SeaChem "prime" any good?

[Dankrencisz]

Dosing it in. 5ml a day. Bringing down the nitrates. 25% water change today on the tank's 1 month anniversary.

CUC from Reefcleaner.org on it's way to clean up the rocks and diatoms on the sand.

 

[Silvergryphon]

Prime is good for QT and emergencies, but I wouldn't use it for a long term fix. If Nitrates are your problem water changes are the way to go.

 

[gt1009]

For water conditioning I think it's one of the best, but you shouldn't use it as a constant nitrate remover. Treat the underlying problem and your reef will appreciate it.

 

[sleepydoc]

+1 to the other comments; sounds like you're still cycling, so you really don't want to add prime or anything else. Just let the bacteria grow and come into balance.

Do you have any fish yet? What are your Ammonia and Nitrite readings? Have you seen an ammonia spike that has gone down?

Hopefully you don't, but if you have fish and ammonia use prime and water changes to get the ammonia down, otherwise fish generally tolerate nitrates fairly well, so you can probably wait it out.

 

[ThisGuy12]

Prime was recommended to me as an initial jump start dosage chemical and only to be used in emergencies, not as a daily dose chem.

It's good to have on hand just in case but if I were you I wouldn't use any more of it. Let the water cycle on its own.

 

[Dankrencisz]

Brewing up some RO/DI water today. Going to do a 20%-25% water change today after I get home from work. I have 3 damsels in it. Ammonia is zero. No tester for nitrites yet.

The tank sat about 1/2 full for almost a year. Always had circulation in it though. Just refilled it, scrubbed the rocks with a toothbrush and here I am today.

I've been doing 5g water changes twice a week since I refilled it. (75g tank probably 55g-60g water volume ) so hopefully today's water change will bring the nitrates down.

 

[Dankrencisz]

I'm honestly thinking the tank was never really dead to begin with. Didn't see much of an ammonia spike like I did when I initially set up the tank. Guess I'll play the waiting game and see what happens.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Prime is an ammonia neutralizer and should be only used for sudden, unexpected ammonia spikes. Using it in a cycling tank will probably stop the cycling process because ammonia isn't available. BTW; most ammonia test kits don't work when Prime is in use.

 

[Dankrencisz]

I just put the prime in Sunday afternoon. I've had zero ammonia prior to the prime being out into the tank. Nitrates were sky high.

 

[Sk8r]

Prime: can be used to remove Clorox; can be used to dechlorinate sand or equipment after washing and prior to use; can be used in extreme emergency in a living reef without damage; and it can save the life of a fish in an ammonia emergency; but it should not be used in a cycling tank and it should not be used as a matter of course to 'condition' water for a marine tank. Everybody should have a product like this: but it should be used appropriately.

 

[Dankrencisz]

Everybody should have a product like this: but it should be used appropriately.

Noted. Thanks.

 

[Sk8r]

Lol---sorry I was brusque in my post: I had a thing I had to attend so I just jotted things down fast; but it is really good stuff, and you should have it. Just let your cycle do its thing so your tank sandbed itself can consume any ammonia that ever turns up.

 

[Dankrencisz]

It's cool. I've got thick skin. Just did a 20g water change. Still up on nitrates. Not sure what the issue is. Just over 25% change. Still no changes. Is that even possible?

 

[ThisGuy12]

Stupid question, but have you tested your ro/di water? Something is going on if you haven't noticed even a slight drop with a 20% change...

 

[R20]

Your tank is still new it will have nitrates how large is your tank to be doing a 20 gal water change? You are probably removing to much water at once let the tank level out on its own are there fish how many if there are you put them in to soon. if there are cut down on feeding and let the tank do its thing. I didnt change my water for the first two month and it made my tank strong. I never have a problem with nitrates. Changing water to soon and often or to much at a time will keep breking the natural cycle. once the tank reads zero on nitrate do weekly water changes of 10 percent or bi weekly of no more than 20 never do more than 20 unless its an emergency you will do more harm than good.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Stupid question, but have you tested your ro/di water? Something is going on if you haven't noticed even a slight drop with a 20% change...

