Hello,

I wanted to make this post after experiencing a near-fatal problem with water quality. Our two goldies (Mandarin and Tangerine, both 2-inch long orandas) have only now just recovered, after being very sick for over two weeks. The problem we had may seem very obvious to most of the users out there, but it wasn't to us, and it almost cost us the lives of our two new goldfish!

The problem that we had concerned treating our tap water in order to make it safe for our fish when doing water changes. We had been doing water changes very frequently, both because we had a relatively new tank that was still cycling, and because our fish has come down with ich.

What we didn't know, and found out later, was that our tap water had very high chloramine levels. We had been using a tap water conditioner that said it treated for chloramines, so we thought that we were safe. However, what we later found out was that our conditioner, in getting rid of the chloramines, simply produced ammonia, which it did not then get rid of!!!

Chloramines (ClNH2) are basically a chlorine molecule that has been fused to an amine group. Tap water conditioners that say they get rid of chloramines in the water by "breaking the chloramine bond" simply break the bond that links the chlorine and the ammonia molecules! The tap water conditioner will then treat the chlorine, making it non-toxic for the fish, but may not go on to treat the resulting ammonia!!!

We were doing very large water changes daily to treat for ich, along with a salt treatment, and although we got rid of the ich fast, we were unknowingly keeping our tank's ammonia levels at a constant 0.25 ppm!!! After the ich cleared up, we almost lost our fish to ammonia poisoning, which made their gills irritated to the point where they almost suffocated!

Maybe this problem should be more widely publicized?

Very worth pointing out - a little-known side effect of chloramine removal.

Yeah, I was really confused by all the water conditioners and their claims when I first started with goldfish. Here's a link to a chart I made to help me figure out the differences and what type of conditioner to use and when. Hope it helps.

Water Conditioner Chart

I didn't know that. Learn something new every day.

Useful chart fantailfan1.

Slugger

Great news!

Thx for putting the link up, fantailfan!
it shoulda been pinned

You are welcome!! I just know I was so confused by all of the conditioners when I got started and needed all the info in one place so I could compare it side by side. I know there are other conditioners out there also that a lot of people use that I could add to the chart and I'd be glad to do so.

How does a topic get "pinned"?