Water conditioners

[azzah]

When doing water changes I have always used the following

Prime

Water ager

cycle

Is it necessary to use all these products. When it comes to getting rid of chlorine etc do I need to use both prime and a water ager or are they doing pretty much the same thing.

When it comes to a tank that is well and truly cycled do I really need to add cycle when doing a water change when the majority of my beneficial bacteria is in my filters and on my rocks.

Reason I ask is with doing weekly water changes on 10 tanks this can become very expensive. If it has to be done then I will continue doing this but wanted to make sure I'm not pouring money down the drain.

[Richard]

Hey mate,

To be short and sweet, yes you are pouring your money down the drain. You will find that most common water agers will neuatralise the typical chlorines and chloramines, which is exactly what Prime does, yet Prime has an extra added ingredient that converts ammonia into a safe, non-toxic form. It also detoxifies nitrate and nitrite, which helps your filter remove them more efficiently. Cycle you can get away with not using for well established tanks, as all it does it add nitrosomonas and nitrobacter which should already be sufficient in your tank. Though you may want to use this when doing larger water changes, say 50% just incase you have removed a large amount of beneficial bacteria.

HTH,

Richard.

[azzah]

Excellent, just what I wanted to hear