# water conditioners



## Rummynose (Feb 4, 2007)

Hello,

Lately I have been wondering if the water conditioner I use on my 55 gallon plant tank to netralize chlorine and chloramine has any negitave effects. The product claims to remove toxic heavy metals. Will this not also target iron, zinic and trace elements? Any thoughts on this?

Rummynose


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## gheitman (Aug 18, 2007)

Which water conditioner do you use? A lot of people here, including myself, use Seachem's Prime (because it is highly concentrated and a little goes a long way) without any ill effects.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

I use Nutrafin Aqua Plus and I've had no problems with it.

I think all water conditioners neutralize all metals but someone who knows more about this will be able to tell you if it does or not.


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## gheitman (Aug 18, 2007)

I checked the label on my bottle of Prime and it doesn't claim to detoxify (or even mention) heavy metals. It does remove chlorine, chloramine and ammonia while detoxifying nitrites and nitrates.


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## Dr. Demento (Jul 26, 2007)

Seachem Prime (and most water conditioners) use EDTA, which "chelates" chloramine, chlorine and heavy metals. You're right - it will remove iron, zinc, etc. However, the affinity for one metal vs another is based upon its electropotential/solubility constant (welcome back to chemistry) - Diana addresses this in her book, page 17. Basically this means that iron has the strongest affinity and will displace most other metal ions; however, the flip side is that the iron can be displaced by photoenergy (light), in a slow, reversible reaction. Don't worry, though - even though EDTA has the highest affinity for iron, you're adding enough for all the other toxic metals as well.

Basically, your iron (and other metals) will be sequestered by the EDTA. Therefore, if you don't have sufficient light to reverse this reaction, you might want to do an occasional iron test check to see if you need to add more iron.

Also note on page 17 that Ca & Mg can be chelated by EDTA; therefore, if you add enough water conditioner, it could affect your GH/KH.

Hope that helps.


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## [email protected] (Oct 15, 2007)

Dr. Demento put it well. However, if you would prefer a water conditioner which does not bind heavy metals, this link may be useful.

I had a similar question and found the link in this thread regarding water conditioners.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Please folks, the chemicals for taking care of chloramines and heavy metals are not the same. Therefore, a water conditioner that removes chloramines may not neutralize heavy metals (and vice versa).

Here's the website that LittleGuy (thank you!) posted earlier about which brands do what:

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/rev-cond.htm

Remember that DOC (dissolved organic carbon like tannins), not just EDTA, chelates heavy metals (my book, p 14) Thus, for an established tank with plentiful DOC, you may not need a water conditioner that neutralizes heavy metals.

I'd say that tapwater contaminated with heavy metals is not that frequent a problem. If your fish, plants, and especially, invertebrates do fine in fresh tapwater, don't worry about heavy metals.

Chlorine and chloramine are probably more frequent problems.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

dwalstad said:


> Please folks, the chemicals for taking care of chloramines and heavy metals are not the same. Therefore, a water conditioner that removes chloramines may not neutralize heavy metals (and vice versa).
> 
> Here's the website that LittleGuy (thank you!) posted earlier about which brands do what:
> 
> ...


That is an excellent link. I used to use Nutrafin Aqua Plus and I never had any problems with it, however when I costed out the difference in price and quantities to achieve the same neutralization, Seachem Prime was a fraction of the cost as the Nutrafin Aqua Plus so I switched to Prime and have been using it for about 3 months now, without any problems.


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## Dr. Demento (Jul 26, 2007)

dwalstad said:


> Please folks, the chemicals for taking care of chloramines and heavy metals are not the same. Therefore, a water conditioner that removes chloramines may not neutralize heavy metals (and vice versa).


Thanks, Diana; I had forgotten that EDTA does NOT chelate chlorine/chloramine (and in retrospect, I'm trying to figure out exactly how I envisioned that particular combination ). I went to look at the link you suggested and that particular page is down at the moment.


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