You’re a lifesaver. Thank you so much for doing this for us. Your fish in cycle + this has saved my fish that I had to take in due to an emergency rehoming. A million thanks 🐠
This is the only video I've watched of yours. I have a saltwater tank (switched from fresh to salt a month ago). Im having a nitrite problem that's new to me. This video is so right to the point, clear and transparent! Definitely subscribing for more useful info
You are becoming my favorite fish/aquarium UA-camr. I'm currently at the end of my first week doing a fishless cycle following your directions. I will now get seachem prime for future water changes. My goal is having a beautiful 65 litre (17 gallon) long tank in my lounge with 3 little schools of neon green tetras, Chilli rasbora and salt and pepper corydoras. Keep up the good work.
If only manufacturers put themselves in our shoes and gave us the information we need to know. After all, they spent a long time researching and testing this product. The more specific and accurate the information the better.
@@TrafishAquatics Yup. In fact, the hobbyist could even be a professional chemist working for a water company! They should never underestimate their customers!
i use that product i sware by it.its the best... when i transport truck loads of koi from florida to ny i use it in the live hualer tanks fantastic travis you are so on point with all aquatic needs. go you brother!!!! love the vids.
@@TrafishAquatics travis i do side work for some of the bigger farms in fl and haul for them .normally in spring and summer im going to be supplying some of the local nurserys land scaping outfits in our area with some koi and gold fish ... yea will be nice to see you as the wheather gets better . get fishy man....
Hi Travis! I love your videos, you always explain everything so clearly! My question...I just did a water change for my single Betta in his 9 gallon tank (he does not have tank mates). I was in the middle of the water change and my tap water started running slightly brown. I'm thinking the city is flushing. I added that water which was about 2 gallons into his 9 gallon tank. I normally add 24 drops of Prime but after seeing that the dose can be safely increased, I added an extra 10 drops making it a total of 34 drops. Will Prime take care of the sudden brown tint in the added tap water? I also added Seachem Stress Guard, just in case. What are your thoughts?
Thank you for this info! I was about to just email them or call myself. Im on the process of cycling. Should have researched first before buying fish. Now im in a fish in cycle....now I know how much to dose. THANK YOU!
Brilliant thanks! I've had a big spike in nitrites and have been using this. Do I keep using it until the good bacteria 'catch up' and take over the process? I'm just learning 🙈
@@TrafishAquatics hi bud, what do you reckon would be the right amount for the water change? I hear so much conflicting advice. I was doing 50% but I'm worried I'm getting rid of some bacteria. Would 25% be better? I know the fish like the 50 but I don't know for the long haul what's right. They are not doing great 😥. They pick up for a day after each water change but nitrites come back so fast 😖😖
Cut down on feeding a little bit while it's elevated, if your dosing prime try to keep it under 2ppm, what is your ph at currently? A 50% water change will remove 50% of your nitrite so water change accordingly
So during an initial cycling of a tank, should I treat is daily with Prime? You mentioned something about it detoxifying the ammonia for 24-48 hour hours. What happens to it after that time? I’m currently using the recommend amount of Stability.
There is no instructions on the bottle for the time intervals for re-dosing when used to control ammonia. How often do you suggest re-dosing? Thanks for all of the informative videos, as well as taking the time to answer all of our comments.
You're very welcome, Prime is only active in the aquarium for 24 to 48 hours, personally for ammonia control I would dose every 24 hours to make sure the efficacy of the prime does not wear off before 48 hours.
@@TrafishAquatics Thanks for the reply. I have heard this many times from experienced aquarium owners as well, and I completely agree with you. I think it would be beneficial if the Seachem folks stated this on each bottle of Prime.
Great video buddy, I’m wondering if prime make amine out of ammonia and nitrite what’s gonna become that amine after the bacteria eat them? Nitrite again? Or what? Thank you!
API's Ammo Lock detoxifies 10ppm of ammonia with a single dose added every two days. I always use and trust Ammo Lock. It has kept my fish safe through many ammonia spikes over the years.
Sir what do you suggest if i dont have purified water only tap water with chlorine what does do you suggest also i will prepare the water for salt mxing thanks for the reply
Hi there, sorry to jump in on the comments section wit a bit of an essay, however I'm looking for expert advise on controlling a nitrite spike (max reading has been 1.5ppm). 5 days ago I purchased some longtail Panda Corys which unfortunately developed finrot after 48 hours. Within 2-3 days 1 had died, the 2nd died approx 12 hours later, the 3rd was returned to the fish store who were already aware as they have had several reports of the same thing with this particular batch of fish. The issue is that the dead fish was totally hidden away rotting in my tank for around 2 days (unable to find it until today!), and I stated to notice a few Cardinals were surface breathing and my water was clouding up. I treated my tank with finrot treament (half dosage) proir to the clouding then also discovered that the Nitrite had started to rise from zero (I perform daily water tests for 3 days when introducing new fish), however at no point has my Ammonia been anything but zero - which my specialist fish store confirmed on a sample I took in. I started with a 30-35% water change (Nitrites then reduced from 1.0 to 0.5ppm) but within a few hours when I did my next Nitrite test it had gone up to around 1.0ppm again. So I repeated with another 25% change (each time treating the tap water with API quick start to remove the chlorine), however after a few hours again the Nitrite climbed up to 1.0-1.25. I then stayed up all night monitoring the Nitrites every hour, performing another 30-35% water change at 3am this morning, by 7am my Nitrites were 1.5ppm and the fish are stressed out. At this point I've performed 5 partial water changes and the Nitrites keep creeping up and I'm very worried because I have 3 rare plecs and no spare tanks or spare cycled media to combat the bacterial bloom...2 Cardinals and a Glowlight Danio have died so far* Speaking to a local expert he has advised not to treat my tank with Prime (water conditioner) and a new bottle has just been delivered by Amazon - do I treat the Nitrite directly with the conditioner or as I've been advised, will this potentialy put me in a worse position by increasing the toxicity threshold of the water? My water is still cloudy, still around 1.0ppm Nitrite / 0 Ammonia, Nitrates are approx 0.5ppm in a heavily planted 400L tank. My head is telling me to treat the tank with Prime because the fish cannot sustain this for long and I have 3 rare & expensive Plecs that I'm terrified about losing. Please help me :(
Yes use the prime, if your ammonia is at 0 the nitrite will stop rising soon as ammonia directly converts to nitrite, if there's no ammonia left the nitrite can't go up. Adding prime will not increase the toxicity threshold, it only neutralizes the toxicity for 24-48 hours so the bacteria can effectively breaking it down while keeping your fish safe, it needs to be dosed daily till the nitrite is gone.
@@TrafishAquatics I did treat the tank with a 1 to 1 dose / 1.0 ppm and it’s saved my aquarium! lost 4 Cardinals, a loxozonus cory, a male guppy and Glowlight Danio. The Plecs seem fine (all being well). Thank you
It will not hurt inverts, The calculation you need to do for how much to put in your tank depends on volume so you would have to calculate the volume of your tank and base it off that
Question: I have a new tank, which I did allow to cycle for 45 days prior to adding fish. The fish have been in for about 3 weeks and I am experiencing a increase in Nitrites/Nitrates and ammonia. Numbers were perfect before adding fish. I rinsed my filters in tank water for the first time yesterday. How long should I wait to attempt a water change?
