mommybaby295

If you add Prime or another ammonia detoxifyer to your tank, will your ammonia reading be zero? Or does it leave the ammonia there, so that it still shows up on a test, but just makes it safe for the fish to swim in?

Shawnie

no it leaves the ammonia there.....and detoxifies it for the safety of your fish

mommybaby295

thanks

janiskfp

Prime adds a Hydrogen atom to the NH3 (ammonia) to make it NH4 (ammonium). I love this, if you can make sense of it. The problem is that your pH can drop, fast, if you've got a lot of ammonia and try to solve the problem with Prime. Been there done that. Good thing I had only hardy Platies.

Also, pH isn't the end-all-be-all of water measurements. Hard water has a higher pH partly because it's got minerals to deal with the free hydrogen atoms.

Acid = low pH = more free Hydrogen
Base/Alkaline = high pH = less free Hydrogen

A bubbler will also help quell those pesky free hydrogen atoms. I mean, your pumping oxygen and carbon dioxide (and nitrogen) through the water (OK, you're agitating the surface, whatever), so those hyper-friendly little hydrogens just glom right on.

Lots of people use baking soda to bring pH up, but it really is unstable (bicarbonate means carbon, and carbon, unless it's pressed into a diamond, is pretty unstable).

It just bugs me that it's so freakin' confusing to figure this out online.

Also, people are trying to solve problems with Prime that it wasn't meant for. It's meant to treat new water to add to a tank, it wasn't meant to let people cycle an overstocked tank just so someone can have lots of fish right when they get their new setup. Fish-keeping is a great lesson in patience and diligence. I'm not sure I'm up for it, but I sure learned a tankload of chemistry just keeping the one I have alive.

I meant to say, too, that the API test and most strips will measure both Ammonia and Ammonium. The Seachem plastic meter, that will last two weeks at the most, only measures Ammonia. If you use both, you can see directly what the Prime is doing.

peacemaker92

Great info from Shawnie and janis. Hope the product is doing you well. Good luck!

aquarist48

Hello MM. Hope you're doing well.
I have to question janiskfp for her statement that the Seachem Plastic meters only last two weeks? If the ones you are referring to are the same as in this link:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...fm?pcatid=4387
then I have to disagree. I've had great experience with them and only change them every 6 months (as apposed to every 12 months just to be on the safe side) Too, they detect ammonia at a lower level than the test kits do. I've read that some members have not had good luck with them. Too, I also use a liquid test as a back up.
Too the point, where did you get your information from that they only last 2 weeks? Personal experience? Just curious. I don't recommend test strips at all.
Ken (sorry MM didn't mean to hijack your thread.)

Lucy

I just want to add to this.
People come to us all the time with no knowledge of the nitrogen cycle.
All they know is that thier fish are sick. In cases like this Prime, along with water changes, is a great tool.

mommybaby295

I agree, Lucy - it helped my fish a lot (but the TSS helped more, honestly).