mommaspoppa2004

ammonia 8
nitrite 0
Nitrate0
pH 7
GH 75
KH 80
Temperature 80F

I have 4 plants one on driftwood, and I have 2 rainbow sharks and 1 bala shark. I have tried prime with a 50% WC but it doesn't even lower it for 12 for hours.

Help please!!!

aquarist48

Welcome to Fish Lore. Sorry to hear that you're having problems. Do to the fact that you have fish in your tank I suggest 50% water changes every day until you're readings are
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 5-10
Add the Prime with every water change. Have you checked the date on your bottle of Prime? I'm not sure what the shelf life of it is. I use Nova Aqua myself but many others on this site use Prime and love it. Stay on line if you can and wait for some more answers.
Too, having 3 sharks in the same tank is not a good idea. Eventually, they will fight until only 1 is left. VERY territorial!

capekate

Im not positive on this, but I thought even tho you add Prime it doesnt change the ammonia reading, but does bind the ammonia and make it less toxic. So the Prime may very well be working in the tank, but your readings will not show this.
I would continue to do the water changes every day as that 8 reading on your ammonia is at a very toxic level. Your tank is not cycled and since you have fish in there you are going to have to monitor your water tests with daily water changes til your tank is cycled.

aquarist48

Morning CapeKate. I read something like that as well.

capekate

g'morning to you as well Aquarist.
I use Prime myself... and if I remember right and what I have read here also, it didnt change the test reading, but it will protect your fish for at least 12 hours til the next water change.

Lucy

Welcome to Fish Lore mommaspoppa2004

I agree with the others, Prime won't change the reading, but it'll detox the ammonia.
Keep up the daily water changes and continue to use Prime, like the others have said, it's going to take a while to cycle with fish.

Your sharks can grow up to 6" so it would be a good idea to look into getting them the proper size tank. 55+ is recommended and even in that size tank, it's not recommended to have 2 rainbows together.

Good luck with your tanks

agabr123

agreed, however my suggestion with an ammonia reading that high would be to do a 25% water change every 12 hours, as opposed to 50% every 24. that ammonia level is VERY high, and to my knowledge that reading is as high as the test kit will go, so there's a chance that it's even higher. doing too many large water changes too fast (i.e. 50% every 12 hours) will probably shock your fish way too much, but you do need to get those levels under control, which is why a 15-25% change AM and PM would probably be a better choice at this point.

mommaspoppa2004

I have been doing water changes every morning and night. I found out after we got all the sharks that that I was told wrong about being able to put them all in the same tank together by the LFS. The tank was cycled when we added the fish one at a time over a few week time. At that time we also added the plants one at a time and a lava rock. I am now using stresscoat + with the wc. The ammonia test shows a dark green blue color that is not even on the color chart.

Sunshine State

I tried Prime and had the same experience--ammonia levels were not going down. I found a product made by Kordon, it's called AmQuel. I used it as directed on the bottle. The standard dose is 5 ml per 10 gallons which will reduce 1 PPM of ammonia. Since I had 4 ppm of ammonia I made the dose 4 times the standard which was 20 ml per 10 gallons. It was amazing. Within one hour my ammonia was 0. The information on the bottle also says that it does not interfere with the biological cycle. I also used this product in conjuction with NovAqua which provides a protective coat, detoxifies heavy metals, and add electrolytes to ease stress. For me, the Amquel worked great. It will also lower pH, so watch those levels--in case you need to adjust. If you need to reduce nitrities or nitrates there is Amquel+ (it does not lower pH). Using AmQuel and then AmQuel+ for about 10 days now as needed and the ammonia level continutes to stay at 0. The best news is that my tank is cycling very nicely and all fish are happy and healthy. Judith

agabr123

i'd test your tap water as well to make sure that it doesn't have ammonia in it, if it does then you'll need to increase the dosage that you're putting in. i agree with sunshine state, and up to 5 times the recommended dosage of prime can be used in an emergency so that might be the way to go with the stress coat +

