"Scott" wrote in message
...
Has anyone ever tested water after it has had a chlorine neutralizer added
to it, to see how well they work. The reason I ask is that I have been
using Kent chlorinex for a year or so. I changed to it after using the
more expensive tetra one, and it seems like its never going to run out.
You only have to add four drops to eight liters of water and its supposed
to work straight away, but I'm not shore how effective they are. And if
there not, couldn't doing regular water changes also be putting chlorine
in my aquarium rather than just taking out impurities?

I imagine most dechlorinators are formulated to take out the maximum
expected chlorine content. I believe the US max allowed is something like 4
PPM at the treatment plant, which would equate to much less when it reaches
your house. Mine typically reads .5 PPM or less, so in theory I could get
by without dechlorinator for small water changes, say 10-15%. But I always
add dechlor in the event that my city changes to chloramines or I have an
unexpected blip in the Chlorine content.

I actually mix my own dechlor (Sodium Thiosulphate), so I can mix any
concentration I like. But I prefer not to get down to the drops per litre
strength, as it's too much of a PITA. I typically mix it up to take care of
3 PPM of chlorine at a Tablespoon per 10 gallons. It just makes it easier
not to have to carry an eyedropper around to do water changes. I have a
small pond and I just found it too expensive to keep buying the premixed
dechlor, not to mention the geek factor of making my own.

I don't think you need to worry about adding Chlorine to your tank,
especially for small water changes. It's likely Kent is just using a
stronger formulation than Tetra. Jungle makes fairly inexpensive Chlorine
test strips if you want to be certain.