Seachem Prime And Nitrate

Hey guys i've just started to use Seachem Prime as a water conditioner and to try to lower my nitrates. My tap water has nitrate in it so when i water change it never seems to go lower than 10-20ppm. After using prime and testing again it still shows 10-20ppm nitrate, they say prime binds the nitrate for a time but will the test show nitrate.

 

I believe Prime binds w/ ammonia, not nitrates.
20 ppm or less nitrate is fine. The addition of live plants might help diminish the nitrates.

 

It will still show on the test.

There is doubt that Seachem Prime does anything for nitrate anyways.

What size water changes do you do, and how often?

 

I've been doing been doing 50% every other day

 

I've been doing been doing 50% every other day

That's quite a lot. Hm. Say it was at 20ppm before the water change, after would be 10ppm. That would mean an increase of 10ppm every two days, correlating to 3.7ppm ammonia. Or almost 2ppm ammonia a day. And this is presuming no consumption by plants either. So yeah, strange.

What's the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate reading from your tap water?

 

Hey guys i've just started to use Seachem Prime as a water conditioner and to try to lower my nitrates. My tap water has nitrate in it so when i water change it never seems to go lower than 10-20ppm. After using prime and testing again it still shows 10-20ppm nitrate, they say prime binds the nitrate for a time but will the test show nitrate.

I assume this tank is fully cycled?

As A201 said, 20 ppm of nitrate is generally fine. What level are you attempting to target and why? Whatever the case, Prime will not lower nitrate levels or change your test result.

What is the size and stock (number and type of fish) of this tank?

 

what size tank and what is your stocking?

did you test your tap water? some people have nitrate in their tap/well water.

 

My tank is 55L and has 6 neon tetras, 2 albino cats,1 betta and a snail or two. I tap water has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite & 5-10ppm of nitrate. My tank water has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 5-10ppm nitrate. I also have water lettuce,eared water moss, java moss and java fern in my tank.I'm new to fish keeping, enjoying it but just trying to get the water perfect.

 

Looks like you have already achieved relative water perfection.
Zero nitrate doesn't necessarily indicate perfection.

 

I've been doing been doing 50% every other day

Your numbers look like this tank is cycled but I do have to ask. How long has the tank been up and running with the fish in it? If the tank is not cycled the every other day 50% water changes may be why you are seeing no ammonia or nitrites.

If the tank is cycled you really don't need to be doing water changes every other day. 50% once a week should be often enough. Water changes aren't going to lower the nitrates lower than what you are seeing in your tap water. What you are seeing really isn't a problem. If you are concerned about the nitrate level, fast growing healthy plants should help lower them. As long as I see orange in the test tube I consider it good enough.

BTW: Prime doesn't remove anything. It simply detoxes low levels of ammonia. Some say it also detoxes nitrites but I am not sure about that. If you have ammonia, nitrites, nitrates in a tank the API tests will still show them even after adding Prime.