Prime to detoxify

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Pearly

Aquarium Advice Freak
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Good morning, my community tank appears to be going through mini cycle after completion of 3 day round of Mardel Quick Cure (had to remove carbon from the filter for this then put new cartridge in after treatment done) I think this may have messed up my beautiful stable tank that's been going for 4 months and in perfect harmony. Noted spike of nitrites yesterday (ammonia day bfr) , been doing twice daily water changes (water treated with Prime) and adding Stability. Question I have and can't seem to find straight forward direction anywhere has to do with Prime dose. To protect your fish from nitrite toxicity do you just use Prime treated water dosing as directed on the bottle per manufacturer? My bottle is so concentrated that it only calls for 0.1ml of Prime per gallon which is like 2 drops (I use very small tuberculin syringe to measure exactly 0.1ml) but it seems... so little...will this dose alone protect my fish while this crazy mini cycle completes or should there be any additional dosing? I've never seen my nitrites this high, did 2 big back to back water changes last night and retested in between , the second change finally brought it down. Getting ready to test, oh, and the fish are ok, but I did find 1 dead ghost shrimp in there last night. So can anyone out there tell me exactly about that Prime, how much and how often and all? I love my fish and my plants, though I've achieved some nice balance in there... And now this! Please chime in Prime-experts:)
 
I've never heard of prime that is that concentrated. Are you sure that its not 1ml / 10 gallons? That is the only strength of prime that I've seen. If its the seachem version you can safely use up to a 5x dose to detoxify nitrites in an emergency, although i'm not sure just how effective that is
 
I think it's the same we all use. I would suggest you test water after 10 to 15 minutes to make sure it is stable.
 
One more thing is how much water you change? I usually change 75% on my tanks once a week. Dosing will be by the instructions on the bottle.
 
I think it's the same we all use. I would suggest you test water after 10 to 15 minutes to make sure it is stable.

I did last night after 30% wc and didn't change much of anything so did another bigger wc (55-60%) and that did it. This am levels up again, just did 50%wc. Will be retesting this pm and another wc if indicated
 
I've never heard of prime that is that concentrated. Are you sure that its not 1ml / 10 gallons? That is the only strength of prime that I've seen. If its the seachem version you can safely use up to a 5x dose to detoxify nitrites in an emergency, although i'm not sure just how effective that is

Yes, it's cupfull which is 5ml's per 50 gal of water so by my calculation that is 1 ml per 10 gal, which will make only 0.1 ml per 1gal. And if I do get into emergency situation then I could use 5x that dose per tank volume, am I correct? But then how do you do that???? Dilute the tank dose of Prime with some water and pour in or just drop it into the tank? Or the filter???? I know those questions probably sound silly but I want to be prepared in case I need to do this. Thank you for your reply
 
Yes, it's cupfull which is 5ml's per 50 gal of water so by my calculation that is 1 ml per 10 gal, which will make only 0.1 ml per 1gal. And if I do get into emergency situation then I could use 5x that dose per tank volume, am I correct? But then how do you do that???? Dilute the tank dose of Prime with some water and pour in or just drop it into the tank? Or the filter???? I know those questions probably sound silly but I want to be prepared in case I need to do this. Thank you for your reply

Sorry, I read your original post wrong about the concentration :) I would just pour the prime slowly into the filter stream. I would probably only do a 2x - 3x dose though. Any effect it has on nitrites should still take effect at a smaller dosage as well.
 
Put it directly in your tank water. Never in the filter. But if the situation would arise you would be better doing a water change.
 
Thank you Guys! I do twice daily wc's can't wait for this nightmare to end, fish are hanging on looking ok, but lost one more ghost shrimp in this tank.
 
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