Is this water conditioner safe for my firebelly newt

[keithp]

I got a sample of water conditioner for free, it's unopened. But before using it for my newt, I want to make sure it's safe.

The brand is Jungle. It says "Start Right with Allantoin; a natural skin protectant" "complete water conditioner removes chlorine and chloramine"

Ingredients: chlorides of sodium and potassium, allantoin, polyvinylpyrrolidone

 

[MRIGUY]

I refuse to use any water conditioners in any of my tanks. I know some people use them with no problems but I prefer a more natural approach. Aerate water for 24 hrs and chlorine and chloramine dissipates completely

 

[dan15daman]

I wouldn't call it safe to try that with the chloramines. Jungle is a pretty good brand when it comes to my fish with meds, but I don't know how effective it is with its conditioner. I would leave the water out for a day(edit in conjunction with using the jungle conditioner. I don't know if aeration would be the most effective way also because of the gas bubble disease which is caused by having too much air dissolved in the water.

 

[keithp]

I leave the water in a jug for a week before using it for the tank, so would having this settle in the jug for a week with the water be ok before using?

 

[Alejandro]

water conditioner

I don't think that chloramine will evaporate. Chlorine does evaporate.Chloramine is not used in the entire US though.

 

[keithp]

I live in New York, my guess is it's in our water.

 

[Jennewt]

I live in New York, my guess is it's in our water.

There's no reason to "guess". It's easy to find out, and it's important to know which you have. This is dealt with clearly in the CC FAQ:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/faq/FAQwat.shtml

Personally, I prefer water conditioners that are "plain and simple" - no skin conditioners, no slime coat stuff, no aloe, etc. Just the bare basics to detoxify the chlorine and/or chloramine. The one you have is probably safe for amphibians, but most likely the company didn't do any extensive testing to prove this. Sadly, aquarium products are not required to reveal their full ingredients list, nor to prove safety. It's all marketing. I generally agree with MRI guy's approach to basically avoid adding products, although I do think that detoxifying chlorine/chloramine is sometimes necessary.

 

[MRIGUY]

My bad. I was speaking of Chlorine and it is just a habit to type it with the /Chloramine suffix. The others are correct that Chloramine requires positive action for removal. Efficient filtration with carbon / charcoal or resins or R/O will do the trick. Also check with your local water authority. You may not even have Chloramine in the water. The Water Auth will be able to provide you with a comprehensive report.

 

[Starcraft]

My favorite water conditioner is Seachem Prime. It's concentrated, so one capfull will do 50 gallons, instead of 10 like with a lot of other conditioners. It's also not soapy like other water conditions, won't affect pH, and I've used it a couple of times during an ammonia spike to detoxify it and give me some time to fix the problem.