concentrated conditioner for both fresh and salt water. Prime™ removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. Prime™ converts ammonia into a safe, non-toxic form that is readily removed by the tank’s biofilter. Prime™ may be used during tank cycling to alleviate ammonia/nitrite toxicity. Prime™ detoxifies nitrite and nitrate, allowing the biofilter to more efficiently remove them. Prime™ also promotes the production and regeneration of the natural slime coat. Prime™ is non-acidic and will not impact pH. Prime™ will not overactivate skimmers. Use at start-up and whenever adding or replacing water. DIRECTIONS: Use 1 capful (5 mL) for each 200 L (50 gallons*) of new water. For smaller doses, please note each cap thread is approx. 1 mL). This dose removes approximately 0.6 mg/L ammonia, 3 mg/L chloramine, or 4 mg/L chlorine. May be added to aquarium directly, but better if added to new water first. If adding directly to aquarium, base dose on aquarium volume. Sulfur odor is normal. For exceptionally high chloramine concentrations, a double dose may be used safely. To detoxify nitrite in an emergency, up to 5 times normal dose may be used. If temperature is > 30 °C (86 °F) and chlorine or ammonia levels are low, use a half dose.

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Peace

 

[johnd]

If you run an air pump and some air stones for a few hours, the chlorine with go away and you would avoid using extra chemicals that smell like sulfur!

 

[foomar]

Chloramine will not be removed by bubbling air or boiling , most water suppliers now use it worldwide , its chemistry is very different from previous chlorination process.

Best solution i have found is ozone , destroys most contaminents and breaks down itself adding nothing , cheaper long term than peroxide or tank chems.

It will also remove the hundred or more other man made compounds present in trace amounts in most city water.

 

[jorgeblen]

Thanks foormar, thats very good to know

Do you just bubble your water with this airstone? for how long?

Peace

 

[foomar]

Have to remove the chloramine as it damages african violets and several exotics that mrs foomar exhibits , high levels in summer have caused leaf damage on haze,s but usually no visible effects on canna.

If we run out of stored rainwater i drop the stone in 50 litres of disgusting tap water for an hour or so , its fine to drink and AV,s are undamaged so its gone , they are a very sensitive indicator for chloramine.

As with peroxide , it will destroy the chemical balance of nutrients in a resevoir.

 

[Tony Aroma]

Now I have a filter, but before that I used Prime for years for my aquarium water. Worked as advertised, as far as I could tell.

It's also true that chloramine will not evaporate like chlorine does. Bubbling will only remove chlorine.

 

[jorgeblen]

but i meant bubbling with an ozone generator, not only an airstone.

 

[d3cryption]

Interested in this too.. also how much did it run you, does it affect ppm and oh?

 

[mrdizzle]

primes the way to go, dirt cheap and works great. if it didnt work there would be a lot of fish floating vs swimming in peoples tanks

 

[jorgeblen]

but the question is: does it leave something behind that can be harmful for our lovely plants and/or beneficial bacteria in the soil?

 

[Sam the Caveman]

bubble ozone

I bought a cheap $25 off ebay from china and its been working great for over a year now. Its turned my algae infested chloramine tap water into something very useful. No more toting 10gals of RO from the water machine 2x a week.

 

[jgrow]

bubble ozone

I bought a cheap $25 off ebay from china and its been working great for over a year now. Its turned my algae infested chloramine tap water into something very useful. No more toting 10gals of RO from the water machine 2x a week.

I'm looking on ebay but not 100% sure which ones to look at. Any recommendations?

 

[Sam the Caveman]

mine is very similar to this one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/O3-Food-Wat...868?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20bd294c8c

 

[d3cryption]

Sam does this affect the ph or ppm?

 

[Derka]

I use amquel+

Been using it for years, never had a problem, and its probably about the same as Prime.

 

[Sam the Caveman]

Sam does this affect the ph or ppm?

never checked it, its completely gone after 2 hours though

 

[SeaMaiden]

The active ingredient in the aquarium conditioners, and something like this *is* absolutely required to break the bond between the Cl and NH (don't recall which form of ammonia is used), is Sodium thiosulfate. In dry form it lasts forever, and is highly concentrated. You can buy a 2lb jar for $5 from a place called The Chemistry Store dot com, and then you would mix that to a 1%-3% solution, and that would then be used at the same rates as products such as Amquel, Prime, Novaqua, etcetera.

Sodium thiosulfate. DO NOT purchase in conjunction with CS or you will be put on a special federal list.

Also, just an FYI about straight Cl--you don't need to bubble it, simply allow the body of water direct contact with open air and it will outgas on its own, no other energy inputs required. I haven't found bubbling to increase the speed with which Cl will offgass, but I have found that ST is instantaneous. Also, you should know that it's what is used in public aquariums to dechlorinate some seriously large volumes of water, not ozone.

Finally, yes, O3 should have an affect on pH because O2 has an affect--it drives pH upward. CO2 acidifies.

 

[jgrow]

@ Sam

Do you run it in your reservoir or just run the water you fill your reservoir with through it?

I need to clean 20 gallons of h20 a day

 

[Sam the Caveman]

I hand water my mother plants and clones and use a drip to water my flowering plants, so when I fill up the rez or my 5 gal bucket I just bubble it with ozone for a while. The more water I have the longer it runs.

It really just depends on what type of system you running to figure out how to set it up.

The one I have is basically just a small air pump with the ozone generator incorporated into it. So, if you were running an rdwc with an auto top off, you could just hang the airstone in there and have the pump on a timer that runs for a few minutes a couple times a day. For anything else that uses a rez, just fill it up and pump some ozone in it, wait a couple hours for it to dissolve then dose the nutes an set ph. You might could dose the nutes immediately without ill effect, I never tried it, I just play it safe and wait a few hours.

I've never used it in a rdwc though, but have read that ozone will precipitate manganese. (I think thats the one) But who knows, it might work just fine if your just running it a few minutes a couple times a day, low concentrations.

 

[d3cryption]

hmmm...