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

volkl23

volkl23

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Feb 20, 2007
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Living in St. Louis, my tap water has a pretty decent amount of chloramines in it. As a result, I'm using Prime to treat the tap before it goes into my 20g. As I understand it, Prime doesn't really remove Ammonia.. it simply converts the bad Ammonia (NH3) into Ammonium (NH4+), which isn't so bad for the fishies.

I also understand that the API water test kit will give a false reading, because it tests for TOTAL Ammonia (NH3 + NH4+). So what this means is that even after treating my tap water, I should still get the same reading as I did BEFORE I added Prime. My tap water has .50 PPM of Ammonia.

Here is the confusing part... I tried this and it was exactly as predicted: The treated water and straight tap water read the same of .50 PPM.

But when I added more prime, the reading showed less and less for the presence of Ammonia. At 3x the Prime dosage, I'm getting .35 (estimating here), and at 6x the dosage, I'm getting .25 PPM- a reduction of .25PPM

Why is this doing this? This to me implies that at the normal dosage (I usually do a double dosage), it's NOT removing all the ammonia/chloramines.

Am I missing something here? I brought this up, because I've been cycling for what seems forever and I'm just afraid that minute traces of chloramine is killing of my bacteria colony. Any one have any insight on this?
 
Your chloramine isn't killing bacteria. You should be feeding the bacteria via addition of NH3, rotting shrimp - whatever (I'm assuming you're doing fishless cycle) - Prime throws your NO3 reading off on the low side - not sure about other N tests... A recommended dose of Prime should be more than adequate for StL water.

You'll know you're cycled when you can read 0ppm NO2, 0ppm NO3, add ~2ppm NH3 and get "0" readings again 12 hours later. Then do a water change & go buy fish.
 
I actually wasn't referring to the Nitrate tests as I "think" they test ok. I'm just confused about the ammonia test and the fact that the more Prime I put in, the lower my initial ammonia tap readings are: 2x dose = same as tap water reading of .50, 3x dose = .35, 6x dose = .25 (a reduction of .25 from tap).

I'm not sure why putting in more prime will reduce the TOTAL ammonia reading when I thought it only converted bad ammonia (NH3) into better ammonium (NH4+).
 
What kind of a cycle are you doing?
 
rbishop said:
What kind of a cycle are you doing?
Click to expand...
Doing a fishy cycle. I dumped in a bunch of fish in before I found out about this site so I guess I'm paying for it during the cycling. I have 6 cherry barbs and 3 Rummy Nose Tetras in a 20g. It's been about 8 weeks and it's still cycling. I'm doing 2 50% PWC daily :(

As it stands, my Nitrites go up to about 1.5PPM in 24 hours. Ammonia is .10-15 (the yellow color with a hint of greeness), Nitrates are around 10PPM.

I CANT wait until I'm fully cycled. Can't believe it's taking this long!
 
You're stressing out about nothing... those are very small amounts of ammonia...

First, Prime just converts your ammonia to ammonium, a non toxic form, it does not eliminate it.


What to do? STOP.. doing water changes.. that's hurting you! If you have city water, you're probably adding ammonia in your tank faster than the fish can put it in(Chloromine is a bond between Chlorine and Ammonium) and keeping the tank from completing the cycle.

Ammonia is less toxic at lower PH levels. if you're at a PH of 7, you can have ammonia reading 5 or more and not do any damage/stress to your fish.
If you're changing your water this much each day, you're stessing your fish much more than the ammonia, and if you have city tap water, you're probably adding in ammonia much faster than the fish can. (mine is .5 out of the tap)

Nitrites do NOT change toxitity with the PH level... and those levels aren't enough to kill your fish.

If I were you, I'd leave the tank alone and check the water parms.. if your ammonia gets above 1(which it won't) DON'T change the water... add prime.
 
Akysten said:
You're stressing out about nothing... those are very small amounts of ammonia...

First, Prime just converts your ammonia to ammonium, a non toxic form, it does not eliminate it.


What to do? STOP.. doing water changes.. that's hurting you! If you have city water, you're probably adding ammonia in your tank faster than the fish can put it in(Chloromine is a bond between Chlorine and Ammonium) and keeping the tank from completing the cycle.

Ammonia is less toxic at lower PH levels. if you're at a PH of 7, you can have ammonia reading 5 or more and not do any damage/stress to your fish.
If you're changing your water this much each day, you're stessing your fish much more than the ammonia, and if you have city tap water, you're probably adding in ammonia much faster than the fish can. (mine is .5 out of the tap)

Nitrites do NOT change toxitity with the PH level... and those levels aren't enough to kill your fish.

If I were you, I'd leave the tank alone and check the water parms.. if your ammonia gets above 1(which it won't) DON'T change the water... add prime.
Click to expand...

Wait, so don't do water changes as frequently as I'm doing them? I've read and seems like scripture that one should change water when nitrites go above .25? That's the only reason why I've been doing these 50% PWC TWICE A DAY.

So 1.5 PPM of nitrites isn't too bad? Should I just change once a day then?
 
yeah you have to do water changes in a fish cycle, its a fishless where you dont need to change the water.
 
Also, at this point, I think it's just the nitrites I'm worried about. Right after a water change, my ammonia is .50 (after prime), and after a day or so, the ammonia is almost undetectable. I'm sure it's the bacteria at work here.

Do I have any others in agreement not to change as frequently as I am currently doing (50% x 2 a day). I'm only doing so many changes to get my nitrites to an acceptable level <.25 PPM. My nitrites reach to about 1.5-2.0PPM in 24 hours.

Now I'm really confused! To change as frequently or not to, that is the question!
 
I would not change any water if tha ammonia is nearly undetectable unless the nitrates went above 5.Looks like your a day to three days away from completing the cycle.
 
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