Bio-Spira and Prime water conditioner

[177ichael]

Anyone know if Prime has any adverse effects on the functioning of Bio-Spira? Here's a link to the Prime product:

Prime Water Conditioner (http://www.petsmart.com/fish/shopping/chemicals/products/product_35824.shtml)

Michael

[JSchmidt]

Prime isn't harmful to a cycled or cycling tank, so I can't imagine that there would be any problem using it with BioSpira.

Jim

[Gunnie]

This question has come up before. The description on your link indicates that prime also removes ammonia which is what the bio bugs in your bio spira feed on. Just as a precaution until your tank is at least 2 weeks old, try to use something like aqua plus which only removes chlorine, chloramines, and metals until your bacteria is more established. From what I've read, any product which neutralizes or removes ammonia is not recommended in the beginning when using bio spira.

[JSchmidt]

Amquel and Prime both detoxify ammonia, but make it available to nitrifying bacteria. I believe AmmoLock2 does, also.

Greg Morin, the President and CEO of Seachem, who makes Prime, weighed in himself on Prime and whether the ammonia it detoxifies is available to nitrifiers:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18923&highlight=morin

Seachem has one of the best records, IMO, of being up-front about its products and what they do. If they say the neutralized (complexed?) ammonia is available to nitrifiers, I'm inclined to believe them.

Jim