QUESTION - any alternatives to water conditioner ?
- Thread starter jamiejay09
- Start date
why yes there are.
One would be to age the water in a container (a bucket?) for around 4-5 days before adding it to the tank. the chlorine and metals will decompose to non-toxic forms, or evaporate all together. aging water is the most economical way.
Boiling water will also remove ammonia and dechlorinates it. but this radically softens the water and should not be used without adding trace elements back into the water (trace elements in the form of seachem equilibrium and such will cost you as much money as a dechlor)
One would be to age the water in a container (a bucket?) for around 4-5 days before adding it to the tank. the chlorine and metals will decompose to non-toxic forms, or evaporate all together. aging water is the most economical way.
Boiling water will also remove ammonia and dechlorinates it. but this radically softens the water and should not be used without adding trace elements back into the water (trace elements in the form of seachem equilibrium and such will cost you as much money as a dechlor)
well then i guess trying to go the cheap way out will make you loose your fish huh 
I have to know about water quality, as I had a minimum 3 otto cats in every single tank I owned. they make great canaries for other problems.
they just like clean water. thats literally all. they've actually been so easy to keep for me that i never fed any of my 7 otos thus far, and none of them has died. (one of them has even survived a visit to the garbage can and back...longs story, dont ask >_<)
none of them has been fed beacuse my tanks can sustain massive alage growths (not fun for me to control but fun for the otos)
none of them has been fed beacuse my tanks can sustain massive alage growths (not fun for me to control but fun for the otos
)
I don't know. When everyone on here started saying how sensitive otos were and how they have to have "perfect" water and all that I was like "Ummmmmmmm...really? 'Cuz mine have survived bacterial blooms, algae blooms (which they probably loved ), being put into small holding tanks with nothing running on them as I clean their tank...basically anything my female bettas have survived, the otos have." Tough little fishes, if you ask me.
), being put into small holding tanks with nothing running on them as I clean their tank...basically anything my female bettas have survived, the otos have." Tough little fishes, if you ask me.
You can look into what type of dechlorinator/conditioner you are using compared to other types as well. Some of them are cheaper than others. I used to buy big al's version of stress coat in the gallon jugs as that was the cheapest version of that type...but now I use Prime. It is a little more expensive per bottle, but a bottle goes a long way. You kind of just have to weigh what works for you.
btw, chlorine will break up with aging and chloramines will not...so depending on your water, I agree the cheapest "dechlorinator" is to age the water. Or if you're like my parents and on well water you wouldn't have to worry about anything except temperature I never have the patience or the storage for it, so I've just gone with a conditioner
btw, chlorine will break up with aging and chloramines will not...so depending on your water, I agree the cheapest "dechlorinator" is to age the water. Or if you're like my parents and on well water you wouldn't have to worry about anything except temperature
I never have the patience or the storage for it, so I've just gone with a conditioner 
you must have well water or your local system uses a superheat or RO/ozone system.
Oto cats are technically scale-less catfishes. some random things can bother and kill them. Usually human stupidity kills them faster than anything else. most of thew time it is people without live plants that forget to drop in algae wafers that say " my ottos were always really active and then they just died" AKA they were starving and searching for any algae they could find and eventually starved.