The "Prime Initiative": When to Dose...

[ArtesiaWells]

I understand that the widely accepted way to dose with this excellent dechlorinator/conditioner known as Seachem Prime is to add it to the new incoming fresh water BEFORE it's added to the tank -- however, I do my water changes the old fashioned way with a five-gallon bucket, an Aqueon gravel cleaning syphon tube and multiple trips back and forth from the tank to the bathtub and vice-versa. When I do a 50% water change weekly, being that I am using a five-gallon bucket, it takes me SIX trips from the tank to the tub to dump that 50% (the tank is a 60-gallon, so half of that is 30 gallons, which is SIX trips with the FIVE GALLON bucket). What I normally do -- and Seachem customer service advised me this was okay -- is once the 50-percent of the water is out of the tank, I pour in a CAPFUL of Prime plus ONE RUNG on the cap worth, based on the dosing instructions on the bottle (one cap is good for 50 U.S. gallons, so I add one cap plus one rung on the cap "screw" marks inside to equal the amount to treat 60 gallons with; again, Seachem confirmed this for me) directly into the tank and THEN begin filling it back up with fresh, cool tap water...

I haven't seemingly had any "ammonia" or "toxic metals poisoning" in the tank where I lost any goldies doing the Prime this way, and all seems okay afterwards, but I was just curious if this was alright to do...is it a MUST that Prime is added to EACH BUCKETFUL of new water that is going back into the tank...or can I keep doing it the way I'm doing, adding the Prime before the new water goes in? It seems that it would be a bit wasteful and daunting to add Prime to EACH bucketful of return fresh water...

 

[20cc]

either way

 

[ArtesiaWells]

either way

Thanks, 'cc...

Much appreciated -- so, it's alright that the Prime is added to the tank before the new water goes in, dosed for the entire tank volume?

 

[20cc]

right...dosed for the whole tank volume. alot of people do it this way. but you gotta be careful to make sure the water temp is about the same as in the tank. no more than 2 degrees difference depending on how much water your changing or your gonna stress the fish

 

[ArtesiaWells]

right...dosed for the whole tank volume. alot of people do it this way. but you gotta be careful to make sure the water temp is about the same as in the tank. no more than 2 degrees difference depending on how much water your changing or your gonna stress the fish

Thanks again; indeed, the water temperature hasn't been an issue thus far for these guys, as the room they're in is regulated by central air conditioning parameters and the tap water coming off my bathtub is on the cool side, which they prefer being goldfish. Goldfish, in general, are alot more tolerant of temperature swings being that they actually love cold water -- I think it's with the tropicals and others that you run into the "serious temperature matching" factor...

 

[Fishfur]

Those of us using Pythons have to do this anyway.. and there's no problem with it at all. Basically the same as your system, just all the water gets added in one go, instead of by they bucket. Put the Prime in first, and I've yet to have any issues with it.

 

[ArtesiaWells]

Those of us using Pythons have to do this anyway.. and there's no problem with it at all. Basically the same as your system, just all the water gets added in one go, instead of by they bucket. Put the Prime in first, and I've yet to have any issues with it.

Thank you VERY much, Fishfur!