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I have been using them for like 2 years now, are thethings like Stress Coat+ and Aqua Safe bad for your RES? I have always wondered since they were for fish, not turtles. I have always figured, eh, water is water.

They're not necessary for turtles.

If you have carbon in your filters it will remove the chlorine and chloramines. If there are just turtles in the tank like Kurtni said it's not necessary. If fish are in with them then it is. Carbon will also keep water clear and remove odors.

Going to revive this thread as this is the exact question I have. I find it much easier to use a water treatment for chloramine than to give up space in my filter for carbon. I've read others unsubstantiated comments on how these treatments are "poison" and to never use them. I could load my filter with carbon every water change and then back again after the water is treated, but that's a lot of work. This is my kids turtle after all. So, two questions - are these treatments that bad to turtles. Would not treating cause problems with either the turtles or killing off my beni-bacteria? Seems like these are the two things to think about - the turtles and your filter biom. All replies appreciated.

The easiest thing is to look at the product's ingredients, then search for the material safety data sheet (MSDS) and read it.

A these bad for turtles? It can be. RES are much more tougher than fish, but you probably wouldn't want exposure to this stuff. I would not worry about it killing off the bio media, but carbon would help remove chlorine/chloramines that would be harmful to the turtle and bio media.

Okay I see the value of carbon in the system. I took an old filter I had rated for 40 gallon tank and packed it with carbon. Got it feeding so pickup is at my main filter's output so it is picking up cleaner water and the output near my main's input but facing in an way to keep the circulation in the tank going. We shall see how quickly it clogs. Put a bit of floss on top of the carbon to keep carbon clean. I have this filter set to turn on/off with the light cycle because it is noisy.

Assuming this setup works out can I just add unconditioned tap water during my partial changes without damage to turtles or filter biom?

Well, just looked at my water conditioner - Reptisafe from ZooMed. No discernible ingredients on the bottle other than "dechlorinating agent". It's formulated for reptile water, both drinking and tank water treatment. I'm going to have to assume these guys know more than I do and have a lot more liability concerns so I'll trust that the product is safe at least for reptiles. Now how it affects the filter biom I don't know and probably shouldn't worry about it. Right?

Did a little digging... that agent is "sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate" which appears to be sodium formaldehyde bisulfite. This is used in Amquel and in their directions "As a general rule, when using tap water in which chlorine and chloramines are present, but not nitrites, nitrates or other organics -- then it is safe to use the less expensive AmQuel. If there is the possibility of nitrites, nitrates and other organics being involved, then AmQuel Plus is recommended."

I'm not sure what's in AmQuel Plus.

OrganicRusty wrote:Assuming this setup works out can I just add unconditioned tap water during my partial changes without damage to turtles or filter biom?

I too questioned this wisdom that water treatment is bad. I'll try to answer your questions, but first, what I've done is to pull the carbon fro. The filters because I have plants and was concerned about the carbon adsorbing some of the nutrients the plants needed. I don't treat my water, but use this instead

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33171

I also have shrimp, which would be much more sensitive than fish or turtles.

If you just have a turtle, and you have a lot of carbon in the one filter and a well established biofilm, using straight water should be fine. Part of the danger of chloramine is to fish breathing it in via their gills. Your turtle is just drinking it, like you.

Chloramine is added to kill bacteria in the water supply, but a well established biofilm is much more resistant than free floating bacteria, and your carbon will break it down.

As to safety, I'm not sure it's in the really bad category. However, you are basically adding a sulfur salt. SeaChem prime uses sodium thiosulfate. It's marketed for fish. If it were killing fish, people would have complained.

On the other hand, dumping tons of a salt doesn't seem natural, and turtles live decades not years like fish. To me, since there are alternative ways of dealing with it, I ultimately decided to err on the side of caution.

Thanks for the response. Being on city water I'm assuming not too much organic or nitrates/ites present. I'll have to pull my local CCR for my water company to make sure. Still, formadyhyde anything is generally not good. Any other way to get rid of the chloramines other than carbon? It used to be just letting a bucket of water sit a few days and the chlorine will dissipate, but not with the the new chloramine. Considering getting a water test kit for chloramine so I know how much/long to treat water with carbon. It's hard to judge something you can't see or smell.

Carbon is the only thing I know of that pulls it out of the water. Liquid conditioners either detoxifies or neutralizes chlorine/chloramine, so there is something else that is left behind.

I'd love to hear the results if you do get a chloramine test.

I was exactly where you are now with your questions two years ago. I never came up with completely satisfying answers. When I looked at chloramine testing, it was very pricy.

VeipaCray did report the inline filter eliminating .75 ppm chloramine in his testing. I think my numbers are higher.

I can say I've not seen signs of mini-cycles forgoing an additive, so if it is killing bacteria, it's not killing much.

Ok, since the last time I looked at chloramine online, a whole new area of obsessive enthusiasts has emerged: home brewers. The chloramine affects their yeast and the taste.

For a good overview that includes info on chloramine tests and carbon, check out

http://www.morebeer.com/articles/removi ... from_water

I still think a whole house carbon filter has to do a good job when just filtering a faucet.

However, chasing chloramine references led to the claim that a 1000 milligram vitamin C tablet will completely neutralize the chloramine in a medium sized bathtub, very quickly.

In fact this Google book page

https://books.google.com/books?id=nBCqL ... on&f=false

Says that the vitamin C reaction happens about 30 times faster than the sodium thiosulfate one from SeaChem Prime. Plus, the reaction needs very little vitamin C.

Apparently reef aquariust's have been dosing vitamin C for years.

I don't wonder if I should use the whole house filter and figure out dosing to add a smidge of vitamin C

Wow, that's amazing that something as simple as Vit C works faster (better?) than thiosulfate with non of the residual by product. It looks like the Vit C is not even consumed by the reaction so a little smidge should do the job given sufficient reaction time. This should worry the companies promoting the thiosulfate treatments.

Conclusion: if just turtles then the chloramine in tap water is not much if a concern (not so for gilled-creatures) and simply running tap water through a carbon filter and adding a pinch of ascorbate is all the treatment needed.

Thanks ijapa for all the great posts.

ljapa wrote:Ok, since the last time I looked at chloramine online, a whole new area of obsessive enthusiasts has emerged: home brewers. The chloramine affects their yeast and the taste.

This is very true... those pesky homebrew folks.

Here's a turtle porter recipe I posted on this forum back in 2010: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=28344&p=273991&hilit=turtle+porter#p273991