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Tip #1 Do not use water conditioners with your angelfish. |
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In today's society everyone wants a quick fix to solve all their problems. We have a pill for depression, fast food for hunger, and the aquarium hobby is no exception. We want a quick fix so we can injoy our tanks and go about our lives without any effort on our part. Prime is sold and as "the complete and concentrated conditioner for both fresh and salt water" a water conditioner that removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. Imagine one product that would be able to fix all our water problems, it works on salt water and freshwater!
Unfortunately water quality expert Joe Gargas does not agree. Joe was the Director of Research and Development for the Wardley Corperation and the Hartz Mountain Corp from 1993-97 and has since then worked in both the Potable Drinking Water and Swimming Pool industrys. Joe believes that the best fix for water quality is not to add something else that masks the problem but to remove the problem. This is what he found out about Prime.
What is Prime
"According to the MSDS sheet prime is an aqueous solution of complexed hydrosulfite salts. Sodium Hydrosulfite is a very strong reducing agent. A reducing agent is the opposite of an oxidant as it will reduce and or remove any oxidant such as chlorine, ozone, chlorine dioxide, just to name a few it will also remove oxygen. Sodium Hydrosulfite is a versatile chemical that's used in the manufacture of a variety of products we all use every day.
While the applications for this chemical workhorse are as vast and as varied as the industries that use it, in most cases, Sodium Hydrosulfite performs one of the following three roles:
1. As a reducing agent, hydrosulfite chemically reduces other components by donating an electron or electrons.
2. As a sulfonating agent, hydrosulfite adds sulfur to another chemical compound.
3. As a cation source, hydrosulfite adds a cation, or sodium, to a product system increasing the conductivity and TDS
Due to the strong chemical reaction of this product it would be counter productive to add this to an aquarium with fish in it as it removes all of the oxygen present. Water should always be treated and left to degas outside the aquarium in a separate vat or tank. This product is very inexpensive to produce just like the other water conditioners there is so much profit made that companies can really splurge and advertise convincing everyone that they must use it to be successful."
An important thing to remember is that whatever you add to your aquarium stays there and builds up over time, this can cause an unnatural balance and create larger problems in the future. Do not use prime or other water conditioners that they try and sell you in the pet stores. The only safe way to condition your water is to remove these chemicals with a carbon filter before you put the water into your tanks. |
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