Right. maybe a bad nitrate test kit too, they are notoriously unreliable. Nitrate is measured in the water column; if a 20% WC doesn't result in 20% reduction, something is wrong.

 

[NguntalKawat]

Hi guys, kinda curious about Prime also,

At present I only have tap water as sole water source, what I'm asking is; for daily water top-ups, is it good enough to use my regular tap water dosed with Prime?

I know long term it's good to have a reverse osmosis system at hand, but, I think right now it's simply economic to use this product. Simple calculation goes as follows:

• A full-cap of Prime (which is 5 ml) can be used to detoxify 100 liter of tap water (based on their web FAQ),
• Say I'm going to do 2 liter daily for top-up for an example, I only need 0.1 liter of Prime to detoxify the top-up tap water, which means 2 drops per day.

Right?
Thank you for your kind answer. :smurf:

 

[CStrickland]

Hi guys, kinda curious about Prime also,

At present I only have tap water as sole water source, what I'm asking is; for daily water top-ups, is it good enough to use my regular tap water dosed with Prime?

I know long term it's good to have a reverse osmosis system at hand, but, I think right now it's simply economic to use this product. Simple calculation goes as follows:

• A full-cap of Prime (which is 5 ml) can be used to detoxify 100 liter of tap water (based on their web FAQ),
• Say I'm going to do 2 liter daily for top-up for an example, I only need 0.1 liter of Prime to detoxify the top-up tap water, which means 2 drops per day.

Right?
Thank you for your kind answer. :smurf:

It depends what is in your tap water. Prime detoxifies chlorine, chloramine, and ammonia; it also binds heavy metals in the water. But there's a lot of other stuff that can be in there, like phosphates which fuel algae and chemicals like agriculture runoff pesticides and stuff. Prime doesn't do anything about those and the heavy metal binding isn't perfect. So you would be dosing them into your tank every time you top off. If you have no other option, or you aren't keeping coral, maybe. But when I used to use tap water it was always a worry for me that the next addition would be one that hurt my tank.

Your calculations look right to me. It's only a few drops per gallon.

 

[Sk8r]

x2 on keeping it always on hand for emergencies. You can condition tapwater for a hospital tank---you can also use it to neutralize Clorox smell on your hands. I keep a bottle on the kitchen shelf and another with the tank. It WILL mess with the accuracy of your nitrate readings, but it will not prevent bacteria from digesting it---that, from Seachem.

 

[NguntalKawat]

It depends what is in your tap water. Prime detoxifies chlorine, chloramine, and ammonia; it also binds heavy metals in the water. But there's a lot of other stuff that can be in there, like phosphates which fuel algae and chemicals like agriculture runoff pesticides and stuff. Prime doesn't do anything about those and the heavy metal binding isn't perfect. So you would be dosing them into your tank every time you top off. If you have no other option, or you aren't keeping coral, maybe. But when I used to use tap water it was always a worry for me that the next addition would be one that hurt my tank.

Your calculations look right to me. It's only a few drops per gallon.

Unfortunately, tap water company (a.k.a local government here) does not publish any report regarding their water condition, so people are generally don't know anything about what's in their tap water, nor they care enough about it, sadly.

For human consumption, most people around the area rely on private drinking water company that sells drinking water by the gallon (including me), and so far I'm using the same drinking water for my freshwater tank, including water change and the top-offs, and it's costly enough (and troublesome).

I'm just starting my first saltwater tank (the tank itself isn't finished yet :clown and luckily LFSes around here sell natural seawater for reasonable price, so it's not gonna be a real problem for water changing. The only problem is the freshwater top-offs, and I was seeing Prime as solution just now.

But I think that you are right, I've tried using tap water for my planted tank and frequent algae outbreaks indicate contamination of phosphate, probably heavy metals too. Yes I am gonna keep corals for my new saltwater tank, so buying an RO/DI unit would be a good option.

Thanks for your information.