Do I just add the water as is or do I keep adding more prime?

Hello,

So whenever I do water changes for my 5 gallon tank I've always used bottled water, since our tap water has an ammonia reading of 1.0 ppm. I wanted to switch to tap water though because I saw that bottled doesn't have all the beneficial minerals that tap does and so I bought Seachem prime.

I was doing a 30% water change and added 3 drops of prime but when I checked the ammonia levels they were still high. I added 5mL more and the ammonia lowered but was still at .25 ppm.

My question is do I just add the water as is or do I keep adding more prime? Will more harm the fish? I feel like I've already added a lot. I'm using the API master kit for testing.

 

Prime will protect but it will still show on tests. It converts ammonia to ammonium which still reads on the API test. If the ammonia lowered it wasn't from the Prime dose. Probably just a testing error.

 

Ah I see. Thank you

 

If your tank is cycled, within 24 hours you should read 0 Ammonia. So you might want to wait to test for 24 hours to get an accurate result.

Your dose of Prime should be 0.5ml for your water change. 3 drops is too little and 5ml is waayyyy too much.

Is your tank cycled?

 

Thanks for the info and yes my tank is cycled.