Culture Conditioner is scientifically formulated to remove and detoxify ammonia, chlorine and chloramines from water for all types of fish and all types of aquatic cultures such as rotifers and copepods.
Directions: 1. Rotifer Culture, add 2ml of culture conditioner every time 1 ml of Reefphyto Rotifer feed is added to your culture water.
2. Copepod Culture, add 1ml of culture conditioner every time 1 ml of Reefphyto Rotifer feed is added to your culture water.
Technical Bit:
Water conditioning is the process of altering water so that aquatic life can survive and thrive in it. Municipal water sources are treated so that the water delivered to the tap is free of viable disease-causing bacteria, viruses and other organisms as well as appearing clean and clear and being free of disagreeable odors and flavors. While such water is typically suitable for human consumption with no further treatment it is almost always quite deadly to aquatic life. In broad terms, a water conditioner must remove or mitigate those substances which are toxic to aquatic life and add those substances which promote the health and well being of aquatic life.
Reefphyto culture conditioner is just such a water conditioner. Ammonia comes from uneaten food and waste produced buy rotifers and copepods during the culture period. The pH is the most important factor affecting the equilibrium between molecular (= "free"), NH3, and ammonium ion (="ionic ammonia"), NH4+. As the pH increases the percentage of molecular ammonia increases, and as the pH decreases the percentage decreases.
Another way of understanding this is to remember that at acid pH's (pH < 7) the ammonia becomes less toxic your cultures and at alkaline pH's (pH >7) it becomes more toxic. Reefphyto culture conditioner reacts with ammonia in is free, or unionized form and will not only remove the "toxic ammonia" but due to the concentration present in standard dosages it will also remove all the ammonia as the equilibrium between ammonia and ammonium ion shifts.
At low pH's this reaction proceeds slower than at pH's above 7, but in practical terms the reaction proceeds quickly enough to provide complete ammonia removal in an hour or less.
The actual chemical reaction between ammonia and Reefphyto culture conditioner is shown below: NH3 + HOCH2SO3Na ¨ H2NCH2SO3Na + H2O
