# Is it possible to remove bleach from water



## aquariumhobbyist (Feb 18, 2014)

I recently moved and was using bottled water for water changes. I considered using tap water due to the costs associated with using bottled water for WCs and learned that the water source is disinfected using bleach. I know that water disinfected with chlorine can be aerated to remove the chlorine (or allowed to wait for a week or so), but have no idea how to remove the chlorine associated with bleach (I believe they are chlorates). The water is at 0 degrees of french hardness (10 micro seimens), pH of 10. 

How can I make this water safe for aquarium use, preferrably without the use of conditioners, as this will make it just as expensive as the bottled water use.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

If water is only treated with chlorine,then just let it set for 24 hours before using.
If source water however is treated with chloramines which is combo of chlorine and ammonia as most /many household's are,then you need water conditioner such as PRIME or AMQUEL + to treat new water before using or during re-fill's.
Loads of hobbyist's do it like this.
PRIME is actually pretty cheap over the long haul compared to all other conditioner's.
One ml (almost a drop)treats 10 gal of water and detoxifies chlorine,chloramines,ammonia,nitrites,and heavy metals.
Doubtful that it would be more expensive annually than buying bottled water and provides benefit's for fauna.


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## aquariumhobbyist (Feb 18, 2014)

roadmaster said:


> If water is only treated with chlorine,then just let it set for 24 hours before using.
> If source water however is treated with chloramines which is combo of chlorine and ammonia as most /many household's are,then you need water conditioner such as PRIME or AMQUEL + to treat new water before using or during re-fill's.
> Loads of hobbyist's do it like this.
> PRIME is actually pretty cheap over the long haul compared to all other conditioner's.
> ...


The water is treated with bleach. Don't know how bleach reacts in water, so not sure if it results in chlorine or chloramines. 

Prime is expensive for me because I have to ask my local pet store to request it's wholesaler to request authorized importers to import it. A small 125ml bottle comes to about $40-45. I'd be better off getting an RO unit or a filter if there are filters that remove bleach from water.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

aquariumhobbyist said:


> The water is treated with bleach. Don't know how bleach reacts in water, so not sure if it results in chlorine or chloramines.
> 
> Prime is expensive for me because I have to ask my local pet store to request it's wholesaler to request authorized importers to import it. A small 125ml bottle comes to about $40-45. I'd be better off getting an RO unit or a filter if there are filters that remove bleach from water.


Your info suggest's you live in Washington State here in U.S. 
Why would you need it imported?
If you are using water from tap that you and neighbor's can drink ,then you can safely use it for fish tanks with treatment with water conditioner before re-filling.
Can order online.


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## SwissCheeseHead (Dec 24, 2014)

In emergency uses, you can use bleach to treat drinking water, but you are likely getting water from a well or municipal source, both safe sources of water for fish keeping and human consumption. You can order Seachem Prime for Seachem Safe (the dry powder version of Prime) from many online sites. Amazon will probably have the best prices and can be had for much cheaper than the $40-45 you suggest. Again, this is all assuming that your location of Washington USA in your profile is accurate.


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## lksdrinker (Feb 12, 2014)

Chlorine is the base for almost all "bleach" out there. Its essentially the same thing. Most tap water is treated with "bleach" in that the water company adds chlorine to kill bacteria. to deal with that most fish keepers age and aerate their water or simply use an off the shelf de-chlorinator like prime, safe, etc.


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## Doogy262 (Aug 11, 2013)

This is the powder version of prime very concentrated and this will last you for a year or more.I have used it without issue in four tanks for over five years...
https://www.amazon.com/Safe-250-g-8...107&sr=8-6&keywords=safe+conditioner+aquarium


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Safe doesn't remove heavy metals. Prime does.


https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...arch-alias=specialty-aps&field-keywords=prime

http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/fish/seachem-prime

Prime Aquarium Water Conditioner | fish Water Conditioners | PetSmart



Seachem also has their Aquavitro line... this can also be found in some LFS.

aquavitro . alpha


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## aquariumhobbyist (Feb 18, 2014)

roadmaster said:


> Your info suggest's you live in Washington State here in U.S.
> Why would you need it imported?
> If you are using water from tap that you and neighbor's can drink ,then you can safely use it for fish tanks with treatment with water conditioner before re-filling.
> Can order online.


