# How much water conditioner do I use when adding 4 cups of water?



## djtleek

All,

I used Top Fin's Water Conditioner when I filled my 10g aquarium for the first time. The directions said to use a full capful for each 10g of water, so I only needed one capful initially for my 10g aquarium.

My question is: If I want to top-off my aquarium with say, 4 cups of water, how much water conditioner should I use? I know 160 cups is 10 gallons, but its impossible to measure 1/80th of a full dose of water conditioner which is technically what the directions call for when doing the math traditionally.

Is there a standard rule of thumb for topping off water on such a small aquarium? 

Also, I live in Wisconsin where we have water softener automatically added to our tap water. Is it OK to use this type of water when filling up my aquarium? Seems to me it would have too much salt in it since water softener is actually salt crystals added to the water.

Additionally, I know the water from our refrigerator is non-conditioned since its for drinking. Would it be better for me to use filtered water from the fridge?


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## Nubster

Maybe add a little bit to a gallon and just keep a gallon jug of water for top offs. If you are only adding 4c of water at a time for top offs I probably wouldn't even worry about treating it to be honest. Does your water have chloramine or just chlorine?


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## djtleek

Nubster said:


> Maybe add a little bit to a gallon and just keep a gallon jug of water for top offs. If you are only adding 4c of water at a time for top offs I probably wouldn't even worry about treating it to be honest. Does your water have chloramine or just chlorine?


I'm not sure. How do I tell if it has Chloramine and/or Chlorine? I'm a newbie. I live just outside of Madison Wisconsin so is it possible to find out online?


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## Nubster

Maybe or call your water department...they can tell you.


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## AbbeysDad

Simple - get a medicine dropper and draw up a cap full of conditioner. Count the drops as you return to the container, then divide the number of drops by 10 to determine drops per gallon...divide again by 4 to know the number of drops per 4 cups.
For a Wild [email protected]# Guess, I'm thinking 1-2 drops per 4 cups.

Now for Prime (more concentrated) I calculated 2 drops per gallon.

Note: Usually a little extra conditioner is not a problem so if there is error, best to add a little more conditioner than not enough


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## Nubster

Prime I do about .5ml per 4 gallons. There are 15 drops in a ml. So 7.5 drops/4 is 1.8 drops per gallon. 4 cups is 32oz. There are 128oz in a gallon. So 128/32 is 4. So 1.8 drops/4 is .45 drops per 4 cups of water...lol so yeah, if you use Prime, one drop per 4 cups is twice as much as you need...haha


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## djtleek

What does prime mean?


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## Nubster

Seachem Prime. It's a brand of conditioner. A lot of people use it because it's inexpensive and concentrated and does a really great job. You can get a 500ml bottle online for about $10 that will treat 5000 gallons of water. So it costs $.002 to treat one gallon of water. Not bad.

http://www.kensfish.com/product408.html


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## AbbeysDad

Nubster said:


> Prime I do about .5ml per 4 gallons. There are 15 drops in a ml. So 7.5 drops/4 is 1.8 drops per gallon. 4 cups is 32oz. There are 128oz in a gallon. So 128/32 is 4. So 1.8 drops/4 is .45 drops per 4 cups of water...lol so yeah, if you use Prime, one drop per 4 cups is twice as much as you need...haha


The OP is not using Prime - it is 5x less concentrated @ 1 cap/10g (vs, 1 cap/50g)  
so 10 drops/gallon or 2.5 drops/4 cups ? (assuming the same cap size!!)


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## Byron

djtleek said:


> All,
> 
> I used Top Fin's Water Conditioner when I filled my 10g aquarium for the first time. The directions said to use a full capful for each 10g of water, so I only needed one capful initially for my 10g aquarium.
> 
> My question is: If I want to top-off my aquarium with say, 4 cups of water, how much water conditioner should I use? I know 160 cups is 10 gallons, but its impossible to measure 1/80th of a full dose of water conditioner which is technically what the directions call for when doing the math traditionally.
> 
> Is there a standard rule of thumb for topping off water on such a small aquarium?
> 
> Also, I live in Wisconsin where we have water softener automatically added to our tap water. Is it OK to use this type of water when filling up my aquarium? Seems to me it would have too much salt in it since water softener is actually salt crystals added to the water.
> 
> Additionally, I know the water from our refrigerator is non-conditioned since its for drinking. Would it be better for me to use filtered water from the fridge?


A couple of your initial questions haven't been addressed, so I'll do so here.

Rather than topping up evaporated water, a partial water change is better. This should be done every week; set aside a day when you will usually be able to do this, say Saturday or Sunday morning; it is best done early in the day, about an hour after the tank light comes on, and this allows more time for the fish to settle down before night. And don't feed prior to the water change. Volume depends upon the tank size, fish species and numbers, and if there are live plants. But generally, 1/3 to 1/2 the tank volume is recommended. Unless the room or weather is very hot, there should not be much evaporation during the week.

As for your softener, which I am assuming is one in your house, this is hard to say; some softeners soften water by adding various salts, and the resulting "soft" water is worse than the original hard water for fish. Depends upon the fish species, some are OK some may not be. What water did you use for filling the tank initially? If you can get water from the water supply that does not go through your softener, it may work. You can find out the hardness of your water from the water supply people. Many now have a website.

Byron.


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## Nubster

AbbeysDad said:


> The OP is not using Prime - it is 5x less concentrated @ 1 cap/10g (vs, 1 cap/50g)
> so 10 drops/gallon or 2.5 drops/4 cups ? (assuming the same cap size!!)


Right...I was expanding on your comment about 2 drops of Prime per gallon and giving the OP an idea that maybe they should look into Prime next time they need to purchase conditioner.


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## AbbeysDad

Nubster said:


> Right...I was expanding on your comment about 2 drops of Prime per gallon and giving the OP an idea that maybe they should look into Prime next time they need to purchase conditioner.


Ah...yes, Prime is good stuff ....smells like a brown egg that's been under the back porch way too long...but good stuff, ;-)


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