The third ingredient on the sds is what I call hydroxymethanesulfonate. It is proposed to react with ammonia in some fashion, possibly making aminomethanesulfonate. I don’t know how well it actually works, but I think
@taricha and others may have tested it in some fashion and did not see effectiveness.
This is from an article of mine;
Treatments for Elevated Ammonia: Hydroxymethanesulfonate
Various types of compounds are used in commercial products to bind ammonia in marine aquaria. One is hydroxymethanesulfonate (HOCH2SO3-). It is a known ammonia binder16 patented for aquarium use by John F. Kuhns17 and sold as
Amquel by Kordon and
ClorAm-X by Reed Mariculture, among others.
Ammonia's reaction with hydroxymethanesulfonate is mechanistically complicated, possibly involving decomposition to formaldehyde and reformation to the product aminomethanesulfonate (shown below).16 The simplified overall reaction is believed to be:
NH3 + HOCH2SO3- à H2NCH2SO3- + H2O
What ultimately happens to the aminomethanesulfonate in a marine or reef aquarium is not well established, but it does appear to be significantly less toxic than ammonia, and more than likely it is processed by bacteria into other compounds.
Marineland Bio-Safe claims to contain sodium hydroxymethanesulfinic acid (HOCH2SO2-). I do not know if that is a typographical error, or if Marineland really uses this slightly different compound.
Note: products containing hydroxymethanesulfonate hamper the ability to test for ammonia when using certain types of test kits (see above). Presumably, the H2NCH2SO3- formed is still reactive with the Nessler reagents, even though it is not ammonia.
