Using Prime to detox ammonia

[vlangel]

Hi folks,
My new 56 gallon tank is going through a mini cycle, (or at least I hope its only a mini cycle). I had transferred 2 prior tanks in my life and never had the ammonia go up more than 0.25 ppm. Today my tank had jumped from 0.25 on Tuesday to 1.0 ppm!

I immediately did a 21 gallon water change and I will test again when the tank has circulated. I bought Prime but thought I better ask some quesions before using it.

If I use it according to the directions can I still test the water and know where the ammonia level is? If it impairs testing then I risk not knowing how drastic my biological function of the tank has been impaired by my transfer into the new tank. Removing the sandbed has apparently reduced my biological function more than I anticipated.

The new tank only has 1 seahorse and 1 royal gramma, soft coral and some snails. The sump was totally untouched and has a large skimmer, a fuge overflowing with macro algae and a 5" sandbed. I added a bottle of biospira after the transfer and added seachem stability on Tuesday after the water change.

What do you folks recommend? If using Prime is not a good idea I can move my seahorse into the QT where I can do water changes easily and keep her safe from the toxicity in my display until it stabilizes. I sort of hate to move her again unless you all think that is the best option.

 

[vlangel]

I may have worried prematurely, (although ammonia is serious). When I re-tested it was back down to 0.25 ppm. Eve looks and is acting fine, swimming at the front of the tank begging for food. I will feed her light tonight and test again first thing in the morning. I have probably 20 gallons of fresh made salt water to do more water changes if needed.

I will NOT add Prime at this time since I feel like its controllable. Perhaps it was not really as bad as I thought earlier. Those colors can be tricky to read.

 

[BlueCat1949]

Always good when you can answer your own questions

 

[rayjay]

I've never used Prime, but I have started many seahorse tanks from scratch WITH seahorses in them from the start and I used ClorAm-X to bind the ammonia until the biological filter catches up to the output.

 

[vlangel]

Always good when you can answer your own questions

For sure, I was so relieved when the next time I tested the ammonia was significantly less.

 

[vlangel]

I've never used Prime, but I have started many seahorse tanks from scratch WITH seahorses in them from the start and I used ClorAm-X to bind the ammonia until the biological filter catches up to the output.

Thank you ray. I went ahead and used the Prime as precautionary and I believe my biological filter will catch up in the next week.

 

[vlangel]

The biofilter must be catching up because my last test was 0 or almost. I am planning on ordering a pair of seahorses from Seahorse Source in the next week.. With the time it takes them to get here and the QT time for them to recover from shipping stress, my display should easily be ready. I will feed Eve slightly heavier to increase the tank's biofilter capacity, while keeping an eye on the parameters.