What process did you follow for cycling the tank? If you have prime you can dose that to detoxify your ammonia and nitrite, until the cycle can re-establish itself. Also don't clean your filters at all while the cycle is establishing as you will loose some bacteria that way and it will lengthen the process.
Just ordered this stuff and will be here tomorrow. My tank us slightly overstocked so im getting nitrite spikes. Im new to fishkeeping and my pet store recommended fish that are going to get too big for my 15g fluval flex. I have 8 red eye tetras and 4 panda corys. Will this let me keep all my fish to adult size, or will the biofilter never catch up to the load? I did put extra bio rings the the filter chamber. Thanks for any help
Hi, I live in Scotland and just purchased this and Stability. I have a Biorb Tube 35L (which I think is around 9/10gallons) would you say half a cup would be too much? Maybe better with a quarter?
This is my 1st time with a fresh water tank. Never had any problems until recent. I have bacteria bloom and was told to use Prime. I want to know exactly how much should I use for 40 gal tank?
I have a ten gallon tank and it is testing at .25-.5 of ammonia. I use prime when I change water should I be using it and just putting it in without water changes until The ammonia reads better?
@@TrafishAquatics does it mean its cycling if I have nitrate and nitrite but no ammonia? I dont mean to bug you with this. Just not sure what I'm doin wrong. Tank is clean:(
Yes, Is anytime you have any kind of elevated ammonia or nitrite the tank is cycling in some form, since you have no ammonia and nitrite it should reestablish pretty quickly
@@TrafishAquatics okay thank you, I'll just keep checking it and adding the seacrum prime I added 3 cap fulls it's a 55 gallon. So hopefully it helps cause I just did a 20% water change this morning but I probably won't touch it till Tuesday or Wednesday so I dont make it worse.
I'm using Top Fin water conditioner and biological cleaner. I was going to switch to prime so when can I start using prime after my Topfin is done? The other question is can I have prime as my water conditioner and have TopFin for my biological cleaner ? (New fish owner) still learning
Yes Prime works The same as a traditional water conditioner, But also has the added benefit of being able to detoxify ammonia and nitrite. Once you stop using the top 10 you can start using the prime right away.
Hi Travis, my Prime bottle says use 4 drops per gal. it's on top of the peal off label. Can you use stress coat with Prime after a partial water? Thanks
The fish will generate thier own slime coat so there is no need to add any products to help with that, if anything you can add a little aquarium salt, this will help naturally stimulate slime coat growth
question sir if I have tap water to be put on my saltwater tank, if I apply that PRIME how much time should I wait for the water to be dechlorinated? TIA!
Any declarator on the market usually works almost instantaneously, That being said if you're planning on running a saltwater tank I would highly consider getting a reverse osmosis unit or an RODI unit to remove all the minerals from your current water that way you can add your marine salt and your mineral levels would become ideal from the marine salt mixture, otherwise your mineral counts would be out of whack
Here's a link to a cheaper RODI unit, If this is still out of your budget then I would highly advise going against doing a saltwater aquarium as the RODI unit is probably one of the cheaper items you're going to need to be able to set that system up correctly. www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Changing-Deionization-Cartridge/dp/B00204CQF6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=ro+unit&qid=1628736176&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExQTE1MENUQlZTRU5WJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzE4OTUzTzlTTVdIMEZDMkdDJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA2NDgxNDgxOVlMV003QVFWQk84JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfcGhvbmVfc2VhcmNoX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
I have a question and can’t find the answers anywhere. But if you have a crappy tank (biorb - let’s not discuss that) which is so crap it probably won’t fully cycle, could I use prime indefinitely to manage ammonia and nitrites? Doing less water changes in a non cycling tank as I really don’t have the time for daily water changes for the next 20 years.
Hi I need advice about my fish tank which I only have a frog and 2 snails in it I always use Seachem Prime and for a while it worked great about 2 days after I do a water change once a week. Afterwards, I check my levels and my Cl2 mg/L levels goes up to 0.8 - 1.5? Not sure why this doing that? I have a 10 - gallon tank for a froggy and I lost one of snail. I been putting a lot more of the Prime in because of this I am not sure why it doing this??? Thank you
Interesting, the chemical reaction between chlorine and sodium thiosulphate (which I believe is likely the main ingredient in Prime) is pretty straight forward and simple. I'm curious to know what you are testing your chlorine levels with? Also prime only needs to be dosed when doing a water change or when you have an ammonia or nitrite spike, excess dosing is not needed
@@TrafishAquatics FUNSWTM 7 in 1 Aquarium Test Strips, Fish Tank Test Kit, Freshwater Saltwater Aquarium Water Test Kit to Detect pH Nitrite Nitrate Chlorine Carbonate Hardness (GH & KH).🐟7 in 1 AQUARIUM WATER TEST KIT - our fish tank strips total have 7 elements: Nitrate, Nitrite, General Hardness, Free Chlorine, PH, Carbonate, Total Alkalinity, testing your fish tank if it is healthy water. I brought this a couple times at Amazon.
If one of my three fish died should I assume it’s ammonia or parasites? Not sure what the red streaks on fins means. One more appears sick the other appears fine. Tested tank as you mentioned and yup high ammonia doing water 50 percent water change and adding prime. New fish keeper
Hey man! Can you give me some advice about best food for goldfishes? Is there any way to speed up thier growth? Tank temperature is 25 c and im feading them with some pellets
Personally I like feeding a high-protein high-fat pellet for growth but you also want to mix in vegetables I prefer blanched broccoli crowns, high protein diets can cause constipation and bloat if it's not mixed with vegetable matter. I prefer omega-1 goldfish pellets as well as Ken's fish foods.
@@TrafishAquatics Thank you a lot, so im gonna search for some good vege pellets, how often i need to changing their diet? Can you give me some examples? Ty
Sure feed your high quality pellets and 2x a week feed your veggies. It will help keep them healthy, also stay on top of water changes to keep nitrate under 40ppm at all times to grow them quickly
Hello, Is it safe just to keep on using the dechlorinated and detoxified water everyday? I change the water everyday with a new batch for my turtles and was wondering if it's safe.
Bro, I Have A 6 Gallon Tank…Should I Add Seachem Prime Directly Into The Tank After adding New water or else 1st adding prime to a tub of water and wait for some time and then add to aquarium?
@@TrafishAquatics Thanks! After the mess I'm still cleaning up, just wanted to make sure because my Ammonia is 5.0! I gave 1 dose so far today, going to go add 4 more doses AFTER testing again!! Great info. On a side note, can high ammonia/ammonium cause slightly cloudy water? Channel subbed because you have FACTS!!
Sure can, elevated ammonia will cause your bacterial colonies to try to rapidly multiply to be able to process the ammonia load, The cloudiness that you're seeing in the water is the suspended bacteria. Also thanks for the sub!
Can it change your ammonia reading on api kit? I had zero ammonia for a week, did a water change, then .25 ammonia? I've tested my tap water which has no ammonia in it.
