To clarify?

Question

Just to clarify on the ammonia problem in the month old tank, which undoubtly is new tank hell. I did not imply to use Prime as the source to eliminate ammonia, only to say it is a remarkable product to use while you are cycling your new tank,and will save your fish. My sources have been the experience of using this myself when I went through this,and that was 7 months ago. My tank cycled naturally, no loss of fish,and NO problems have occured.I only want to help by trying to alleviate some of the devastation I went through before I was lucky to find this product. The product will help during the natural cycle process to make your fish more comfortable,and more reassurance for the user.

Answer 1

thanks for the advice didn't mean to start a big argument over this. Actually I took a test last night and my ammonia level was down considerably. I took the ammonia cartridge filter out of the pump. I will test it again tonight or tommorow and when i do my next partial water change i think i will try to add a little prime. I think i have it under control for the moment

Answer 2

Prime is not a bad product, but also is not a replacement for an actuall solution to the problems the tank in question is having. The most important thing is being able to test the water chemistry to see what is going on in your fish's enviroment. When you are cycling a tank, the benefical bacteria that is starting to live in your substrate/gravel will break the ammonia from the fish waste into nitrites and nitrates. It takes a full month for this new good bacteria to really get a foot hold in your tank so it can properly break down waste. Benefical bacteria has to have ammonia to "eat" or it will starve off and die. Think of these guys as having high metabolizms. My only qualms with using Prime as a starter is it would throw off this balance of the Benefical bacteria breaking down the ammonia into the less toxic nitrite then to nitrate. The prime temporarly will relieve these problems, but not fix problems, whether it is a new tank or old tank... think of it in this way.... If you have a headache and you take some extra strength tylenol or whatever, the tylenol is not making your headache go away, it is still there .... it is only stoping your brain from telling your body it hurts.. So in the same way products like Prime, or others claiming to detoxify ammonia nitrite,nitrates temporarly relieve the Symptoms. IF you are having alot of ammonia problems in a new tank it is either overcrowded, to much excess food, or its going through a natural ammonia spike during its month cycle process. The other thing about prime that i do not like: Im a petstore employee and i test water for customers on a dailly basis, and have been doing this for almost 3 yrs. Prime will cause the water to have a chemical reaction with test kits so you will not be able to get a correct reading on what your chemical levels are. So if you are using the product, and not eventually addressing the true problem and you start loosing fish, you will not be able to test your water to find out what is going on. There have been many times ive had to tell customers to go home and do a water change and come see me again in a few days because the chemicals are color cordinated to tell you information about the water, if the color ranges on ph is yellow to orange and its showing me a color like purple, i cant tell what the Ph is truely at, i can just tell that they have used a product like prime.

Answer 3

I use Prime too. It may help detoxify some ammonia but like you said it wont eliminate it, it really just converts it into a safer form. It really just helps you out while you still do water changes to get the levels less toxic in the water. And its not just good to use while you are cycling but I use it for every water change.

Answer 4

thanks, but that product is not available in my country. I use Sera Nitrivec and try to mature a sponge filter for about 2 weeks before setting up a tank.

thanks for sharing, and good health to your fish.