Sunshine State

With my tank, the Prime didn't bring down the ammonia readings. AmQuel did bring down the reading to 0--immediately. Just mix in the correct doseage of AmQuel in a clean container of aquarium water and then add back to aquarium (we have a plastic pictcher that we use only for the aquarium). Within a few minutes your ammonia will go down. Amazing stuff.
Also agree that you should check your water supply. Mine tap water has an ammonia reading of .25. Still use it, just know to detoxify with AmQuel.

hkirchen

Unfortunately, some LFS will tell you anything to sell fish. Then when all heck breaks loose and you return to get more fish, they can blame the disaster on something else rather than the poor advice. Since most LFS have a 48 hour return policy, and most situations do not escalate until a week or so later, they are safe (or so they think). It is just business, and it reminds us once we have received this bad advice, that it is always better to do our own research and then we just walk in and tell them what we would like to buy instead of asking the salesperson what they think we should get.

I say this not to chide you, because goodness knows we have all had this experience! In fact, most people who are on this forum probably came to it after some bad advice and they were looking for wisdom!

You have some great advice here, and I hope everything stabalizes soon in your tank!

Lucy

Prime won't change your readings, the ammonia is still there for feed the nitrifying bacteria, it just reduces it to a non toxic form for 24 hrs.

Any product that is totally removing the ammonia will adversly effect the cycle.

I thought AmQuel was just a water conditioner, but AmQuel+ detoxes, I've never used either of these products.

Sunshine State

There are differences between AmQuel and AmQuel+. Amquel removes ammonia, chloramines, and chlorine. AmQuel+ ALSO removes nitrites and nitrates. AmQuel will lower pH, AmQuel+ will not. I think Prime is much like AmQuel+.

Lucy

If thats the case, If AmQuel removes ammonia, there's a good chance the bacteria will starve.

Phinny12

I recenty dealt with a stubborn ammonia problem as well .. mine was not so elevated, and the way I got it to zero was 12 hr 25% water changes.. it was frustrating as I was thinking it would never budge but it did finally. I used Stesscoat, a product similar to Prime and Vitachem and of course dechlorinator/water conditioner.

mommaspoppa2004

There is no ammonia in my tap water, that is one of the first things I tested. I also put the water through a brita pitcher. I have stresscoat + that i have been doing wc with. I have even added ammochips to my filter. We are fixing to upgrade the filter which is a topfin 30 to a marineland Eclipse 3 that came with our SW tank that hasn't been used we are just waiting on the LFS to get the filters in for it b/c i missed placed the one that came with it. We took out the driftwood that had the plant on it b/c the plant had died on it and it lower my level to about 8 maybe a little lower but we had done a 30% wc then too.

ccb04

Prime converts ammonia to ammonium for 24 hrs. However, ammonium will still show up on test readings ... though it's non-toxic to fish. There is only one kit I know of that measures free ammonia when using ammonia detoxing agents ... it's made by Seachem (who also of course makes Prime).....

"This kit measures total (NH3 and NH4+) and free ammonia (NH3 only) down to less than 0.05 mg/L and is virtually interference free in marine and fresh water. Free ammonia is the toxic form of ammonia (vs. ionized Ammonia NH4+ which is non-toxic) and thus it is much more important to keep an eye on the level of free ammonia in your system. This kit is based on the same gas exchange technology that is used in the Ammonia Alert™ and thus is the only kit on the market that can read levels of free ammonia while using ammonia removal products such as Prime™, Safe™, AmGuard™ and any similar competing products. The other kits (salicylate or Nessler based) determine the total ammonia by raising the pH of the test solution to 12 or greater. At this high pH all ammonia removal products will breakdown and rerelease the ammonia, thus giving you a false ammonia reading."

http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...T_Ammonia.html

When doing a water change with your Prime (particularly when trying to control high ammonia, etc.), dose for the entire tanks volume, not just for the 25% or 50% taken out and subsequently put back in. This would be even more important if your water contains chloramines ... which is chlorine and ammonia.