It shouldn't, according to Seachem the type of solution in the API kit shouldn't affect the ammonia reading. Did you do filter maintinance with the water change? Or does your tap water have Chloramine in it?
It depends on the chemical that is used in the test kit to test for ammonia, according to seachem the chemical that API uses shouldn't be affected but other companies products could be.
Hi im getting a bit confused with it saying it detoxify for 24 to 48 hrs what does that actually mean. Wud that actually stall the cycle process for them hours? Thanks
Prime converts ammonia into a safe, non-toxic form that is readily removed by the tank's biofilter. Prime may be used during tank cycling to alleviate ammonia/nitrite toxicity ss the prime does not inhibit the bacteria's ability to break it down.
@@TrafishAquatics because i have no ammonia but i have nitrites and nitrates what does it actually do to them too? Does it kill some of them bacterias off? Sorry getting new to all of this. Also ive just started to notice i have some sort of white stuff on the inside of the glass, the nitrite snails have been munching on it becoz can see line on the glass. Thank you
No it doesn't hurt the bacteria, prime will just detoxify these for 24-48 hours then wear off. The white your seeing is likley just biofilm and is harmless
@@TrafishAquatics ok thank you for ur help :) so with using the prime will the nitrates still trying to get the nitrite down with using prime? If ive worded that right? And thank you so much of replying. At the moment i dont have ammonia but have 1 nitrites and about 20 nitrate. Do u think i might be coming towards the end of the cycle?
I'm finding just how bad of a fish keeper I actually am. I was convinced that a RODI system was needed only to find out later that it's not the best idea since it removes absolutely everything of value from the water. I have also been doing weekly water changes as my 5 gallon tank looks like crap after about 5 days....but I have been doing major water changes thinking that it's helping
I use easylife aquamaker. It works faster than prime and it has specs more than prime. But i would recommend prime since it is popular aquamaker is underrated and no one uses it :( prime is 5x dosage for high concentrations of chlorine ammonia chloramine nitrites and nitrates (2mg/L or higher) while aquamaker is 3x dosage for high concentrations of chlorine ammonia chloramine nitrites and nitrates (6mg/L or higher) aquamaker is an award winning competitor.
Hi I have just had a cycle crash as my old filter broke added a new one couldn't keep the same sponge due to the make but I did squeeze some of the old sponge in the water loads I have nitrite spiking around 50 mark yesterday so I changed the water because I have fish brought them down to 25 then today hitting 50 again will a standard dose help keep these non toxic until the bacteria catch up I have around 20ppm nitrates in the orange zone just want to make sure I dose the right amount as don't want to keep doing water changes I have a 54 litre tank but I tend to just dose for a 50 litres due to substrate etc how much should I dose I think I was dosing 1.3ml
Thank you I did change the water today as they were at 50 but added 1.3ml of prime so it did bring them back down to 25 so I will see what they are at tomorrow is prime safe to dose daily?
@@TrafishAquatics yeah I knew it was the water changes diluting it but just wanted to make sure I can dose it daily let it cycle rather than keep changing the water thank you for your help 😊 so how much will my standard dose detoxify?
Ok wasnt sure if i was reading it right which i why i noted that, a standard dose detoxifys 1ppm ammonia and 2ppm nitrite and this can be dosed up to 5x and those detox numbers would also multiply by the dosage
@@TrafishAquatics My tap water starts off with nirates due to lawn fertilizers filtering down to the water table here on Long Island. I guess it's me but most of the nitrate readings in the API kit look like the same color. I enjoyed your video; direct and to the point. Nice job!
Will it still show on the water test? I’ve had my fish in cycle going for 1 week. Yes, another stupid newbie here. I have a 40 gallon tank with 4 guppies (just lost 1 today), 4 mollies, and 1 Cory. Looks like 1 Molly and 1 guppy is showing signs of ick(white spots). Other than that they are all active and eating well. When I check the water I’ve always gotten ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate between 20-40(goes up and down with 25% daily water changes. I’m also using seachem stability for the bacteria. My question is, using prime and stability, should I still see an ammonia and nitrite spike? I haven’t gotten one yet.
This video was probably easily the most helpful video I’ve watched about the usefulness of Prime to date. Thank you! I do have a question. I’ve been dosing my tank for nitrites, but I’ve not done up to 5x’s all at once. I log how many doses I place within a 24 hour period. Sometimes I’ve noticed that throughout that period - I’ve dosed a little higher, some times lower. Nonetheless, I haven’t lost any fish yet and this has been going on for a few weeks now. My levels are pretty consistent day over day - 0 Ammonia, .25 - .5 nitrites, 0 nitrates I’m wondering if my cycle is cycling slower because I didn’t just dose 5x the dosage all at once? I know that pH can impact this - it remains steady at 7.3.
How long has the tank been running, also fish in or fishless, prime also doesnt make a tank cycle faster or slower, as it just detoxifys the harmfullness of the nitrates toward your fish as well as dechlorinates your water, a cycle takes 6-8 weeks to establish normally
@@TrafishAquatics my tank has been running since mid-Feb, I guess I’m right around the six week mark. There are fish in it. I feel like what I’m noticing is that Prime is only active in my system for 17 hours, (the log doesn’t lie, LOL) before it’s effects start to taper off. It seems misleading that Seachem promotes its usefulness for “up to 24-48 hours”.
@@TrafishAquatics yes, this seems to be consistent with my data. I have a 36 gal that I’m working on - in the last 24 hours, I’ve dosed my tank with 4.75 capfuls of prime. (3.75 would be the equivalent of an emergency 5x dosage for my tank size). I have tested the nitrites 9 times in the last 24 hours. Each of those results show that I’m currently ranging between .5 and .25 ppms of nitrite.
Prime doesnt remove nitrite or nitrate, just detoxifies it, you only need to use 1 capful for the ammount of nitrite that you have to detoxify it, the bacyerial colonies will remove the nitrite on thier own once theyve colonized
@@TrafishAquatics I bought a new 20 gallon tank and watched Kaveman's video on how to do a fish in cycle using Prime and Stability so I bought a beautiful $45 female betta. I only put her in the tank to prevent too much waste being created and ammonia and nitrites overwhelming my tank with too many fish and I put in a heater and live plants. I bought a API Master Test Kit and everything was perfect this morning but it's cloudy which I know means my beneficial bacteria has a ways to go. I intend to add Prime and Stability every morning and test every morning to protect her from ammonia and other horrible things and wonder if you have any advice to add. Also, I ordered the test kit on Amazon because I was very disheartened that PetSmart, Petco and even the specialized store where I bought my betta from charges so much for the kit (as much as $15 more than on Amazon)when they should be encouraging people to buy them and no one even suggested the kit to me. I only knew about it from watching videos like yours and Kev's. Also, a water sample is required if a fish dies but places like Petco and PetSmart don't understand that the fish wouldn't have died from ammonia and nitrites with the Prime and Stability so is there a way to prove that the fish probably died from something that would allow me to get a refund? I'm going to do my very best to keep her healthy and happy but sometimes that's just not enough. I love your channel and appreciate your time if you respond.
