water changes with no conditionner
- Thread starter LouRey
- Start date
i dont get it, what exactly is not working for you? Add prime the the tank then fill. And yes you can add it all (prime) and then subsequent buckets of water without conditioner. I just add it to each bucket in small amounts
So I'm clear on what is being asked.you on city water. And use prime you want to put all the prime in with the first bucket on new water and then add the rest of the new water untreated till tank is full. Based on my understanding of what you want to do I would say yes this should work
What i do:
I change 50-60% WC for my 90G weekly.
I dose the tank directly, BUT I make sure I use enough to dose 90G of water. I then fill the tank directly from the tap.
The point is, if you dose per "bucket" you use the amount fo rthe bucket. If you dose the tank, you MUST dose the total tank volume, not just the water volume being changed.
And remeber, you really can't Overdose on prime unless you upend the bottle!
I change 50-60% WC for my 90G weekly.
I dose the tank directly, BUT I make sure I use enough to dose 90G of water. I then fill the tank directly from the tap.
The point is, if you dose per "bucket" you use the amount fo rthe bucket. If you dose the tank, you MUST dose the total tank volume, not just the water volume being changed.
And remeber, you really can't Overdose on prime unless you upend the bottle!
Go to the drugstore and pick up a medicine dropper I use one drop per gallon. Prime is very highly concentrated and it's pretty tough to use the cap on such small portions of water.
Yes exactly I'm having a hard time counting the right amount of Prime to use in my new water and adding too much I am overdosing believe it or not. This causes my fish to gasp and my ammonia to shoot up. It's very upsetting to see and since I need to change my water I'm unsure WHAT to do now! I think the dropper idea is good. My fresh water bucket holds 4 gallons of water and I have to work with that. I have to resolve this problem somehow and right now I'm pulling my hair out! Oh and yes city water but I tested the tap water it has no ammonia in it, it's when I add the prime that I get an ammonia reading, go figure!
How long has this tank been set up, and how long has it been stocked? How did you attempt to cycle it? Dosing, even overdosing, Prime will not lead to ammonia spikes. I'd wager that your tank is still cycling. Fish waste is not being broken down by your tank's biological filter, and this is what is responsible for ammonia spikes (and eventually, nitrite spikes). Check the articles section here for more info on the nitrogen cycle.
If you want to dose the Prime exactly according to the label for a small amount of water, it's 2 drops per gallon. There is a small dropper bottle of Prime available that I used to just refill from the bigger bottle when I had small tanks.
you can safely add up to 4-5 times the amount of prime they say. some test kits will give you a false positive on the ammonia levels with prime. test it before the water change. i dont think prime is causing the fish to gasp.