Help needed - tank crash?

[Aiken Drum]

Just stops ammonia from being so harmful to the livestock

There is a lot of debate about whether Prime even does that. Essentially ammonia isnt as toxic as you might be led to believe, especially at acidic pH, which leads to a lot of people saying i had high ammonia, dosed with Prime, and my fish survived. It possibly had nothing to do with Prime.

Seachem also claims it detoxifies nitrite and nitrate. They have no evidence whatsoever that it does. Their own FAQ readily admits this claim is 100% anecdotal (see above paragraph regarding how reliable that may be), and they have no scientific evidence that it might do this. At least Seachem say they know how it detoxifies ammonia even though they wont disclose the how and dont hold any patents.

There is a really good thread on here between some of the science bods (mostly no longer active) discussing possible ways Prime might work. Their conclusion was that it probably does detoxify ammonia, and came up with a few ways it might do this.

 

[pauldadams1984]

Just out of curiosity, I'd love to read it even if I didn't understand it lol. It's a dangerous claim really. Could lead people to just do a daily dose and not bother doing the grunt work.

Anyway back to the original issue. Sorry if I went off topic........

 

[Airborne 82nd]

IF I read everything it looks like she is down to one fish. If it dies will she need to start adding her own ammonia if she goes to a fishless cycle? If it were me If the last fish dies I would clean and start over. But that is just me and I'm no expert for sure. The next time the water is tested maybe take some of the same water and test it at a shop and compare the two reading. maybe she got a bad test kit.

 

[Andy Sager]

IF I read everything it looks like she is down to one fish. If it dies will she need to start adding her own ammonia if she goes to a fishless cycle? If it were me If the last fish dies I would clean and start over. But that is just me and I'm no expert for sure. The next time the water is tested maybe take some of the same water and test it at a shop and compare the two reading. maybe she got a bad test kit.

If it's the last fish, better to bury it in the gravel so that it continues to produce ammonia as it decomposes to keep the biological filter going or recreate it. No need to start fresh unless something was seriously foul in the tank leading up to the crash.