# Water conditioner



## _firstfrog

Is it safe to use aquarium water conditioner instead of reptisafe?


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## Socratic Monologue

Depends on the aquarium water conditioner brand and product, I suppose.

If I needed to remove the chloramines from tap water for animal use, I'd use Seachem Prime.


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## solidsnake

^^^ Absolutely go with Seachem Prime.


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## IShouldGetSomeSleep

I also use Seachem Prime it's sorta the go-to water conditioner. Other products likely work fine but Seachem makes good products and aquarists like them.


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## _firstfrog

IShouldGetSomeSleep said:


> I also use Seachem Prime it's sorta the go-to water conditioner. Other products likely work fine but Seachem makes good products and aquarists like them.


Went out and bought the sea chem prime today. I have had my tank set up with the filter running for the past week. It's a 12x12x18 exo Terra, the frogs are still tiny so the size is fine for a few months. I've been using aquarium test strips to test the water and the nitrites had been too high. Added a few drops of sea chem, waited a while, did a test, still high. I've now repeated 3 times and there has been no change. I'm supposed to pick up the frogs tomorrow but I'm wondering if I should just cancel. They're expensive and I don't want to bring them home if they're just going to die because if toxic water.


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## Encyclia

_firstfrog said:


> Went out and bought the sea chem prime today. I have had my tank set up with the filter running for the past week. It's a 12x12x18 exo Terra, the frogs are still tiny so the size is fine for a few months. I've been using aquarium test strips to test the water and the nitrites had been too high. Added a few drops of sea chem, waited a while, did a test, still high. I've now repeated 3 times and there has been no change. I'm supposed to pick up the frogs tomorrow but I'm wondering if I should just cancel. They're expensive and I don't want to bring them home if they're just going to die because if toxic water.


There is a lot to unpack here. A 12x12x18 is too small for any sort of standing water along with dart frogs (if those are what you are picking up tomorrow). Which frogs are you keeping in there? Are you trying to cycle a water feature? I don't bother checking any of my dart frog tanks for ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate because the water is down in the drainage layer where the frogs don't interact with it. You might want to start another thread with some pictures of your setup to get feedback.

Mark


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## _firstfrog

Encyclia said:


> There is a lot to unpack here. A 12x12x18 is too small for any sort of standing water along with dart frogs (if those are what you are picking up tomorrow). Which frogs are you keeping in there? Are you trying to cycle a water feature? I don't bother checking any of my dart frog tanks for ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate because the water is down in the drainage layer where the frogs don't interact with it. You might want to start another thread with some pictures of your setup to get feedback.
> 
> Mark


It's vietnamese mossy frogs. The whole bottom part of the exo Terra is filled with water with some branches, rocks and plants. They don't really need a dedicated land area


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## fredk

_firstfrog said:


> ...
> I've been using aquarium test strips to test the water and the nitrites had been too high...


Test strips are unreliable. Get a proper aquarium test kit that uses reagents.


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## IShouldGetSomeSleep

I agree you should use liquid test kits, the paper ones are unreliable and go bad. Not that this really matters yer keeping mossyfrogs not discus fry, lol. Still when you can I recommend picking up some of the liquid based test kits.
I use this one https://www.amazon.com/API-FRESHWATER-800-Test-Freshwater-Aquarium/dp/B000255NCI
Yeah its kinda expensive but it will last you decades. I test 3 tanks about once a month for ammonia and after 4 years I've only used about 20% of the ammonia bottle.


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## _firstfrog

IShouldGetSomeSleep said:


> I agree you should use liquid test kits, the paper ones are unreliable and go bad. Not that this really matters yer keeping mossyfrogs not discus fry, lol. Still when you can I recommend picking up some of the liquid based test kits.
> I use this one https://www.amazon.com/API-FRESHWATER-800-Test-Freshwater-Aquarium/dp/B000255NCI
> Yeah its kinda expensive but it will last you decades. I test 3 tanks about once a month for ammonia and after 4 years I've only used about 20% of the ammonia bottle.
> View attachment 303318


Thanks for the advice. 

Do you mean the water quality for mossy frogs doesn't matter too much? 

New to amphibians, don't really understand the part about the discus fry 🙈🤣


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## fredk

_firstfrog said:


> Thanks for the advice.
> 
> Do you mean the water quality for mossy frogs doesn't matter too much?
> 
> New to amphibians, don't really understand the part about the discus fry 🙈🤣


Discus fry are notoriously sensitive to nitrates/nitrites.


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## Encyclia

_firstfrog said:


> It's vietnamese mossy frogs. The whole bottom part of the exo Terra is filled with water with some branches, rocks and plants. They don't really need a dedicated land area


Thanks for the clarification. I always assume dart frogs on this board, but that isn't always the case.

Mark


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## IShouldGetSomeSleep

_firstfrog said:


> Went out and bought the sea chem prime today. I have had my tank set up with the filter running for the past week. It's a 12x12x18 exo Terra, the frogs are still tiny so the size is fine for a few months. I've been using aquarium test strips to test the water and the nitrites had been too high. Added a few drops of sea chem, waited a while, did a test, still high. I've now repeated 3 times and there has been no change. I'm supposed to pick up the frogs tomorrow but I'm wondering if I should just cancel. They're expensive and I don't want to bring them home if they're just going to die because if toxic water.


Did you get the frogs yet? I want updates


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