Very confused about Prime and the results I'm getting from testing...

After reading my post I realized my point of interest was not there.
What I was trying to point out was I believe your fish would fair better with the parameters you have than with the addition of unon-treated water and chlorine.
 
I always treat my water with Prime, usually a double dose just to be safe. Prime does work pretty well at removing nitrites. I have been doing some overdoses once in a while to keep the nitrites in check.

So far this morning, my nitrite is still the same level. I'm just glad it's not going up. I will add a 2.5x dose to the whole tank to bring the nitrite down some more. Prime is really good stuff! I just wonder if it's bad to use TOO much Prime.
 
Well, I did a 2.5x dose of Prime and my nitrites are down to .60. Prime works wonders! I just hope it stays down.
 
UPDATE:

A little concerned here. I usually don't check my ph as it's always been around 7.5 (7.6 from tap). Now out of the blue I decided to check my ph and it's about 6.5!

What could be the cause of this?

ammonia: 0
nitrite: 1
nitrate: 15

I thought Prime might affect it, but I put a drop or two along with my tap water and the ph is normal (7.6). I just hope when I do my water change soon, my fish aren't going to get stress, because of my high ph tap and low ph tank water.

Add another issue to my already long list :(
 
its old tank syndrome i think, the biological breakdown of fish waste creates acids which make the tank more acidic. What is the Kh and GH of the tap water?
 
Barbs and tetras like their water somewhat acidic, so I don't think 6.5 is a problem. Just keep monitoring it and hope those nitrites finally go away!
 
I found the culprit for my ph problem. I was doing a lot of ph testing with things I put into my tank and the culprit was the prazipro ([FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Praziquantel).[/FONT] It is a VERY strong oxidizing agent! With one drop, it lowered my ph on the test kit to 6.8 from 7.6.
 
probably precipitating the carbonate harness ...
check your kH(carbonate hardness) it is what keep the pH stable. in planted tanks we shoot for a drop in pH to indicate how much CO2 is in the water. CO2 produces carbonic acid ..but you should have a kH of at least 3-4. or you can suffer pH crashes.
 
You should also consider the possibility that praziquantel just interferes with the test, without changing much in the tank.
 
I'm a newbie whos tank has only been cycled a week. I was doing the same as you. Fishy cycle. Obsessing over measurements. Doing 70% pwc daily or more. testing my water 3x day. Questioning the use of Prime and my tap water (my tap often has nitrates I learned). The holiday weekend came up and I had too much stress, so I said "sorry fish, your on your own for a while". I tested my water 3 days later, and I've been 0 since. What a joy!
 
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