Help! Pet shop lied to us.

Once Prime binds with and converts the free ammonia to ammonium, it is permanent and cannot be undone by pH. During the 24 hrs that Prime is active in the water, this bound ammonium will be consumed by the bio-filter and/or plants.

You know what, throw everything in your tank regardless of what the product is intended for. I'm sure you'll figure it out after awhile, or just give up. Once again good luck.

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Once again it is really a hit or miss with a betta and shrimp. There will be people saying the get along fine, but they probably had a mellow betta. It really depends on the fish. It is kind of like cats and dogs. The classic tale is that cats dont get along with dogs, but in reality hundreds of thousands of families have cats and dogs with no issues, where some have dogs and cats that dont get along at all.
 
You know what, throw everything in your tank regardless of what the product is intended for. I'm sure you'll figure it out after awhile, or just give up. Once again good luck.

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wow.
 
actually, i believe that pH is very important when considering ammonia/ammonium. as pH values increase ammonia becomes more toxic and I believe that high pH can break NH4 into NH3 or deionize NH4 freeing the extra Hydrogen from NH4
on the flip side ammonai NH3 become less toxic in aidic pH as NH3 turns to NH4 theless toxic form of ammonia ;)
 
actually, i believe that pH is very important when considering ammonia/ammonium. as pH values increase ammonia becomes more toxic and I believe that high pH can break NH4 into NH3 or deionize NH4 freeing the extra Hydrogen from NH4
on the flip side ammonai NH3 become less toxic in aidic pH as NH3 turns to NH4 theless toxic form of ammonia ;)
This is correct but does not apply to the chemically bound ammonia from the use of Prime. If the tank in question has no bio-filter/plants or a weak biofilter, then some of the initially 'bound' ammonia may be released back to it's free form as the Prime dissipates after 24-48 hrs or so. This normally isn't an issue in most tanks. However, any free/unbound ammonia is indeed at the mercy of the tank's pH.
 
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You know what, throw everything in your tank regardless of what the product is intended for. I'm sure you'll figure it out after awhile, or just give up. Once again good luck.

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This isn't my thread, but welcome to the forums.
 
This isn't my thread, but welcome to the forums.

My point was that everyone is telling this poor lady to use this and that, and everything will be fine. Chemicals should be used as a last resort. Products should be used as they were intended to be used. I'll let someone else tell pretttkitty how to interpret test results while using prime. It seems like any advice will be met with opposite advice leaving Ms. Kitty no closer to having a successful fish tank for her son than she was 3 days ago. People have been cycling tanks long before any products like Prime were around.

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Yes, and cycling the tanks before Prime was available, was also the time frame when chloramine wasn't used as the primary bacteria fighter in water systems. Simple chlorine was used, and it could gas off without using products. Not true with chloramine, thus Prime and others came along to prevent injury to fish and killing your BB colony.
 
My point was that everyone is telling this poor lady to use this and that, and everything will be fine. Chemicals should be used as a last resort. Products should be used as they were intended to be used. I'll let someone else tell pretttkitty how to interpret test results while using prime. It seems like any advice will be met with opposite advice leaving Ms. Kitty no closer to having a successful fish tank for her son than she was 3 days ago. People have been cycling tanks long before any products like Prime were around.

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Wow, so when we have an advance in the hobby and learn that the smartest thing to do is condition your water with a chemical like prime that is a bad thing just because people didn't do it before we learned that?

She has gotten a lot of advice in here but the only conflicting advice was from you telling her not to neutralize the ammonia in the water which kills fish.

Besides hearing about different fish to stock she has been told to use a chemical like prime to condition her tap water to make it safe for fish, get a liquid test kit to monitor test results, and keep track of the levels and neutralize Chen spikes as needed. No one told her to use something not as it was recommended (and if you are referring to me mentioning dosing 2-5x prime it is written right on the bottle to do that for specific instances like a nitrite spike) and we have only offered advice.

What would you have her do? Just throw some more fish in there, not make sure her water has been treated, and hope they survive with regular water changes? Once again, just because that's how people did it for years doesn't mean it is how it should be done now when so much has been learned. Chemicals like prime are not a last resort. They are a chemical to be used regularly for every water change and to neutralize chemical spikes to preserve the life of your fish

We have found out that she can't obtain Prime where she is so someone will have to offer another way to do what it does. I don't know of any others so hopefully someone can help her out in that regard.
 
Once again it is really a hit or miss with a betta and shrimp. There will be people saying the get along fine, but they probably had a mellow betta. It really depends on the fish. It is kind of like cats and dogs. The classic tale is that cats dont get along with dogs, but in reality hundreds of thousands of families have cats and dogs with no issues, where some have dogs and cats that dont get along at all.

True but my Betta was by no means a mellow fish. I definitely had to experiment a bit to get the right combo. Finally settling on the Betta a Julie cat and a couple or more ghost shrimp (the latter being used as snacks for my Lunar Wrasse). Besides fish need some stimulation to be happy (as long as the stim isn't stressful) Ever see those poor Bettas in the bowls by themselves, they look so bloody depressed and its far more interesting to see a Betta doing what comes naturally. I'm hoping pretty kitty hasn't given up, but all this conflicting info must be discouraging, after all this thread was supposed to be about her sons well being, but seems to have turned into a peeing match. Sorry Ms kitty for letting my emotions get the better of me .

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