Questions about Seachem Prime

Hello everyone!
So I recently found out my tap water has ammonia in it so I was told Prime would take care of that during water changes. I used it last week and after my water change my ammonia went from 0 to .25ppm. I added more Prime to the tank and the levels went back down. I wanted to do a small water change today and decided to check the ammonia before adding the water back and its reading .25ppm (the new water i had treated with Prime to add back to the tank). I thought this detoxifies the ammonia long enough for the bacteria in my tank to take care of it? Should I be using more? Do I need to wait for it to detoxify the ammonia? Am I better off just buying RO/distilled/etc water instead? Lol.
Any tips are gladly appreciated!

 

It wont reduce ammonia it will only detoxify. It sounds like your bacteria are still colonizing.

 

It wont reduce ammonia it will only detoxify.

So the ammonia will still read when I test it but it won't hurt the fish? Just want to make sure I'm understanding it right!

 

Is this a cycled tank? If it is that small amount of ammonia in your source water is not a problem. Even if you did a 50% water change you would only be raising the ammonia level in the tank to .125ppm. A cycled tank should clear that out quickly.

When using Prime the ammonia is still there and will still show up in your test tube but will be in a safer form.

 

So the ammonia will still read when I test it but it won't hurt the fish? Just want to make sure I'm understanding it right!

Exactly. Also adding water doesn't remove ammonia, just dilutes it. Your tap water should be fine to use with Prime, hopefully after 24 hrs all the ammonia is gone, if not add a little more conditioner.

 

Is this a cycled tank? If it is that small amount of ammonia in your source water is not a problem. Even if you did a 50% water change you would only be raising the ammonia level in the tank to .125ppm. A cycled tank should clear that out quickly.

When using Prime the ammonia is still there and will still show up in your test tube but will be in a safer form.

I set the tank up in October so it should be cycled!

Exactly. Also adding water doesn't remove ammonia, just dilutes it. Your tap water should be fine to use with Prime, hopefully after 24 hrs all the ammonia is gone, if not add a little more conditioner.

Okay good to know! I was so confused that it kept reading as having ammonia when I thought it shouldn't so thank you for helping clear that up!

 

I set the tank up in October so it should be cycled!

Okay good to know! I was so confused that it kept reading as having ammonia when I thought it shouldn't so thank you for helping clear that up!

Do you normally see zero ammonia, zero nitrites and do your nitrates gradually climb between water changes? If yes then the tank is cycled and the very low amount of ammonia in your tap water should not be a problem.