What’s the difference between ammonia and ammonium? I spoke to some Fish keepers and they said that although it reduces ammonia, it has an affect on ammonium
Prime actually detoxifies ammonia by temporarily turning it into ammonium. Ammonium is harmless to fish and the bacteria still eat it like ammonia and poop out nitrite. The only difference between ammonia and ammonium is one hydrogen ion. The converted ammonium will stay ammonium until it oxidizes and loses that extra hydrogen ion and turns back into ammonia.
@@catwomanva is it recommendable to use live bacteria after adding seachem prime ??? I have sudden ammonia spike. Did water change and add prime, I did some ammonia test, and ammonia still have. What should I do?
You can use a bacterial additive though you get what you pay for with bottled bacteria because of what is needed to keep bacterial colonies alive in a bottle. But if your tank already had an established cycle and you now have an ammonia spike you can just dose prime daily to detoxify it and the bacteria will re colonize itself to establish an equilibrium with the ammonia production in time. Shouldn't take too long to happen either.
I'm a fish noob and I rescued a fish from a friend's ex who did not clean the water for like a month. He has some black spots and pretty sure it's ammonia poisoning, should I buy this product?
I also did not cycle the tank before putting him in a new tank and did a 25 water change 2 days after putting him in the tank , unsure what to do at this point
Yes dose prime daily until the tank establishes the nitrogen cycle, this will help any prior and future ammonia contact. Dont change any water while the tank is cycling just dose the prime to protect the fish, once the cycle is established you can do a 50% water change and then just try to keep nitrate under 40ppm
A capful of Prime (5.0 ml) treats 50 US Gallons. You need 0.5 ml for your 5 Gallon tank. Go to any drug store and ask the Pharmacist for a 1.0 ml and a 5.0 ml Medicine Syringe.
Pretty much lol, The one thing to be mindful of is it is technically possible to overdose it, though you would either have to accidentally dump the bottle in or have a spill for it to happen, The side effects would be a depleted oxygen level for a few hours in the aquarium, which situationally depending could do some harm.
Ok, I found a tank on the curb in front of someone’s house yesterday. It had 3 inches of slimy orange water and 13 damn fish in it. Do I brought it home. I have an old 50 gallon tank that I set up for them. I have to cycle it with them in there, I literally have no choice. The ammonia is at 4 ppm . I got the seachem prime and I added 200 drops. Should I add 200 more today? Any advice is appreciated, I had a tank as a kid but I didn’t do all this kind of stuff, my mom did and we only ever had one beta fish at a time. I have 11 goldfish, a sucker fish and a little tiny fish that I don’t know what it is lol.
Also, little fish has been hiding by the filter all day, I even had to put his food over there. Do you think He is scared of the goldfish or just getting used to things?
Probably just stress from the move, if your having ammonia spikes that high what you need to do is stop feeding and only do so 2x a week and small amounts, this will help keep the ammonia down, and yes you would add the prime to detoxify the ammonia daily until the nitrogen cycle establishes
Only dechlorinator I recommend to our customers out here in South Africa. It doesn't interfere with ph. Our KH is non existent here. European brands smash the ph.
Hi , what I like about your videos , is that you want to help us . I used to use it long time ago ; I have found it made water terribly smell and it stinky by itself. I called the company about this and they told me it's normal . For many years I use powder from another brand . I don't want to suggest anything , everyone if he is not dam, has to find a right solution by himself ! Thanks anyway !
Incredibly helpful, thanks for reaching out to them and sharing with us!
Your welcome!
You’re a lifesaver. Thank you so much for doing this for us. Your fish in cycle + this has saved my fish that I had to take in due to an emergency rehoming.
A million thanks 🐠
You're welcome
Thank you so much! I've been scrolling through so many forums, discussions, websites..... couldn't find anything that was helpful until this.
This is the only video I've watched of yours. I have a saltwater tank (switched from fresh to salt a month ago). Im having a nitrite problem that's new to me. This video is so right to the point, clear and transparent! Definitely subscribing for more useful info
Your welcome!
You are becoming my favorite fish/aquarium UA-camr. I'm currently at the end of my first week doing a fishless cycle following your directions. I will now get seachem prime for future water changes. My goal is having a beautiful 65 litre (17 gallon) long tank in my lounge with 3 little schools of neon green tetras, Chilli rasbora and salt and pepper corydoras. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, that sounds like a nice planned setup!
I've watched one video of his, and I concur: he is my favorite too.
Clear, concise, NO music, no nonsense, just dives right in!
Thanks as always. Going the extra mile for yr viewers
👍🐡🇬🇧
You're welcome!
If only manufacturers put themselves in our shoes and gave us the information we need to know. After all, they spent a long time researching and testing this product. The more specific and accurate the information the better.
Exactly I'm not sure why they don't provide that information to the hobbyist
@@TrafishAquatics Yup. In fact, the hobbyist could even be a professional chemist working for a water company! They should never underestimate their customers!
i use that product i sware by it.its the best... when i transport truck loads of koi from florida to ny i use it in the live hualer tanks fantastic travis you are so on point with all aquatic needs. go you brother!!!! love the vids.
Thanks man I really appreciate it! definitely going to have to come over and check out all your stuff once you get it going!
@@TrafishAquatics travis i do side work for some of the bigger farms in fl and haul for them .normally in spring and summer im going to be supplying some of the local nurserys land scaping outfits in our area with some koi and gold fish ... yea will be nice to see you as the wheather gets better . get fishy man....
Sounds like a plan!
Thank you for this informative video. As always you cut through the hype and give useable information on great topics. Much appreciated
Your welcome
Thankyou. I am having an ammonia emergency in my tank and this helps me understand what im putting in to fix it
YEA JUST GOT IT BUT THOUGHT IT WILL DO BETTER THEN WHAT YOU SAID , THANKS FOR THE GREAT INFO
Your welcome
Hi Travis! I love your videos, you always explain everything so clearly! My question...I just did a water change for my single Betta in his 9 gallon tank (he does not have tank mates). I was in the middle of the water change and my tap water started running slightly brown. I'm thinking the city is flushing. I added that water which was about 2 gallons into his 9 gallon tank. I normally add 24 drops of Prime but after seeing that the dose can be safely increased, I added an extra 10 drops making it a total of 34 drops. Will Prime take care of the sudden brown tint in the added tap water? I also added Seachem Stress Guard, just in case. What are your thoughts?
Thank you for the clarification, btw your budgies sound very happy
Absolutely! And yeah they're quite spoiled lol
Thank you for this info! I was about to just email them or call myself. Im on the process of cycling. Should have researched first before buying fish. Now im in a fish in cycle....now I know how much to dose. THANK YOU!
Your welcome!
1/4 tsp for 75 gallon if using to reduce negative effects of ammonia 👍🏼
Brilliant thanks! I've had a big spike in nitrites and have been using this. Do I keep using it until the good bacteria 'catch up' and take over the process? I'm just learning 🙈
Yep that's exactly it
@@TrafishAquatics good stuff bud, will keep at it. Thanks and love the uploads! 👍👍
Thank you
@@TrafishAquatics hi bud, what do you reckon would be the right amount for the water change? I hear so much conflicting advice. I was doing 50% but I'm worried I'm getting rid of some bacteria. Would 25% be better? I know the fish like the 50 but I don't know for the long haul what's right. They are not doing great 😥. They pick up for a day after each water change but nitrites come back so fast 😖😖
Cut down on feeding a little bit while it's elevated, if your dosing prime try to keep it under 2ppm, what is your ph at currently? A 50% water change will remove 50% of your nitrite so water change accordingly
Bro, thank you for sharing this!!
