Many of the aquarium water treatment products use sodium thiosulfate
to remove harmful chlorine/chloramine. But some products also bind the
ammonia that splits from chloramine into a harmless compound, which is
still available to plants and bacteria. Does anyone know what the
chemical is that does this? I would like to make my own water
conditioner. The thiosulfate is easy to get. But I need to know if the
ammonia eliminator chemical is readily available.
Thanks,
Dave
> I would like to make my own water
> conditioner. The thiosulfate is easy to get.
First you need to know if your tap water contains free chlorine versus
chloramine as a sanitizer. Probably the latter these days. Fill a white
5-gallon bucket with tap water and look at it in daylight. Chlorinated
water will be blue, chloraminated will be green. The tints are subtle but
once you’ve seen it you’ll recognize a bit of green in every glass and
toilet bowl full of water (if yours is chloraminated).
Free chlorine leaves chlorinated water just from sitting for days, or
instantly from thiosulfate.
Chloramine is much more stable. But if you add free chlorine (10 to 20 ppm
from bleach and a bit of acid to keep pH around 7) it will outgas the
ammonia. Then you have simply chlorinated water, and you can proceed with
neutralizing that.
I have found out some of the products use more "exotic" chemicals than
thiosulphates. One such chemical is hydroxymethanesulfonic acid. Not
really sure where I could buy that cheaply.