Very confused about Prime and the results I'm getting from testing...
- Thread starter volkl23
- Start date
That's awesome! I feel like I'm over-analyzing as well. I'm just concerned about the health of my fish and am trying to do my best to not over-stress them. Out of curiousity, how many fish did you have and how big of a tank?
Wow... that's a big pH change for one drop. Isn't the dose a teaspoon per 20g?? Maybe you need more buffers in your tank. With all the WCs, you might be very low on salts. Or something in there interacts with the pH indicator. What's your water's hardness?
I have a 20 gallon. I started with 6 zebra danios with minimal elevations after a couple weeks, so I went and put 5 platies in. Big mistake! 3 were dead within 3 days and my numbers went through the roof for weeks, despite lots of daily large pwc. The lowest I would get my nitrites was 0.5, which would quickly begin to rise. I quadrupled my prime dose. The lfs owner told me to relax but it's hard. 2 weeks after that my numbers were still bad and i was losing hope. It may have been coincidence that my numbers balanced when I left the tank alone for 3 days, but I think there is something to what abh19 said. I have added 3 cories, and so far so good. Still 0. Don't give up!
I was actually doing a drop of the prazipro in the API 5ml test vile. Kind of scary- my tank now reads a ph of 6.0 (could be lower as 6.0 is as low as it gets). I HOPE the prazipro just interferes with the ph test and doesn't actually change the ph.
I was responding to the stop doing water changes post. Today at work I was scolded by a couple experienced fish folk for doing too many. Let it be, was their point.
Eh, I succumbed today and did a 50% water change. Nitrites was approaching 3.0. I gravel vac'ed a ton of debris, so hopefully the nitrite buildup this time will be slower.
I will leave it be this time!
If you can, find a friend with a healthy tank with good water parameters and no sick fish for a few months. Borrow some filter media and sqeeze that into your filter to seed it with the bacteria that you need. It can greatly speed up your cycling. Also, I agree with cutting back on the water changes. You are working yourself to death and stressing the fish. Do no more than 25% every other day, and use a little prime to get through the high nitrate stage. In my experience of 25 years, this works fine.
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Hey guys, really no update. My nitrites have not gone down 
I've been using Prime a lot to combat the nitrites and am doing an 80% PWC weekly. I've even started using Seachem's Stability (supposed to help with cycling).
Kind of frustrating really. Do you guys think i would be overkill or not an good idea to buy another filter? I was thinking of getting an aquaclear. I'm just worried that this would create too much current. Any thoughts? Currently, my nitrites are at 1.0-1.25.
Oh, and I have a 20H with 2 blue rams, 3 rummy-nose tetras, and 6 cherry barbs.
I've been using Prime a lot to combat the nitrites and am doing an 80% PWC weekly. I've even started using Seachem's Stability (supposed to help with cycling).Kind of frustrating really. Do you guys think i would be overkill or not an good idea to buy another filter? I was thinking of getting an aquaclear. I'm just worried that this would create too much current. Any thoughts? Currently, my nitrites are at 1.0-1.25.
Oh, and I have a 20H with 2 blue rams, 3 rummy-nose tetras, and 6 cherry barbs.
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