Water conditioners in planted tanks?
 

I use water conditioner in my non-planted tanks to remove the chlorine from the tap water when I do w/c's.Are these necessary in a planted tank or will the plants take of that?

Yes, they are still necessary. Plants will not remove chlorine and heavy metals that may be present in your tank. I used Prime before I planted my tank and I still use it after.

I do agree with Lisa, always use the water conditionner for the health of the fishes. Plants do not remove chlorine or heavy metals.

+1 for Lisa as well as Prime by SEACHEM

Thanks for the input.I'm trying to think of anything I can before I start planting.I'm getting a new cannister filter this week then ordering the plants.Hope to have some pics soon.

what filter i just got an eheim 2213 for my 29g yesterday

I was planning on getting the Eheim as well.From what everyone here says and the price, it seems the way to go.

I must clarify a couple of misconceptions in previous posts.

Chlorine is actually a nutrient plants require, though it is a micro-nutrient. They certainly cannot remove the amount of chlorine in most tap water, and chloramine is often added and it is just as serious for fish. Use a good water conditioner that handles chlorine (and chloramine if your water has this as well).

Heavy metals include iron, copper, nickel, zinc and manganese--these are also micro-nutrients that plants require; there are other heavy metals, like mercury and lead, which are not nutrients. And, plants can take up heavy metals, by which I mean absorb and detoxify them. The micro-nutrients they assimilate as nutrient, but they can also absorb a certain amount of heavy metals and detoxify them, exactly the same as water conditioners. However, unless you know exactly the level of heavy metals in your tap water, it is again safer to use a good conditioner that also detoxifies heavy metals. Most (but not all) do this. So chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals are the essential issues for a water conditioner to handle. If your tap water also has ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, you may have to use a broader-base conditioner like Prime to handle all these.

Because some trace elements will be detoxified by the conditioner, you should add the liquid plant fertilizer the day following the water change, otherwise the conditioner may detoxify the minerals in the fertilizer and it is wasted. I checked with Seachem on this and they recommend 24 hours between Prime (or similar conditioners) and fertilizers (like their Flourish Comprehensive).

Byron.

+1 on all above, I'd just like to add: If you do not have Ammonia coming from your tap water I'd just go with any normal common conditioner to remove the chlorine, I'd really only then use prime if you have Ammonia. Otherwise use anything else eg Tetra and if you want to fertilize then this way you can add it the same day when doing a water exchange.