Using vitamin C to remove chlorine

I was reading some aquarium stuff and came across something interesting.

In short, according to the article vitamin C would be added to a water bucket right after filling it with water. Chloramines would then break down to chlorine and ammonia. Vitamin C would take care of the chlorine and some ammonia would be left for the cycle to take care of. The water should then be safe to use in aquariums, though the water changes should ofcourse be smaller to avoid ammonia spikes.

Has anyone heard of this? Any more information? Would that work for axies?

I've never had to use any water conditioners since the only bad thing in my water is a little chlorine that I can get rid of by just letting the water sit in a bucket for a while before adding to the tank. So I have no experience with these things. But this would mean I wouldn't have to wait for the water to be ready to go in to the tank.

Most dechlorinaters will do exactly what you say by neutralizing chlorine and breaking chloramines into chlorine and ammonia. Chlorine will kill the bacteria and chloramines will not break down if you just let the water sit for a day or two. The amount of ammonia is negligible and won't cause a significant spike unless something is wrong with your tap water.

Vitamin C = citric acid. Adding acid to chlorinated water will eliminate the chlorine but will leave you with acidic water (low pH) and will not affect choramines.

I think I will stick to sodium thiosulfate thanks!

I know dechlorinators get rid of chlorine and chloramine. But I don't want to use any unnecessary chemicals in my tank that I don't know what they are and how those would affect my axies in the long run. Even chlorine is very rarely used in here, so often I don't have to do anything for my water before adding it in the tank. Just occasionally there is a little chlorine and I avoid changing the water then for a few days (as well as leaving it in buckets just to be sure).

I understand that pH would drop a little if vitamin C would be used, but since the pH is around 7.5-8 and usually only 25 % of the water is changed it probably wouldn't matter too much? Over time it could ofcourse drop if this method was used everytime, but would it drop too much?

According to the article chloramines can also be removed with vitamin C:
2C5H5O5CH2OH + 2NH2Cl -> 2C5H3O5CH2OH + 2NH3 + 2HCl

Vitamin C is ascorbic acid, not citric acid. I've recently swopped to it as a dechlorinator. It seems very good. Both blackworms and Daphnia are fine in the treated water.

Most UK water contains 0.5mg active chlorine (either as chlorine or chloramine) at the tap. The appropriate strength of vitamin C to neutralise this is 1g in 800L.

This can be conveniently handled as 1g in 40ml water and then use 1drop per litre. I am using the powder from the health shop. Overdose will reduce the pH and partially de-oxygenate the water but so do other de-chlorinators.

Weak solutions are unstable but the above solution is probably good for a month in the fridge.

oceanblue said:

Vitamin C is ascorbic acid, not citric acid.

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Ooops! Sorry....

auntiejude said:

Ooops! Sorry....

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I get things wrong sometimes too! I used to use the same strength thiosulfate as you but modified to be a "one drop" dosage.

20 g of the sodium thiosulfate pentahydrate in 100ml then use 1drop per litre. This too is fine for axolotls. It too is a stable solution but goes smelly and cloudy if left on a windowsill in the sun! I used to dechlorinate the water I put in the fridge before drinking with this recipe but it's not technically cleared for human use, the Vitamin C version is so that's what I'm now using.

So safe for axolotls (I forgot to mention that above) daphnia, blackworms and fully cleared for human use as well!

Maybe not completely on topic, but is Vitamine C an expensive product? Because this sounds rather interesting (especially since it will also lower the pH a bit)

I can get 170g for £6.69 and often they have buy one get one half price or better offers. I use it in a bread maker as well as for dechlorination.

At 200 L for a UK penny by any account this is a cheap product.

Thiosulfate is probably a bit cheaper, I bought £5 worth last century and there is still a lot left! If you do not want to lower the pH then you can use sodium ascorbate but this product is usually a bit dearer. Unless you overdose the pH effect is negligable.

With all dechlorinators try to use enough to remove the chlorine but not to leave an excess of the reducer you use.

Thanks! Since I only drink tapwater at home, this could come in handy.

And do you happen to know how long it takes before the product has fully removed the chlorine? Do you have to wait 5 minutes? 10? That's a question I've had for a while now but the bottle of my dechlorinator didn't say...

Dominick said:

And do you happen to know how long it takes before the product has fully removed the chlorine? Do you have to wait 5 minutes? 10? That's a question I've had for a while now but the bottle of my dechlorinator didn't say...

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My understanding is chlorine reduction is almost instantaneous but chloramine has to dissociate and then be neutralised but in practice a minute or two wait is enough.

Ideally for sensitive species you should then oxygenate especially if you have used a heavy dose of dechlorinator for a small level of chlorine, as most dechlorinators move on to reducing oxygen when the chlorine is gone.