Yes, it is especially important for us to use a good water conditioner here. I hate that they even sell ones around here that don't handle chloramines and ammonia. Someone who doesn't know any better could get some really sick fish, and I am sure that happens. I was expecting the tank to be cycled since I brought over all the media from an old tank but I am getting ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings. Just set it up a couple of days ago. I am doing frequent water changes with prime but also adding prime to the water a bit on its own. I see actual change from stressed fish to happy fish within like seconds of adding prime when i am dealing with a regular un-primed ammonia thing. I guess once the tanks cycle here the biological filter handles the ammonia from the tap water before the prime loses effect. But my ammonia readings are about 0.25-0.5. nitrites yesterday were 0 with a nitrates of about 10.The further reading that I have done shows that my binding assumption was incorrect. Prime does not bind by forming ammoniate complexes, but by reducing the ammonia (or chloramine) to a methenamine. This Compound can be broken down by a biological filter, and only can be converted back to ammonia under acidic conditions (outside of normal aquarium ranges). I guess that water changes would be a counterproductive way to reduce ammonia in your case.
Nh3 to Nh4 conversion with prime?
- Thread starter Penguin88
- Start date
Just based on chemical structures (not actual experience with the specific reaction in a lab setting) chloramine seems as if it should react quickly with the conditioner. Your observations with your fish stress levels seems to agree with this.
Do you have the room to precondition your water somewhere before a water change? You could test it for ammonia before putting it in the tank. It might even let you treat it differently.
Man, I liked when I could keep a tank and not feel compelled to think about all of this stuff.
Do you have the room to precondition your water somewhere before a water change? You could test it for ammonia before putting it in the tank. It might even let you treat it differently.
Man, I liked when I could keep a tank and not feel compelled to think about all of this stuff.
Oh, I do condition the water before I add it to the tank. I meant like, after water changes when i have an ammonia reading and the prime from the water change has worn off.Just based on chemical structures (not actual experience with the specific reaction in a lab setting) chloramine seems as if it should react quickly with the conditioner. Your observations with your fish stress levels seems to agree with this.
Do you have the room to precondition your water somewhere before a water change? You could test it for ammonia before putting it in the tank. It might even let you treat it differently.
Man, I liked when I could keep a tank and not feel compelled to think about all of this stuff.
I think that I have confused myself, so please bear with me. Do you mean that you treat tap water with Prime, but after a certain time the ammonia rises again? (without fish?) The way that I understand it, that shouldn't happen with Prime.
Oh, no there are fish in there. the guppies and betta belonged to my mother-in-law who gave me this tank about a week ago and we just transferred the tank and filters. One of the two filters wouldn't start but I kept as much of the original filter media as I could. I took my other fish from a ten gallon and put them in and transferred all the media from the 10. I thought we'd be safe from having to go through a cycle. Granted the cycle started out like halfway along, which is good. Day one after setting up the tank I had moderate ammonia, low nitrite, and moderate nitrate readings. (1 ppm, 0.25 ppm, 10 ppm respectively) My bacteria eat up the ammonia but not as fast as if the tank was cycled, and I am still having ammonia after the Prime is effective, apparently. So I've been adding a little extra prime in-between water changes and I was just wondering how it works, really.The last two days I have 0.25-0.5 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, about 10 nitrate.
Why I asked the question is because when I do a water change the fish are fine, despite the ammonia reading, I guess from the prime. I have never had trouble with the ammonia that is in my tapwater in a cycled tank as long as I use prime, I guess the bacteria eats up the ammonia before the prime wears off. I really don't know how that works. Now, with an uncycled tank, the next day or two after a water change my ammonia reading reduces but there is still ammonia (in a cycled tank there is none by this time) and my fish act stressed until i add more prime or do another water change. It gets complicated to know what's going on when you have ammonia in your tap water that you use to do water changes.
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I smell what you're stepping in now. It seems that your population of ammonia metabolizing bacteria is low. It is good to keep the ammonia down, but it is possible that if you use too much Prime to control the ammonia, it will take a while for the biological side to equilibrate.
