Detox Nitrite / Hornwort Growth

Two questions... completely unrelated, but saving space on the forum Questions are in bold for those short on time to read the whole story.

1) I have a quarantine tank that had some fish in it but the ammonia / nitrites got very high so I moved them out and did two 75% back to back water changes. Now: Ammonia 0, nitrite 0.25, nitrates 20. I recently had to move a sick fish back into that tank to medicate but nitrites are still at 0.25. I added seachem prime at 3x dose, as that's supposed to detoxify the nitrites. How OFTEN do I need to dose the tank with seachem prime to keep the nitrites detoxified? I can't do water changes during the medication treatment, so I have 5 more days at these nitrite levels. Does seachem prime just detoxify all the current nitrites permanently... so then only newly created nitrites would be toxic?

2) Regarding the plant Hornwort... I have a lot growing and floating everywhere. I was going to plant some and leave some floating. Some of the plants are very very very long. Can I just break hornwort in half or thirds and each piece will keep growing?

Thank you!

 

SeaChem is a little sketchy about Prime's ability to detox nitrites. They claim (form the FAQ on their website) that they didn't know that Prime would detox nitrites, but they had gotten feedback from fish keepers who claimed that they had elevated nitrite levels and Prime using Prime helped reduce fish deaths. But their chemist don't know why that would be the case.

Okay...with that said, I believe that the Prime will only detox nitrites (if it truly does) for 24 hours. I also believe it will detox only up to 1ppm of nitrites. I don't know if a 2X dose will detox 2ppm. Like I said, SeaChem is a little sketchy when it comes to the whole detoxing nitrites thing.

Nitrites kill fish by doing something to their gills that stops the fish from being able to extract oxygen from the water. So if you have high enough nitrites, your fish will actually suffocate. But apparently aquarium salt can counteract whatever damage the nitrites inflict. So while I'm not much of believer in aquarium salt, in cases of high nitrites aquarium salt can be a life saver.

Best of luck!

 

Thanks! I've added salt after this post, I forgot about that. I added prime yesterday at 3x dose.

So there's no harm in adding 3x dose prime every 24 hrs for 5 days?

Also, any thoughts (from anyone here) on the hornwort. I'll also post over in the plant section in case no one knows here.

Thanks!

 

I just pinch hornwort with my fingernails and it will continue to grow, both pieces.

My experience planting hornwort usually results in the lower needles dying off and can be a little messy.

As you are doing, I do both (float and plant).

Hornwort won’t really get roots, or much of a root system but really appreciate water column fertilizer.

2-3 pieces of hornwort planted behind a rock or something, swaying back in forth in the current looks pretty cool. But in a month or so you’ll have to trim again.

I love this nitrate eating plant.

 

According to SeaChem there is on harm in dosing 3X for 5 days.