So during an initial cycling of a tank, should I treat is daily with Prime? You mentioned something about it detoxifying the ammonia for 24-48 hour hours. What happens to it after that time? I’m currently using the recommend amount of Stability.
Great info bud ... did they say anything about redose
There is no instructions on the bottle for the time intervals for re-dosing when used to control ammonia. How often do you suggest re-dosing? Thanks for all of the informative videos, as well as taking the time to answer all of our comments.
You're very welcome, Prime is only active in the aquarium for 24 to 48 hours, personally for ammonia control I would dose every 24 hours to make sure the efficacy of the prime does not wear off before 48 hours.
@@TrafishAquatics Thanks for the reply. I have heard this many times from experienced aquarium owners as well, and I completely agree with you. I think it would be beneficial if the Seachem folks stated this on each bottle of Prime.
Hi
Great video as always but I am hopeless with converting numbers etc so I have a 30 gallon tank, How much would I use?, Again thanks my friend.
For 30 gallons you would use 3ml per dose.
Great video buddy, I’m wondering if prime make amine out of ammonia and nitrite what’s gonna become that amine after the bacteria eat them? Nitrite again? Or what? Thank you!
API's Ammo Lock detoxifies 10ppm of ammonia with a single dose added every two days. I always use and trust Ammo Lock. It has kept my fish safe through many ammonia spikes over the years.
Good luck with nitrites that stuff doesn’t help at all in a cycle with fish only the first phase
Sounds good does it affect goldfish if you put 2 or 3 cap fulls
Sir what do you suggest if i dont have purified water only tap water with chlorine what does do you suggest also i will prepare the water for salt mxing thanks for the reply
Thank you there’s so much conflicting knowledge & my nitrites were still wacko after water changes this was very helpful!!! SUBSCRIBED
Hi there, sorry to jump in on the comments section wit a bit of an essay, however I'm looking for expert advise on controlling a nitrite spike (max reading has been 1.5ppm).
5 days ago I purchased some longtail Panda Corys which unfortunately developed finrot after 48 hours. Within 2-3 days 1 had died, the 2nd died approx 12 hours later, the 3rd was returned to the fish store who were already aware as they have had several reports of the same thing with this particular batch of fish.
The issue is that the dead fish was totally hidden away rotting in my tank for around 2 days (unable to find it until today!), and I stated to notice a few Cardinals were surface breathing and my water was clouding up. I treated my tank with finrot treament (half dosage) proir to the clouding then also discovered that the Nitrite had started to rise from zero (I perform daily water tests for 3 days when introducing new fish), however at no point has my Ammonia been anything but zero - which my specialist fish store confirmed on a sample I took in.
I started with a 30-35% water change (Nitrites then reduced from 1.0 to 0.5ppm) but within a few hours when I did my next Nitrite test it had gone up to around 1.0ppm again. So I repeated with another 25% change (each time treating the tap water with API quick start to remove the chlorine), however after a few hours again the Nitrite climbed up to 1.0-1.25.
I then stayed up all night monitoring the Nitrites every hour, performing another 30-35% water change at 3am this morning, by 7am my Nitrites were 1.5ppm and the fish are stressed out.
At this point I've performed 5 partial water changes and the Nitrites keep creeping up and I'm very worried because I have 3 rare plecs and no spare tanks or spare cycled media to combat the bacterial bloom...2 Cardinals and a Glowlight Danio have died so far*
Speaking to a local expert he has advised not to treat my tank with Prime (water conditioner) and a new bottle has just been delivered by Amazon - do I treat the Nitrite directly with the conditioner or as I've been advised, will this potentialy put me in a worse position by increasing the toxicity threshold of the water?
My water is still cloudy, still around 1.0ppm Nitrite / 0 Ammonia, Nitrates are approx 0.5ppm in a heavily planted 400L tank.
My head is telling me to treat the tank with Prime because the fish cannot sustain this for long and I have 3 rare & expensive Plecs that I'm terrified about losing.
Please help me :(
Yes use the prime, if your ammonia is at 0 the nitrite will stop rising soon as ammonia directly converts to nitrite, if there's no ammonia left the nitrite can't go up. Adding prime will not increase the toxicity threshold, it only neutralizes the toxicity for 24-48 hours so the bacteria can effectively breaking it down while keeping your fish safe, it needs to be dosed daily till the nitrite is gone.
@@TrafishAquatics I did treat the tank with a 1 to 1 dose / 1.0 ppm and it’s saved my aquarium! lost 4 Cardinals, a loxozonus cory, a male guppy and Glowlight Danio. The Plecs seem fine (all being well). Thank you
Your welcome
Do you recommend using this product regularly? Daily, weekly? Should we also use Seachem Stability? Thanks!
Thanks I will give it a try so how much do I use for a 100 litre tank is it 2 drops a dose?
Youll want to use 2.5-3ml per dose or half a cap full
@@TrafishAquatics Thanks
Excellent video, thank you!
So when adding the prime and stability should I keep out chemical like chemipure blue and purigen until the tank is cycled ?
Awesome how much do I put in a 5 foot tank im doing salt change every 5 days also will it harm inverts cheers
It will not hurt inverts, The calculation you need to do for how much to put in your tank depends on volume so you would have to calculate the volume of your tank and base it off that
I used Prime in my new 55gal...it made the tank cloudy and murky...will that cycle out or do I need to change out some water?
Question: I have a new tank, which I did allow to cycle for 45 days prior to adding fish. The fish have been in for about 3 weeks and I am experiencing a increase in Nitrites/Nitrates and ammonia. Numbers were perfect before adding fish. I rinsed my filters in tank water for the first time yesterday. How long should I wait to attempt a water change?
What process did you follow for cycling the tank? If you have prime you can dose that to detoxify your ammonia and nitrite, until the cycle can re-establish itself. Also don't clean your filters at all while the cycle is establishing as you will loose some bacteria that way and it will lengthen the process.
Thanks that cleared up A LOT
Your welcome
Just ordered this stuff and will be here tomorrow. My tank us slightly overstocked so im getting nitrite spikes. Im new to fishkeeping and my pet store recommended fish that are going to get too big for my 15g fluval flex. I have 8 red eye tetras and 4 panda corys. Will this let me keep all my fish to adult size, or will the biofilter never catch up to the load? I did put extra bio rings the the filter chamber. Thanks for any help
i have a 55 gallon tank. how often do i treat it with the prime. and do i treat the tank after every water change?
Only need to treat it after a water change if you have chlorine or chloramine in your water or if you have an ammonia spike
@@TrafishAquatics thank you.
Hi, I live in Scotland and just purchased this and Stability. I have a Biorb Tube 35L (which I think is around 9/10gallons) would you say half a cup would be too much? Maybe better with a quarter?
Both are too much, you only need 1ml to detoxify 1ppm ammonia and 2 ppm nitrate for 10 gallons as well as dechlorinate the water
This is my 1st time with a fresh water tank. Never had any problems until recent. I have bacteria bloom and was told to use Prime. I want to know exactly how much should I use for 40 gal tank?
