> I'm sure this issue has been dealt with before
> but being new to the list and to the prospect
> of the addition of chloramine to my water supply,
> I ask your indulgence and help. I recently spoke
> with an angel and goldfish breeder who said he
> could not successfully remove chloramine from his
> city water and lost fish before he switched to well
> water. He said that AMQUEL and other products did
> not work for him and that the only way he could
> make the city water habitable was to expose it to
> sunlight for a week. I'm greatly concerned as my
> water supply will begin to chloramine on Feb. 1st.
Either sodium thiosulfate treatment or slow flow through a carbon block
filter should clear most of the oxidizing equivalents from the water. To
check to see that you have eliminated the chlorine component, you can use
a simple and relatively inexpensive test kit from Hach to measure
residual chloramine. A test that is sensitive to chloramine is the best
way to assess this.
After that, you may be left with a treated product that has more ammonia
in it than you or the aquatic life in your tank would like, if they
were suddenly plunked into 100 percent of that water. If you are
doing partial water exchanges in the 5-10 percent range, it is unlikely
that this will have a noticable negative impact on an established tank.
To determine the amount of ammonia residual in the water, I'd suggest
running an ammonia test method from a reputable company. For fresh
waters, both the Nessler and salicylate methods will work.
Best wishes,
Craig