Prime by Seachem

F

FishingAgain

ShowThemLove.org
Jun 6, 2004
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Las Vegas
www.showthemlove.org
How many of use Prime by Seachem?

Have you found it to be good?

When I first started (the first time) with aquariums we had not heard about it and had all sorts of problems and were spending tons of money on gallons of water treatment from PetsMart and PetCo (can't think of their names). Then we found Prime at a non-chain fish store.

It worked wonders! It kept everything under control like you wouldn't believe! We never lost another fish - never had any illnesses - never had any problems at all. It made us feel like we knew what we were doing.

Originally I remember asking around about it and many people simply did not know what it was and I could only buy it one store in town. Then I found the PetWarehouse (now DrFoster and Smith or something like that) which carried it.

I just finished reading information from Seachem's site about Prime and they even claim it neutralizes the harmful effects of nitrite and nitrate - binding it until it can be removed via water change or by bacteria. (It also refers to binding ammonia so it not deadly to fish but making it available to be used by bacteria.)

Once we started using Prime, we never even cycled tanks (though I do remember moving biowheels around frome established tanks to the new tanks) and we able to succesfully start fish immediately.

We would monitor levels and add Prime whenever necessary but we never went through the hazy colored water or anything.

So were we just stupid, fortunate, or what?
 
I've just started using it but so far it's great. I used it during the last days of my fishless cycle during the nitrite spike and all my fish are doing great.
 
I don't know that Prime 'works wonders' but it is an effective treatment for chlorine/chloramine. It's really concentrated, too, so a small bottle goes a long way.

One caution: using Prime will interfere with accurate measurement of ammonia when using most hobby tests. I believe you have to buy an "ammonia alert" badge from Seachem to get accurate levels of ammonia when using Prime.

Jim
 
I have not heard of that but that would be a reason why my ammonia test shows ammonia but almost no NO2 or NO3
as those would also be up if there were ammonia in my understanding of how nitrogen affects things.

But the number was at the lowest reading for ammonia so I was just watching things since I have started using it
 
To add a little bit (I don't know enough to add a lot) Prime has been highly reccomended by many here.

As far as the ammonia readings that JSchmidt mentioned. There are a couple of issues if I understand it correctly. One when Chloramine is used in the tap water the products that break it down leave either ammonia or ammonium, also when prime binds ammonia it turns it into ammonium as well. Most hobbyists test kits aren't able to distinguish between ammonia (harmfull to fish) and ammonium (not harmful at low levels) The best part about this is that Ammonium can be used by the bacteria just like ammonia. So using Prime will make a safer environment for your fish, and still allow the bacteria to grow and reproduce.
This is my fledgling understanding. Hopefully it's somewhat accurate. It would definately explain the lack of difficulties you've had when cycling with prime in the past. And as was said. constant monitoring is the key to anything you do. And never forget that your fish will tell you a lot about your tank if you watch them closely.
 
I'm straining my memory, but I believe Prime causes false positives with standard ammonia tests, so that would be consistent with what you're seeing, johnnyxxl.

Jim
 
Originally posted by daveedka
To add a little bit (I don't know enough to add a lot) Prime has been highly reccomended by many here.

As far as the ammonia readings that JSchmidt mentioned. There are a couple of issues if I understand it correctly. One when Chloramine is used in the tap water the products that break it down leave either ammonia or ammonium, also when prime binds ammonia it turns it into ammonium as well. Most hobbyists test kits aren't able to distinguish between ammonia (harmfull to fish) and ammonium (not harmful at low levels)
Click to expand...

The typical hobby test kits you refer to are the Nessler and salicylate tests. The Nessler test detects all ammonia (whether in the safe ammonium form or not) while salicylate only measures harmful ammonia. Unfortunately, Prime will give you false positive readings with either. This is confusing, because salicylate tests are useful when using other common ammonia detoxifiers (e.g., Amquel). If you use Prime, though, both Nessler and salicylate tests seem to give you bogus results.

Jim
 
Three side questions raised by various things posted here:

What is NO2? (I'm assuming Nitrite or Nitrate)

What is NO3? (Which I assume is whichever one is NO2 is not)

What are the "easy plants" (someone has listed in their signature - can't see sigs when replying so I can't remember who has that but I think it is daveedka)?

Thanks for the info so far - this forum is going to make this round of having aquariums much better since my knowledge will be far greater.
 
Found my answers for NO2 (Nitrite) and NO3 (Nitrate)

You know that would be a good sticky for the newbiews forum!

One that shows all the abbreviations that one will come across in discussions -

NO2 = Nitrite - explanation of what Nitrite is

NO3 - Nitrate - etc.

That would be extremely helpful!

Even simple ones like LFS - it took me awhile but I finally am guessing that means Local Fish Store

There have been many other things I have seen that I definitely have no idea what was being discussed, but cannot remember them right now.
 
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