Fish'd

Oh, glorious day! My 50mL of Prime has arrived! :D

Since I don't want to murder their little fish gills anymore than I probably already have (I know. I worry about them constantly. D:), I want to do a water change and add Prime right now. The bottle says 2 drops a gallon, and my tank is 10. I remember someone putting in 20 drops, and that it was far too much.

Do I go with the bottle? Any special things I need to do?

I've been doing water changes about every day and a half to two days, since it keeps the cycle moving and they seem comfortable and very active until about then, when they start to slow down. I don't want to freak them out, either, and the way I see it, the faster the cycle comes, the less they have to deal with it. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. They seem happy and confident.

Thanks!

Also, what's up with the water that could have caused this poor fish to go through that?

flyin-lowe

I would go with what the bottle says. If I remember right one cap full will do 50 gallons so twenty drops shouldn't be too much. As far as the water changes go in my opinion at this stage it is a necessary evil. You need to do water changes to help the fish but the more water changes you do the slower the cycle will go. I tried to cycle a tank with fish in it and after about 8 weeks I was still in the beginning stages. If you keep the ammonia low enough to keep the fish alive then there is not a whole lot for the bacteria. The good news is that the Prime will "detoxify" the ammonia for the fish but it will still be there for the bacteria. Somebody with more experience might be able to tell you if you can add Prime several days in a row without doing water changes. If I were you I would order a bottle of tetra safe start and try that. If it is done correctly it seems to work wanders. I used it on my 75 and it worked perfect.

Jaysee

I would follow the instructions. If they say one drop per gallon, I'm sure less will get the job done. They always tell you to use more than what's needed - sell more product that way.

Dose for the amount of UNTREATED water, like the instructions say. Some people dose the whole tank everytime they do a w/c, but you don't need to dose the water that's already in the tank....at least you SHOULDN'T need to, cause it's already been dechlorinated.

As for using it to prevent ammonia poisoning, IDK.

Slug

I always put a little more then recommended in.

Fish'd

The advice seems mixed...

Should I use AquaSafe with it, or is there no reason to?

Slug

No reason to.

Jaysee

Prime is excellent, and no other conditioner will be needed. There are people who use more than is recomended, but it is for their own piece of mind, not because it's needed. Seachem is a highly respected company, and I think you can follow the directions and sleep easy. Bottom line is if the recomended dosage couldn't get the job done, it wouldn't be the recomended dosage. They didn't just arbitrarily pick a number - a lot of time and money went into determining how much should be added at a time, and I'm sure it acounts for a little +/-

The only advantage to dosing more is a faster neutralization of chlors, and for highly sensitive fish that may be needed. For regular fish, it is not, in both mine and seachem's opinions.



The directions say to dose the whole tank if not pretreating the water I better start using more.

Dolphini

Well my giganto bottle of Prime says to add 1 capful (5mL) for every 50 gallons. So math class tells me that 5mL=50 gallons, and if you simplify that, it's 1mL=10 gallons, .5mL=5gal, etc. I just use a fish only syringe to dose it out for my tanks.

Fish'd

Neat! That saves me on conditioner, too. So helpful. <3

Jaysee, what do you mean by pretreating? If I do a water change, do I just put in the dosage for the new water, or all 10 gallons of it?

@Dolphini: The bottle says 50mL treats 500 US gallons. I think that's more than enough for my little 10 gallon. xD
What size bottle do you have?

Jaysee

Pretreating the water means you dose the water you are going to add to the tank before you add it. So, for your 10 gallon tank, if you did a 50% change, you would fill a 5 gallon bucket, dose it, stir it and then dump it in the 10.

I don't do this - I use a python for water changes and dose the tank while I'm filling up. I feel that the currents within the tank from refilling adequately mix the prime throught the tank. The directions say to dose for the entire tank if doing this (can't believe I never caught that). Obviouly, I never read that far and have been dosing for the new water. Are my fish suffering for it? I don't believe so, but I guess I'll start adding a little more than normal.

Fish'd

I see! Thanks for explaining that to me. I'll go do a water change now.

I would probably add more, too. It wouldn't hurt. :]

Thanks, all of you!

Dolphini

Mine is 480mL, and says 500mL treats 5000 gallons!!! XDDD

Prince Powder

Just follow the directions. If you're adding the Prime directly to your TANK, then add the recommended 2 drops per gallon for a total of 20 drops. If you're doing a water change and are adding the Prime to the new water BEFORE you add the new water to the tank then just add the amount you need for the new water.

1hawaii50

Stop at your local pharmacy and pick up a dropper or two, and then you can use that to measure out how much Prime to use. That's what I do, my dropper has milliliters on it, so it's pretty easy.

Fish'd

What if I just tipped the bottle over and squeezed drops out? That's all it says for measurement- drops. I will go pick one up, though. :]

flyin-lowe

If your bottle has the type of lid to allow you to do that it will be fine. Mine is just an open top with a lid like a bottle of water. Hard to get twenty drops out of that.

Fish'd

Oh, I thought all of the lids were the same. Mine has a little hole, so if you squeeze gently, a single drop comes out. But I'm glad that alone works.

Thank you!

cragterharris

i just got a 100ml bottle for like £4.20 if that and it says 1 ml to 40 liters