Water conditioner???

Question

I have some Prime water conditioner and 5 mL treats 50 us gallons and I want to treat 1 gallon, can I just use 1 mL is overusing it bad??? Its for Saltwater but i'm only on my 6th day of cycling!!! Please help I hate posting questions!!! I had to post this twice!!

Answer 1

Using to much will not hurt your system unless you use a whole bunch to much. Then you may have a problem. It will most hurt your wallet however!

I have figured this out for you after doing a little research.
Follow as I show the math.

5 ML = 50 Gal.
1 ML = 10 Gal.

Here is what I had to look up.
1 ML = 20 drops

so that means,

2 drops treats 1 gallon (2 drops per gal. X 10 gal. = 20 drops)

Go buy a eye dropper at the pharmacy. I would use 3 drops to play it safe because not all drops are equal unless you have very precise equipment. The 1 drop will make you safe but at the same time it is not enough to bother anything.

Thanks for making me break it down to drops. I prefer to treat my water by the gallon measurement. Who changes water by exactly 5, 10, or 50 gallon incriments?

Answer 2

My first question would have to be why are you using it? Are you doing a water change, or trying to lower the ammonia level?

If you're trying to lower ammonia, do you have fish or other organisms in the tank? If you don't you'll be better off leaving the ammonia levels higher - if there's nothing in the tank that will be affected by ammonia poisoning, the higher levels will allow your tank to cycle a little faster (also, if you don't have liver oganisms yet, turn up the heater to 84-85o, and the bacteria will multiply faster).

If you have fish or inverts already, you'd do better to just do a water change to keep the ammonia level down. If you've been using the Prime, you may want to check this on a sample of water with a few drops of ammonia added - some of these products will bind ammonia, but they still register on water tests, so you'll never know if what you're reading is neutralized ammonia or free ammonia that can harm your fish.

If you're currently doing a water change, you can let the water sit out overnight (if the treatment your company uses is chlorine, chloramine won't dissipate the way chlorine will) then add it after 24 hours. This is only if your filter will still function at the lower water level. You could also use purchased reverse osmosis water (preferable for a saltwater tank, especially if you plan to have a reef tank) or bottled water which doesn't contain chlorine or chloramine.

If you're only treating 1 gallon, the correct dose would be one tenth of a ml (1 ml would treat 10 gallons). A one time overdose probably wouldn't hurt, but this isn't something to do on a regular basis. If you're going to be doing 1 gallon changes on a regular basis, and you have a 1 ml measure, add the 1 ml of Prime to a container, then add 9 mls of tapwater (10 ml total). Swirl to mix, then withdraw 1 ml of the mixture, and you'll have the correct dose - you can store the rest of the solution in a covered jar (the same as you do the regular container) until your next change

Answer 3

I use Prime all the time and am not always precise with the measurements. I would say that if you do this occasionally it will not cause harm. But I would use one of those plastic bulb syringes that come with some test kits -- or you can inquire with a veterinarian about obtaining a syringe without a needle. I have a plastic bulb syringe that came with a deluxe Tetra kit (http://www.tetra-fish.com/sites/tetrafish/catalog/productdetail.aspx?id=1276&cid=242) that measures 1/4 ml, 1/2 ml, 3/4 ml and 1ml. You could treat one gallon with about 1/8 ml. But really, for only 1 gallon you need only a couple drops of the conditioner.

Answer 4

That should be fine. It also says on the bottle that you can use more if there's high chlorine/chloramine concentrations, or if the nitrates are way high. I would just put a few drops in....should be good.

Answer 5

Over use will probably not harm anything,habitual overuse should be avoided.