Please remember a couple things about my water vs yours. Mine is basically
RO from the tap. I have had unbuffered aquariums go down to pH 2.8 w/out me
realising (the Apistos were very happy, but the java moss turned yellow and
died, so I tested). I am not the oly one, and it happened when I worked at
the local wholesaler's as well. I tested with our meter and YIKES!! With
your RO water, be sure to aerate and let it sit. It works its magic over
time, not immediately.
The whole thing about Amquel being unsafe in this type of unbuffered water
actually came from the dude who invented the stuff, and only really applies
to the stuff you buy in liquid form. The dry powder form of Amquel is
supposed to be safe. MOST situations liquid Amquel is fine, and so this is
only a warning for those who may have low buffers and delay water changes,
or wish to use it to ship fish in already low-pH water. Don't do this. Most
other uses it is fine. I used it for YEARS with no probs but since I now
keep small amounts of crushed coral in even tanks with discus, I am now more
careful. :-)
Oh, and FWIW, I do have a friend who has an allergy to a dechlor (or several
really). She is allergic to Aloe Vera, and this is an ingredient in many
commercial dechlorinators now. Stress Coat by Jungle is one that is common
here. However, in this case I believe it is an organic in the tank. Just a
hunch tho. Please, do test. :-)
Julie <'><
>From: Gary Lange <rainbowfish4u2 at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: r_m_l at yahoogroups.com
>To: r_m_l at yahoogroups.com
>Subject: RE: [RML] Allergy problems, ammonia removal, carbon filtration
>Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2005 07:57:18 -0700 (PDT)
>
>I guess the question is: How long has it been since you've switched back
>to aquasafe? Enough so that if there is a chemical residue from Prime that
>you've diluted it out? If you are quite allergic to something it might
>take 100 fold dilutions. If you are doing small water changes then it
>could take a very long time. We know that it's not anything in the water,
>(like chloramine) before you add it to your tanks, like some have
>suggested, as you would have some major problems in drinking and bathing in
>it. I don't remember hearing of another case where a hobbyist has
>developed an allergy to aquarium water treatments, but it could happen. I
>think Julie's suggestion that perhaps an allergy to bloodworms might offer
>a better solution. But why don't we do the actual experiment instead of
>just guessing.
>
>Make up a quart of (tap, not aquarium) water and put a 10 X dose of "prime"
>in it. Mix well. Be careful not to get any on your hands. Take a cotton
>ball or a Q tip and apply some, in a small 1 inch patch to the top of your
>leg, someplace easy to see. Mix up a batch of water with aquasafe and
>apply a small patch of it to the other leg. You might even go out and find
>some sodium thiosulfate and try some of that on a small patch. You'll
>quickly confirm your diagnosis or you'll find out that it's actually
>something else. So often we jump to conclusions w/o actually doing the
>testing. If only one of the dechlors cause a problem then switching to
>that will solve your problem. I guess I'm betting none of them will cause
>a reaction.
>
>Ammonia removal - I agree with Julie and I think Peter also said ammonia is
>removed by the established filter system fairly easily. I guess I should
>have written down all of my experiments but I did 50% water changes on
>tanks with water that had the chloramines broken with just sodium
>thiosulfate. The water, treated with thiosulfate, before adding back to
>the tank did measure an amount of ammonia. It also measured shortly after
>adding to the tank and mixing. I think it was something like 15 minutes
>later though that the ammonia was gone, eaten by the sponge filters in the
>tank. My real purpose of the experiment though, at the time was to prove
>that washing sponge filters under moderate temperature tap water did
>absolutely nothing to harm the bacteria filter, or at least not enough to
>disrupt it's ammonia removal abilities. When I did these measurements on
>two 20 highs, sitting side by side, where one had the ATI sponge filter
>fairly vigorously washed under tap water, the
> results were the same. I'm going to have to go back some day soon and do
>a better job of recording the results though as it really helps to defeat
>one of the myths of the hobby that you have to clean your filters with
>dechlorinated water.
>
> BTW I've used Kordon Amquel (made in SF) for years w/o any troubles.
>After Julies worries about the pH lowering I did test a 3x dose on my tap
>water (3 degrees KH, so not a lot of buffering capacity). I did not see
>the pH drop. I plan to do some more tests with some RO water as a pH
>lowering dechlorination chemical is not something I need. I stopped using
>the powered "water rite" years ago because it would lower the pH. When you
>have a system with low buffering capacity you don't want to make matters
>worse by adding something that will lower the pH.
>
>Carbon filtration - A few more advanced hobbyists are starting to use the
>automatic water sprinkling systems to change the water in their tanks.
>They use the irrigation drip things like sold at Jehmco.com. They can set
>up specific times and duration when water flows into all of their tanks.
>They are using an overflow system so your tanks have to be drilled though.
>Oh yeah and a drain system. Before the water goes into the tanks it goes
>thru a carbon type filter to capture the chloramines. These are those
>under the kitchen sink filters that contain carbon that you can get at
>Lowes or the other major hardware chains. These aren't the little 3 inch
>ones that attach to the tap but rather the 12 inch by around 4 inch
>diameter types. Many have a prefilter to remove any particles before it
>hits the carbon. Each hobbyist seems to have his own "time to change the
>carbon" method but you really want to always change it before it actually
>runs out. I'm told that the systems tell you
> how much water each filter might treat and then they tend to change them
>way before that useful life is up. If you cut it too close you could end
>up dumping chloramine ladened water into your system which would kill your
>fish.
>
>Please run the dechlor experiments and report back to the group. I'm
>betting that you find it's something else.
>
>cheers,
>
>gary lange
>
>fiestacranberry at webtv.net wrote:
> >Looks like I'll be wearing gloves in the
> >water.
>
>I've developed a terrible allergy to something in my tanks. I think
>it's the "Prime", which I switched to from "Aquasafe" back in Feb. I'm
>back to using Aquasafe, but still having trouble. I bought a pair of
>shoulder-length rubber gloves from Big Al's, but they are so big and
>clunky, I can't use them. I also bought shoulder length plastic gloves
>used by food service people, but they leak! I'm thinking of stting up
>some kind of charcoal filtering systems so I can dispense with the
>chlorine removers altogether, but until I do, does anyone know where I
>can find well-fitting, well made, shoulder-length gloves that I can
>actually WORK in?
>
>Lilly
>http://mail.yahoo.com