4ml for a single dose on a 40
Well done sir! Shared!
Thank you!
I have a ten gallon tank and it is testing at .25-.5 of ammonia. I use prime when I change water should I be using it and just putting it in without water changes until
The ammonia reads better?
Your a life saver! Just in the way you explain things you make me understand it so much better thank you!
Your welcome
@@TrafishAquatics does it mean its cycling if I have nitrate and nitrite but no ammonia? I dont mean to bug you with this. Just not sure what I'm doin wrong. Tank is clean:(
Yes, Is anytime you have any kind of elevated ammonia or nitrite the tank is cycling in some form, since you have no ammonia and nitrite it should reestablish pretty quickly
@@TrafishAquatics okay thank you, I'll just keep checking it and adding the seacrum prime I added 3 cap fulls it's a 55 gallon. So hopefully it helps cause I just did a 20% water change this morning but I probably won't touch it till Tuesday or Wednesday so I dont make it worse.
What are the nitrites at?
I'm using Top Fin water conditioner and biological cleaner. I was going to switch to prime so when can I start using prime after my Topfin is done? The other question is can I have prime as my water conditioner and have TopFin for my biological cleaner ? (New fish owner) still learning
Yes Prime works The same as a traditional water conditioner, But also has the added benefit of being able to detoxify ammonia and nitrite. Once you stop using the top 10 you can start using the prime right away.
@@TrafishAquatics ok thank you.
Hi Travis, my Prime bottle says use 4 drops per gal. it's on top of the peal off label. Can you use stress coat with Prime after a partial water? Thanks
I wouldn't use both since they are both dechlorinators
@@TrafishAquatics Thank you I was wondering about the slime coat on them. Thnx!
The fish will generate thier own slime coat so there is no need to add any products to help with that, if anything you can add a little aquarium salt, this will help naturally stimulate slime coat growth
@@TrafishAquatics Thank You !
question sir if I have tap water to be put on my saltwater tank, if I apply that PRIME how much time should I wait for the water to be dechlorinated? TIA!
Any declarator on the market usually works almost instantaneously, That being said if you're planning on running a saltwater tank I would highly consider getting a reverse osmosis unit or an RODI unit to remove all the minerals from your current water that way you can add your marine salt and your mineral levels would become ideal from the marine salt mixture, otherwise your mineral counts would be out of whack
@@TrafishAquatics Sir it is hard for me to have an RODI its too expensive...that is SAD for me.
How big of a tank did you want to run as saltwater
@@TrafishAquatics 50
Here's a link to a cheaper RODI unit, If this is still out of your budget then I would highly advise going against doing a saltwater aquarium as the RODI unit is probably one of the cheaper items you're going to need to be able to set that system up correctly.
www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Changing-Deionization-Cartridge/dp/B00204CQF6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=ro+unit&qid=1628736176&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExQTE1MENUQlZTRU5WJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzE4OTUzTzlTTVdIMEZDMkdDJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA2NDgxNDgxOVlMV003QVFWQk84JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfcGhvbmVfc2VhcmNoX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
After the 24/48 hrs have passed is there need to re dose the tank again?
If there is still ammonia or nitrite present yes
I have a question and can’t find the answers anywhere. But if you have a crappy tank (biorb - let’s not discuss that) which is so crap it probably won’t fully cycle, could I use prime indefinitely to manage ammonia and nitrites?
Doing less water changes in a non cycling tank as I really don’t have the time for daily water changes for the next 20 years.
Hi I need advice about my fish tank which I only have a frog and 2 snails in it I always use Seachem Prime and for a while it worked great about 2 days after I do a water change once a week. Afterwards, I check my levels and my Cl2 mg/L levels goes up to 0.8 - 1.5? Not sure why this doing that? I have a 10 - gallon tank for a froggy and I lost one of snail. I been putting a lot more of the Prime in because of this I am not sure why it doing this??? Thank you
Interesting, the chemical reaction between chlorine and sodium thiosulphate (which I believe is likely the main ingredient in Prime) is pretty straight forward and simple. I'm curious to know what you are testing your chlorine levels with? Also prime only needs to be dosed when doing a water change or when you have an ammonia or nitrite spike, excess dosing is not needed
@@TrafishAquatics FUNSWTM 7 in 1 Aquarium Test Strips, Fish Tank Test Kit, Freshwater Saltwater Aquarium Water Test Kit to Detect pH Nitrite Nitrate Chlorine Carbonate Hardness (GH & KH).🐟7 in 1 AQUARIUM WATER TEST KIT - our fish tank strips total have 7 elements: Nitrate, Nitrite, General Hardness, Free Chlorine, PH, Carbonate, Total Alkalinity, testing your fish tank if it is healthy water. I brought this a couple times at Amazon.
Interesting, I've never heard of it
Very helpful information, thanks
Your welcome
Can I put more while the fish are in the tank? My water isn’t clear it’s blurry type.
You can but test your water to see what your levels are and treat accordingly
Thanks for the info.
Will the levels still show in a test while detoxified so you can know when you have corrected the problem?
Yes all the levels will still show when tested after adding prime
Thanks bro also nice devil in the back
If one of my three fish died should I assume it’s ammonia or parasites? Not sure what the red streaks on fins means. One more appears sick the other appears fine. Tested tank as you mentioned and yup high ammonia doing water 50 percent water change and adding prime. New fish keeper
It's very possible it's from the ammonia
@@TrafishAquatics thank you I hope the water change and prime helps
Hey man! Can you give me some advice about best food for goldfishes? Is there any way to speed up thier growth? Tank temperature is 25 c and im feading them with some pellets
What about that Hikari food? Do i need to rotate food for them or no?
Personally I like feeding a high-protein high-fat pellet for growth but you also want to mix in vegetables I prefer blanched broccoli crowns, high protein diets can cause constipation and bloat if it's not mixed with vegetable matter. I prefer omega-1 goldfish pellets as well as Ken's fish foods.
@@TrafishAquatics Thank you a lot, so im gonna search for some good vege pellets, how often i need to changing their diet? Can you give me some examples? Ty
Sure feed your high quality pellets and 2x a week feed your veggies. It will help keep them healthy, also stay on top of water changes to keep nitrate under 40ppm at all times to grow them quickly
@@TrafishAquatics Thank you a lot you are the boss mate!
Hello,
Is it safe just to keep on using the dechlorinated and detoxified water everyday?
I change the water everyday with a new batch for my turtles and was wondering if it's safe.
Yes it's safe to continue what your doing
@@TrafishAquatics Thank you
Great video mate... thanks
Your welcome!
Your welcome
Bro, I Have A 6 Gallon Tank…Should I Add Seachem Prime Directly Into The Tank After adding New water or else 1st adding prime to a tub of water and wait for some time and then add to aquarium?
Very helpful. Thank you. 👍
Should I turn off all filters and air pumps when doing a water change?
No that's not necessary
@@TrafishAquatics thanks
Thank you!! Love this stuff
Your welcome!
Can you add this ever other day in the tank. Also can you add it in the tank with the fish in it?
