When To Use Prime To Knock Ammonia Down

Hello, so I have had my 54 gallon running for 2.5 weeks now, and have had two 2" cichlids in it for 1 week. Have been watching ammonia levels and have been doing 10% water changes every week. (So I've done 1 so far since fish have been added)

My question is, when do I use Prime to knock ammonia levels down? Ammonia has been .25 ppm every time I check except for today it has hit .50 ppm. So far the only time I have uses Prime is when I did the one 10% water change. And I used the prime on the water change water, not the aquarium itself.

How high do I let ammonia get before I hit it with prime? ( I have heard prime is a proper way to cycle a tank) . So as of right now ammonia is .50 ppm nitrite is 0 and nitrate is 0. So I haven't seen the nitrite spike yet.

Thanks for any help, and I apologise since I'm sure this has been anwsered numerous times already, I just couldn't find a thread on it in search.

 

You should use the Prime every 24 hours with fish in the tank. Prime detoxifies the ammonia, making it safe for the fish but it does not remove it. It will still show on test. Use it daily.

 

Prime is going to do nothing to help the cycle along but it will protect your fish from the damaging affects of the cycling process. I would be adding enough Prime to the tank for the full volume of water in there at least every other day to keep the ammonia neutralized. As long as it stays below 1 Prime will keep it less harmful. If the ammonia gets up to one or above then you need to do a water change to get it back below one and then add Prime to neutralize what is left.

 

Thank you so much guys! This helps tons and I'm really grateful for the help.

Does this mean that ammonia that is neutralized by the prime, is still seen as ammonia to BB? And therefore the cycling process still happens during the use of prime?

 

Thank you so much guys! This helps tons and I'm really grateful for the help.

Does this mean that ammonia that is neutralized by the prime, is still seen as ammonia to BB? And therefore the cycling process still happens during the use of prime?

You are very welcome.

Right, Prime won't hurt the cycling process and when you run the ammonia test it will still show it being there but it will be rendered safe for your water pets.

 

Thank you so much guys! This helps tons and I'm really grateful for the help.

Does this mean that ammonia that is neutralized by the prime, is still seen as ammonia to BB? And therefore the cycling process still happens during the use of prime?

Correct!