Isabella

I have just bought Prime to condition my water (switched from Aqua Plus). My tank is 75 gallons, and I'll be performing anywhere between 10 -30 gallon weekly water changes in it. How much Prime should I add to 10, 20, and 30 gallons of water? Thanks.

Tom

Does it say on the bottle/container?
Tom

Isabella

It says to use 1 capful (5 mL) per 50 gallons of water. But I won't be changing 50 gallons a week, lol. It also says, "325 mL treats 3250 gallons" of water. I suppose then ... I should use only a half of the cap, or so, for 20 - 30 gallons (and about 1/3 of the cap for a 10 gallon water change). Right? I just wanted to check with all of you here to make sure that I am using the correct dosage.

cherryrose

chickadee

Isabella, is there any way you could get ahold of an insulin syringe? If so break off the needle and use the markings for 100 units to equal what you should put in 10 gallons or 10 units is for 1 gallon. I will need to be a 1 cc syringe so you are using 1/10th of 1 cc per gallon. This is the easiest way or there are 16 drops per ml. or 80 drops in 5 ml. so the dose per gallon is 2 drops from an eyedropper. (a bit more imprecise than the syringe method but as close as you can get with a dropper) I would treat one gallon with 2 drops and then wait a little while and test the water for chlorine and you will know if it has done the job. I know this sounds like a very small amount but Prime is VERY potent and for 1 teaspoon to treat 50 gallons the amounts you will be working with will be quite small.

If you know of someone who is a diabetic, the syringes cost them about 45 cents and you could probably get one or two from them. The first thing I would do is use the cap to break the needle off so you do not get scratched with it and then when you use the syringe be sure to rinse it with water by drawing some water up into it and then shooting it out again to dispose of it. This keeps them from clogging.

NEVER accept a used needle, make sure all the security measures are still intact.

Rose

Isabella

Thanks A LOT CherryRose and Rose (the two Roses, lol ) I actually have cc syringes ... One from the antibiotic I am giving to my spayed kitty right now, lol. The other is a tiny cc syringe that I used to feed the squirrels when they were babies and needed to drink milk So I hope these will be fine? (Of course, they're CLEAN) My kitty will stop taking the antibiotic in a few days. By the way, she's doing very well and - as mentioned above - has just been spayed.

chickadee

As long as they are clean they are just what you need, I believe. Good luck. We had to figure all this out on the Betta Board not long ago so the answer was not that hard for me to come up with. One of our members was figuring doses for her 2.5 gallon aquarium and those were so small we came up with the syringe idea.

Rose

Jmarcus

I used the amount of conditioner to treat the amount of water that I took out of my tank using a python, then I read somewhere that unless you premix the water and add it you should use the amount of conditioner it would take to treat the entire tank.

Isabella

Jmarcus, thank you for this particular piece of info. You've made a very good point. Someone on PlantGeek has just told me the same thing: http://plantgeek.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8864

So, folks, it looks like I will have to treat entire 75 gallons. This is because I will be using Python - I can't really carry buckets with water for water changes in a 75 gallon tank! I'd break my back