adding water

[HTH]

What has not been mentioned is that adding chlorinated water to a pond with detectable ammonia level produces a possibly deadly, noxious gas. Not a problem for a cycled pond with sufficient bio filtration.

I was talking about adding chlorinated water to ponds with measurable ammonia. Their quote is about the process of dechlorination. Either way it I would rather retract my statement then argue about it. I expect that I screwed that one up.

 

[crsublette]

a pretty good read on chlorine / chloramines.... http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/chlorine-chloramine

Skeptical aquarist is a good resource, but does not mean it is always correct. For the readers, be sure read the comments for the corrected measurements and chemistry reaction equations.

Also, I do not like the suggestion that, since chloramine as been shown to kill particular organic variables in the water, then this indicates it is not as toxic to fish. This statement in that article could be contorted to mean many arguments, which I think it is reasonable to conclude not to be safe for beginners.

I would not use sodium thiosulfate in a solution form. This solution form does not contain the particular control agents found in typical dechlorinator products. When sodium thiosulfate is made into a solution, it has a shelf life due to the decomposition by-products created over time from the decrease in oxygen saturation. The decomposition by-products are oxides of sulfur, hydrogen sulfide, and sodium oxide. It is the concentration of hydrogen sulfide that is a concern. Eventually, as the bottled solution ages, the solution will be a pure hydrogen sulfide solution. This reaction only occurs when dissolving the sodium thiosulfate crystal in a solution that is kept in a sealed container. This reaction does not occur when dosing the pond water directly with crystals, that is dissolved in a bucket prior to dosing into a pond.

To use sodium thiosfulate, the owner must have a chlorine/chloramine test kit to know the exact volume, in ppm or mg/L, present in the source water.

If you want to measure the amount of sodium thiosulfate (ST) crystals, then the correct ammount is 2 to 7 parts of sodium thiosfulate to 1 part chorine. 1 ppm = 1 mg/L. So, if the chlorine concentration is 2 ppm, then you would need 4 to 14 mg of sodium thiosulfite for every liter of water. 100 US gallons is 379 liters. So, for every 100 gallons of water, you would need 1.5 to 5.3 grams of sodium thiosulfite. A leveled TEAspon of sodium thiosulfite, depending on the product's crystal size, is about 6 grams.

However, unlike the bottled dechlorinators or bottle ST solutions, it is chemically impossible for the pond water to be overdosed when using the crystal product directly into the pond due to the pond's aeration and water movement.

The shelf life of the crystals in the water is approximately 2 days. Bacteria will decompose the remaining crystals and by-products into fish safe compounds.

Sodium thiosulfate (ST) is extraordinarily cheaper than dechlorinators, but sodium thiosfulate will not bind ammonia and nitrites like the typical dechlorinator bottled product from stores. ST only breaks and neutralizes the chlorine gas in chlorine and chloramine. If your bio-filtration system is built well, then the ammonia residual from chloramine will be consumed by the appropriate actors in the bio-filtration system.

For example, 10 pounds of ChlorAmx, a typical dechlorinator, would cost $70 and 10 pounds of ST would cost $19.

You can get ST at the online chemistry store.

 

[Mmathis]

I bought a cartridge that attaches to your water hose. The one I am using says it is for chlorine and chloramines, but the one I started with [before I realized I had chloramines] was just for chlorine. They tell you approx. how many gallons they will work on. I ordered mine from AMAZON.