Prime stalling fish-in cycling?

[Ringoffire]

Read today in a few online articles that adding Prime or other ammonia removing products could actually hinder the cycling process. It was saying that it may actually starve out the bacteria that is forming. Does anyone have any input to this or know if there is any fact to it?

 

[J1Time]

I have used it in the past in tanks and had no issues.

 

[anibis]

I have used it in the past in tanks and had no issues.

+1

Had no affect on my cycle.

The beneficial bacteria can still feed on the ammonia/nitrites prime binds. Other detoxifying products may be different, I'm not sure.

 

[pud2224]

++1 used prime during cycle, no problems! Finished in a few weeks

 

[J1Time]

You will find most people on these boards use Prime. It really does exactly what it says. And a little goes a very long way.

 

[Ringoffire]

I knew it was highly recommended here. That's why I was surprised when I read it today. I just don't want to do anything that will prolong this oh so long process of fish-in cycling. I'm ready for some more fish!

 

[J1Time]

No cycle is fun, but stick it out. When its done its done.

 

[threnjen]

Howdy!

I know quite a lot about the scientific stuff of cycling, so I can assure you with some authority that Prime does NOT hurt your cycle.

Here's the science stuff:

When we talk about "ammonia readings" around here, we actually are referring to something called Total Ammonia Nitrogen (TAN). TAN is the sum of the Free Ammonia (NH3) and Ammonium (NH4) that is in your water. So NH3 + NH4 = TAN.
Now, the API test kit doesn't tell us how much of each there is. It just gives us the TAN and we know that it is made up of "some amount" of NH3 and NH4.
So if you get a reading of 1.0 ppm Ammonia, that is 1.0 ppm TAN and some of that is Free Ammonia NH3 and the rest of it is Ammonium NH4. We don't know how much there is of what, but it's not important. (there are actually ways to know what the amounts are, but it is not important to this topic, so we will ignore that for now)
With me so far?

OK. So, NH3 (free ammonia) is dangerous to fishies. But NH4 (ammonium) is not. One of Prime's secondary tasks (its first being to remove chlorine/chloramines) is to detoxify the Free Ammonia NH3 in your water by forcibly making it into Ammonium NH4. So since NH4 isn't harmful to fish, it is "detoxifying" the NH3 into a safer form.

The most important thing to know is that the beneficial bacteria will eat EITHER NH3 or NH4. BOTH forms are "food" and will continue your cycle. Scientifically the bacteria does not care or distinguish (much) between them. It will eat the NH3 first, but in the absence of NH3 it will eat NH4.

Also, if a more "official" answer can put your mind at ease, I found this statement from a Seachem employee in their forum archives:
"NH4 should not cause much of a concern, however, it is best to have all ammonia at zero if possible and to use a conditioner such as Prime to detoxify all ammonia, while letting the beneficial bacteria consume it." [emphasis mine]
So you can see that Seachem here is recommending Prime to detoxify the ammonia while still letting the bacteria eat it.

I hope my wall of text was helpful in explaining how it all works. Now where are those articles so we can re-educate them?

 

[Ringoffire]

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer so thoroughly. It makes much more since now. I'll have to look through my history and find those articles. If I find them I'll let ya know. And thanks again! My mind is at ease now.