Yes
So, if my Ammonia is 5.0, I can dose Prime 5 times for one treatment?
Correct, but a 5x dose is the max you can do
@@TrafishAquatics Thanks! After the mess I'm still cleaning up, just wanted to make sure because my Ammonia is 5.0! I gave 1 dose so far today, going to go add 4 more doses AFTER testing again!! Great info. On a side note, can high ammonia/ammonium cause slightly cloudy water? Channel subbed because you have FACTS!!
Sure can, elevated ammonia will cause your bacterial colonies to try to rapidly multiply to be able to process the ammonia load, The cloudiness that you're seeing in the water is the suspended bacteria.
Also thanks for the sub!
@@TrafishAquatics Your a wealth of info bud. Thanks!!
You're welcome!
How much do I add to a 3.5 gallon tank please and how often do I change the water 💧
Can it change your ammonia reading on api kit? I had zero ammonia for a week, did a water change, then .25 ammonia? I've tested my tap water which has no ammonia in it.
It shouldn't, according to Seachem the type of solution in the API kit shouldn't affect the ammonia reading. Did you do filter maintinance with the water change? Or does your tap water have Chloramine in it?
I was told that yes, your readings may be off for a couple of days.
It depends on the chemical that is used in the test kit to test for ammonia, according to seachem the chemical that API uses shouldn't be affected but other companies products could be.
How often do I use seachem prime for my axolotl every day or every time I do water change (once a week)
During water changes
Is it 24 hours or 48 hours detoxife nitrite?if i dose 5 times the ammount??
Hello everyone, if my fish tank needs two doses then can I put both at the same time?
What do you do if your ammonia reads off the scale?
Big water change to get that number down to where it's treatable
I have a 14 gallon tank my Ammonia is 1ppm so how much should I use? Please help
I bought a bottle week and noticed it smells really bad. My other brands don’t smell as bad. Is that normal?
Yep that's normal
@@TrafishAquatics Ok good, thank you
Hi im getting a bit confused with it saying it detoxify for 24 to 48 hrs what does that actually mean. Wud that actually stall the cycle process for them hours? Thanks
Prime converts ammonia into a safe, non-toxic form that is readily removed by the tank's biofilter. Prime may be used during tank cycling to alleviate ammonia/nitrite toxicity ss the prime does not inhibit the bacteria's ability to break it down.
@@TrafishAquatics because i have no ammonia but i have nitrites and nitrates what does it actually do to them too? Does it kill some of them bacterias off? Sorry getting new to all of this. Also ive just started to notice i have some sort of white stuff on the inside of the glass, the nitrite snails have been munching on it becoz can see line on the glass. Thank you
No it doesn't hurt the bacteria, prime will just detoxify these for 24-48 hours then wear off. The white your seeing is likley just biofilm and is harmless
@@TrafishAquatics ok thank you for ur help :) so with using the prime will the nitrates still trying to get the nitrite down with using prime? If ive worded that right? And thank you so much of replying. At the moment i dont have ammonia but have 1 nitrites and about 20 nitrate. Do u think i might be coming towards the end of the cycle?
Yep the bacteria will still reduce the nitrite, sounds like your pretty close to a full cycle
1 mg/l is equivalent to 1 ppm, just incase someone is unsure.
Correct 1 mg/L is equivalent to 1ppm
I'm finding just how bad of a fish keeper I actually am. I was convinced that a RODI system was needed only to find out later that it's not the best idea since it removes absolutely everything of value from the water. I have also been doing weekly water changes as my 5 gallon tank looks like crap after about 5 days....but I have been doing major water changes thinking that it's helping
I use easylife aquamaker. It works faster than prime and it has specs more than prime. But i would recommend prime since it is popular
aquamaker is underrated and no one uses it :( prime is 5x dosage for high concentrations of chlorine ammonia chloramine nitrites and nitrates (2mg/L or higher) while aquamaker is 3x dosage for high concentrations of chlorine ammonia chloramine nitrites and nitrates (6mg/L or higher) aquamaker is an award winning competitor.
Hi I have just had a cycle crash as my old filter broke added a new one couldn't keep the same sponge due to the make but I did squeeze some of the old sponge in the water loads I have nitrite spiking around 50 mark yesterday so I changed the water because I have fish brought them down to 25 then today hitting 50 again will a standard dose help keep these non toxic until the bacteria catch up I have around 20ppm nitrates in the orange zone just want to make sure I dose the right amount as don't want to keep doing water changes I have a 54 litre tank but I tend to just dose for a 50 litres due to substrate etc how much should I dose I think I was dosing 1.3ml
Yep sounds like a good plan
Thank you I did change the water today as they were at 50 but added 1.3ml of prime so it did bring them back down to 25 so I will see what they are at tomorrow is prime safe to dose daily?
Yes iys safe for daily dosing, prime wont adjust the levels it just detoxifys them, the water changes are what is adjusting the levels
@@TrafishAquatics yeah I knew it was the water changes diluting it but just wanted to make sure I can dose it daily let it cycle rather than keep changing the water thank you for your help 😊 so how much will my standard dose detoxify?
Ok wasnt sure if i was reading it right which i why i noted that, a standard dose detoxifys 1ppm ammonia and 2ppm nitrite and this can be dosed up to 5x and those detox numbers would also multiply by the dosage
If I change 50 percent water and put 50 bk in the tank can I still treat the volume of the tank mines 35g so isn't that 3 and half ml ??
how would you ever know if you had 5ppm or 10ppm of whatever your testing for. what test are using to determine that?
API freshwater master test kit to test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
@@TrafishAquatics My tap water starts off with nirates due to lawn fertilizers filtering down to the water table here on Long Island. I guess it's me but most of the nitrate readings in the API kit look like the same color. I enjoyed your video; direct and to the point. Nice job!
Will it still show on the water test?
I’ve had my fish in cycle going for 1 week. Yes, another stupid newbie here. I have a 40 gallon tank with 4 guppies (just lost 1 today), 4 mollies, and 1 Cory. Looks like 1 Molly and 1 guppy is showing signs of ick(white spots). Other than that they are all active and eating well.
When I check the water I’ve always gotten ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate between 20-40(goes up and down with 25% daily water changes. I’m also using seachem stability for the bacteria.
My question is, using prime and stability, should I still see an ammonia and nitrite spike? I haven’t gotten one yet.
This video was probably easily the most helpful video I’ve watched about the usefulness of Prime to date. Thank you!
I do have a question. I’ve been dosing my tank for nitrites, but I’ve not done up to 5x’s all at once. I log how many doses I place within a 24 hour period. Sometimes I’ve noticed that throughout that period - I’ve dosed a little higher, some times lower. Nonetheless, I haven’t lost any fish yet and this has been going on for a few weeks now.
My levels are pretty consistent day over day - 0 Ammonia, .25 - .5 nitrites, 0 nitrates I’m wondering if my cycle is cycling slower because I didn’t just dose 5x the dosage all at once? I know that pH can impact this - it remains steady at 7.3.
How long has the tank been running, also fish in or fishless, prime also doesnt make a tank cycle faster or slower, as it just detoxifys the harmfullness of the nitrates toward your fish as well as dechlorinates your water, a cycle takes 6-8 weeks to establish normally
@@TrafishAquatics my tank has been running since mid-Feb, I guess I’m right around the six week mark. There are fish in it.