Info is outdated. Will update.


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## aquariumhobbyist (Feb 18, 2014)

lksdrinker said:


> Chlorine is the base for almost all "bleach" out there. Its essentially the same thing. Most tap water is treated with "bleach" in that the water company adds chlorine to kill bacteria. to deal with that most fish keepers age and aerate their water or simply use an off the shelf de-chlorinator like prime, safe, etc.


Well, in this case, they actually use bleach, i.e. sodium hypochlorite.

If that wasn't the case, I'd go about by just aerating the water. Now, I can't be so sure.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

You are overthinking the question due to a lack of understanding bleach and chlorine. Chlorine is the part that does the cleaning. For major large companies, it works to use pressure chlorine and it is a very complex operation. For small places like community or private wells, it is much simpler to just use bleach. The difference is that you can buy a jug of bleach and set it on the shelf until you need to inject or pour it into the system. Very cheap and simple. 
The difference is that bleach is made to be simple enough for housewives to use. It is difficult to keep chlorine from gassing off so they tie it to a bit of a salt (SODIUM hypochlorite?) and dilute it with water to make a 6% solution. So when you buy a jug of bleach, you get 94% water, a tiny amount of salt to help hold the chlorine, and a teeny tiny little bit of chlorine gas ! 
But it is very cheap, simple to store and use and just the same as straight chlorine.
Grandma used it to wash all the diapers we wore but now we are too damn lazy to do that!! 

Strong chlorine in pools and spas will gas off and you smell it. Be assured that it will do the same in your drinking water. 
Question to think about? If the chlorine is not gassing off, why do you smell it?


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## lksdrinker (Feb 12, 2014)

aquariumhobbyist said:


> Well, in this case, they actually use bleach, i.e. sodium hypochlorite.
> 
> If that wasn't the case, I'd go about by just aerating the water. Now, I can't be so sure.





PlantedRich said:


> You are overthinking the question due to a lack of understanding bleach and chlorine. Chlorine is the part that does the cleaning. For major large companies, it works to use pressure chlorine and it is a very complex operation. For small places like community or private wells, it is much simpler to just use bleach. The difference is that you can buy a jug of bleach and set it on the shelf until you need to inject or pour it into the system. Very cheap and simple.
> The difference is that bleach is made to be simple enough for housewives to use. It is difficult to keep chlorine from gassing off so they tie it to a bit of a salt (SODIUM hypochlorite?) and dilute it with water to make a 6% solution. So when you buy a jug of bleach, you get 94% water, a tiny amount of salt to help hold the chlorine, and a teeny tiny little bit of chlorine gas !
> But it is very cheap, simple to store and use and just the same as straight chlorine.
> Grandma used it to wash all the diapers we wore but now we are too damn lazy to do that!!
> ...



Exactly! Its basically one and the same at least for the purposes of how to remove it (and/or how it removes itself) from the water.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

Unfortunately we live in an are when information is easy to pass along whether it is correct or totally wrong. We see lots of folks who read garbage and assume it is correct and chlorine, tap water and bleach ae part of this folly. 
This info seems to sort out in this way?
1. Tank water is good for fish as it has the chlorine removed if it has been added. Good stuff! 
2. Tap water is good to drink but will kill fish if we don't remove the chlorine. Good stuff but we have to be careful.
3. Bleach? Terrible, scary CHEMICAL----run away!!! 

As I see it, a better story is that they are all pretty much the same other than the amount the chlorine is diluted. Sounds insane to speak of bleach and tank water as the same but let me explain why I say this. 

Bleach is sold in bottles for all kinds of uses like laundry and often labeled as 6%. When we store it on a shelf, we need to keep the chlorine content reasonably steady so they tie it to a form of salt and we keep the jug closed so the chlorine doesn't leak out. Tap water is far more diluted so that we may add a teaspoon of bleach to 50 or 100 gallons so that we maintain something like 3-10 PPM but since it is not tied to the salt, the chlorine begins to escape as soon as we pour a glass of water. Sensitive people can often smell it as it gasses off and leaves. In our tank water we want the chlorine content to be too low to measure so we add something like Prime, Safe or a dozen other products to change the chemical structure. We could do the same thing by adding a few thousand gallons of water to dilute the chlorine content to such a low level that we could not measure it. But that gets really awkward, right? 
One could just wait and let the chlorine gas off IF one is sure that it is only chlorine and not chloramine. With chloramine, the chlorine is tied to other things to keep it in the water longer. It used to be standard practice to just let water set to remove the chlorine but now chloramine is used in larger supplies and many of us do have chloramine in the tap water.

