Water Conditioners and Ammonia

[joelbenben]

I stumbled across a comment recently suggesting that certain types of water conditioners might reduce or cut off the supply of ammonia to the biofilter, causing a temporary die-off and a spike in ammonia levels. This could be a serious problem if you’re doing a major water change immediately before introducing new fish to a new tank.

Anyone know anything about this? And if it’s an issue, should I be using a different water conditioner (I have Aqua Clear and Prime) when I change the water and add my first fish next week? (Yes, I'm fully cycled and will keep adding ammonia 'til then. Just can't get the fish and keep an eye on them before that.)

[karbomb]

i am not positive, but i think that comment may have been made in relationship to products like ammo-lock. which de-chlorinate your water and reduce ammonia levels.

[GreenTerrorNYC]

I have used ammo-lock, it doesnt remove the levels of ammonia, but more or less makes the ammonia safe for the fish in the tank, i wouldnt reccomend using it unless you are desperate. It threw off my levels quite a bit and i couldnt get a good reading, although not my fish survived and my tank has just completed cycling.

[Sasquatch]

I thinks it's more of an issue with ammonia sequestering products like Ammolock or Ammrid.

With regular water conditioners they should only treat chlorine, chloramine and metals. They shouldn't have any impact on ammonia levels, or their availability to bacteria.

[joelbenben]

Prime and others treat ammonia as well as chlorine, etc. (See below. Sorry about the advertising copy.) I guess the issue is HOW they deal with the ammonia. If I were to believe the marketing info, there should be no problem. I'd just like to be sure of that before the fish go in.

"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. It will also detoxify any heavy metals found in the tap water at typical concentration levels."