I feel like what I’m noticing is that Prime is only active in my system for 17 hours, (the log doesn’t lie, LOL) before it’s effects start to taper off. It seems misleading that Seachem promotes its usefulness for “up to 24-48 hours”.
So what you are seeing is a spike in nitrites about 17 hours after dosing? Am i understanding that right?
@@TrafishAquatics yes, this seems to be consistent with my data.
I have a 36 gal that I’m working on - in the last 24 hours, I’ve dosed my tank with 4.75 capfuls of prime. (3.75 would be the equivalent of an emergency 5x dosage for my tank size). I have tested the nitrites 9 times in the last 24 hours. Each of those results show that I’m currently ranging between .5 and .25 ppms of nitrite.
Prime doesnt remove nitrite or nitrate, just detoxifies it, you only need to use 1 capful for the ammount of nitrite that you have to detoxify it, the bacyerial colonies will remove the nitrite on thier own once theyve colonized
and that sir is how you get Subscribed to!🏅
Can you put fish in the same day with prime?
Prime isnt a bacterial additive just a dechlorinator, if you want to add fish the same day i would highly reccomend a bottle of fritz turbo start 700
@@TrafishAquatics I bought a new 20 gallon tank and watched Kaveman's video on how to do a fish in cycle using Prime and Stability so I bought a beautiful $45 female betta. I only put her in the tank to prevent too much waste being created and ammonia and nitrites overwhelming my tank with too many fish and I put in a heater and live plants. I bought a API Master Test Kit and everything was perfect this morning but it's cloudy which I know means my beneficial bacteria has a ways to go. I intend to add Prime and Stability every morning and test every morning to protect her from ammonia and other horrible things and wonder if you have any advice to add. Also, I ordered the test kit on Amazon because I was very disheartened that PetSmart, Petco and even the specialized store where I bought my betta from charges so much for the kit (as much as $15 more than on Amazon)when they should be encouraging people to buy them and no one even suggested the kit to me. I only knew about it from watching videos like yours and Kev's. Also, a water sample is required if a fish dies but places like Petco and PetSmart don't understand that the fish wouldn't have died from ammonia and nitrites with the Prime and Stability so is there a way to prove that the fish probably died from something that would allow me to get a refund? I'm going to do my very best to keep her healthy and happy but sometimes that's just not enough. I love your channel and appreciate your time if you respond.
What’s the difference between ammonia and ammonium? I spoke to some Fish keepers and they said that although it reduces ammonia, it has an affect on ammonium
Prime actually detoxifies ammonia by temporarily turning it into ammonium. Ammonium is harmless to fish and the bacteria still eat it like ammonia and poop out nitrite. The only difference between ammonia and ammonium is one hydrogen ion. The converted ammonium will stay ammonium until it oxidizes and loses that extra hydrogen ion and turns back into ammonia.
Well said!
@@catwomanva is it recommendable to use live bacteria after adding seachem prime ??? I have sudden ammonia spike. Did water change and add prime, I did some ammonia test, and ammonia still have. What should I do?
You can use a bacterial additive though you get what you pay for with bottled bacteria because of what is needed to keep bacterial colonies alive in a bottle. But if your tank already had an established cycle and you now have an ammonia spike you can just dose prime daily to detoxify it and the bacteria will re colonize itself to establish an equilibrium with the ammonia production in time. Shouldn't take too long to happen either.
I'm a fish noob and I rescued a fish from a friend's ex who did not clean the water for like a month. He has some black spots and pretty sure it's ammonia poisoning, should I buy this product?
I also did not cycle the tank before putting him in a new tank and did a 25 water change 2 days after putting him in the tank , unsure what to do at this point
Yes dose prime daily until the tank establishes the nitrogen cycle, this will help any prior and future ammonia contact. Dont change any water while the tank is cycling just dose the prime to protect the fish, once the cycle is established you can do a 50% water change and then just try to keep nitrate under 40ppm
Is one cap full good for a 5 gallon tank
One cap full is a 4x dose for a 5 gal
A capful of Prime (5.0 ml) treats 50 US Gallons. You need 0.5 ml for your 5 Gallon tank.
Go to any drug store and ask the Pharmacist for a 1.0 ml and a 5.0 ml Medicine Syringe.
Will this hurt anything if you overdose it?
If dosed more than the 5x max amount it could deplete oxygen levels
What happens to the bonded ammonia and nitrates after 48 hours
we have well water, no chlorine so wonder what that means
If you have no chlorine you probably don't need to use prime as a water conditioner
I accidentally added 4 caps full into my 20 gallon is that okay??
That's deffinately an overdose, do a 50% water change and make sure you have enough aeration in the tank
I always double it. Thank god you can’t overdose 😂
Pretty much lol, The one thing to be mindful of is it is technically possible to overdose it, though you would either have to accidentally dump the bottle in or have a spill for it to happen, The side effects would be a depleted oxygen level for a few hours in the aquarium, which situationally depending could do some harm.
Ok, I found a tank on the curb in front of someone’s house yesterday. It had 3 inches of slimy orange water and 13 damn fish in it. Do I brought it home. I have an old 50 gallon tank that I set up for them. I have to cycle it with them in there, I literally have no choice. The ammonia is at 4 ppm . I got the seachem prime and I added 200 drops. Should I add 200 more today?
Any advice is appreciated, I had a tank as a kid but I didn’t do all this kind of stuff, my mom did and we only ever had one beta fish at a time. I have 11 goldfish, a sucker fish and a little tiny fish that I don’t know what it is lol.
Also, little fish has been hiding by the filter all day, I even had to put his food over there. Do you think He is scared of the goldfish or just getting used to things?
Probably just stress from the move, if your having ammonia spikes that high what you need to do is stop feeding and only do so 2x a week and small amounts, this will help keep the ammonia down, and yes you would add the prime to detoxify the ammonia daily until the nitrogen cycle establishes
Only dechlorinator I recommend to our customers out here in South Africa. It doesn't interfere with ph. Our KH is non existent here. European brands smash the ph.
Agreed, it's a good product!
Hi , what I like about your videos , is that you want to help us . I used to use it long time ago ; I have found it made water terribly smell and it stinky by itself. I called the company about this and they told me it's normal . For many years I use powder from another brand . I don't want to suggest anything , everyone if he is not dam, has to find a right solution by himself ! Thanks anyway !
Very true!
Hi could please tell me what is the name of powder brand do you used?
Anyone ever add a drop or two to remove chloramine/chlorine from water for cats and dogs?
Thanks for the video..just wondering if I need to remove carbon in my filter if I use prime? Thanks :)
Carbon should not have any effect on prime
First of all.. i didnt know "Action Bronson" was in to fish..hahaha second of all.. Thanks for the video!!
🤣🤣🤣🤣 youd be amazed how many people say that i look like him!
How about compared to Seachem Safe?
2 drops per us gallon right on my bottle
yep, some of the smaller bottles have dosage by drop vs ml per gallon
I love seachem prime
Me too it's a great product
seachem prime is my go to dechlorinator