Like most things we do, it pays to learn what we are dealing with and treat it as needed. 

I find it a whole lot easier to figure out how much chlorine I want than it is to figure out how much of that terrible, scary potassium nitrate to use!!! :surprise:


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## Doogy262 (Aug 11, 2013)

Agree with everything said here but the op exact question is How can I make this water safe for aquarium use, preferably without the use of conditioners, as this will make it just as expensive as the bottled water use.So do we have enough info for an exact answer ???


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## lksdrinker (Feb 12, 2014)

Doogy262 said:


> Agree with everything said here but the op exact question is How can I make this water safe for aquarium use, preferably without the use of conditioners, as this will make it just as expensive as the bottled water use.So do we have enough info for an exact answer ???



Sure we do. Just like with all other chlorinated tap water you can age and aerate and then it can be used for the purposes of a fishtank without any issue. However, I really dont think the cost of a dechlorinator comes close to the cost of using bottled water for water changes. A 250 gm bottle of Seachem Safe costs around $10 on amazon and treats 50,000 gallons of water. What would it cost to buy 50,000 gallons of bottled water? Not sure if the OP ever did explain where they are located; but even if there is some crazy fee to import an item that is readily available on sites that ship worldwide I'd still image it'd be cheaper than buying bottled water. Or, I'm sure wherever in the world the OP is located there is some version of some type of dechlorinator or water conditioner available right off the shelf in the local pet stores.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

The ammonia is a gas, and it really wants to go out of solution very badly.


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## aquariumhobbyist (Feb 18, 2014)

PlantedRich said:


> You are overthinking the question due to a lack of understanding bleach and chlorine. Chlorine is the part that does the cleaning. For major large companies, it works to use pressure chlorine and it is a very complex operation. For small places like community or private wells, it is much simpler to just use bleach. The difference is that you can buy a jug of bleach and set it on the shelf until you need to inject or pour it into the system. Very cheap and simple.
> The difference is that bleach is made to be simple enough for housewives to use. It is difficult to keep chlorine from gassing off so they tie it to a bit of a salt (SODIUM hypochlorite?) and dilute it with water to make a 6% solution. So when you buy a jug of bleach, you get 94% water, a tiny amount of salt to help hold the chlorine, and a teeny tiny little bit of chlorine gas !
> But it is very cheap, simple to store and use and just the same as straight chlorine.
> Grandma used it to wash all the diapers we wore but now we are too damn lazy to do that!!
> ...


Thank you. That was a straightforward answer that covered all of my concerns. Much obliged.

Bump:


lksdrinker said:


> Sure we do. Just like with all other chlorinated tap water you can age and aerate and then it can be used for the purposes of a fishtank without any issue. However, I really dont think the cost of a dechlorinator comes close to the cost of using bottled water for water changes. A 250 gm bottle of Seachem Safe costs around $10 on amazon and treats 50,000 gallons of water. What would it cost to buy 50,000 gallons of bottled water? Not sure if the OP ever did explain where they are located; but even if there is some crazy fee to import an item that is readily available on sites that ship worldwide I'd still image it'd be cheaper than buying bottled water. Or, I'm sure wherever in the world the OP is located there is some version of some type of dechlorinator or water conditioner available right off the shelf in the local pet stores.


I am currently located in Southern Europe. Bulgaria, to be precise. The thing with importing stuff here is that customs officials (well nearly all officials) are corrupt so there are additional hidden costs to bringing stuff in, and since there are no locally manufactured aquarium products, 95% of it is imported. I do wish I had purchased some Prime (I did not know about Safe at the time) before I left Seattle... sigh.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

I feel your pain. Been there, done that tells me that it isn't always the printed cost of things--- the "added service" is what may cost you far more. The added cost of getting a body back across the border can cost a few thousand at times. 
That's the part nobody mentions when speaking of building a wall. It may not be the cost of building as much as the cost of filing all those pockets along the way. Some of those seem to have no limits?


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