Masha
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I'm not asking this for myself, as my tanks are both cycled, but I like helping people here who are struggling with cycling, and I want to make sure my advice is correct.
I always thought that dechlorinators like Prime convert ammonia to ammonium. Ammonium is not as toxic to fish, but it still feeds the nitrosomona bacteria that does the ammonia > nitrite conversion. In other words, as long as you don't overdose, treating tank water with Prime while you are establishing the nitrogen cycle should not cause any problems.
But I've seen a number of people contradict this, on this and in other forums. They say that you should be cautious of doing water changes while cycling a tank, because of the necessity of dechlorinating that water, and Prime, by binding the ammonia, will slow down the growth of enough bacteria. I've so far not found any articles that support this, just forum posts that I suppose must be based on personal experience.
All the articles I find says the opposite, that using Prime during a cycle is fine. But maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.
Is this true? Is it a bad idea to do big water changes during a cycle for this reason? Because Prime interferes with the bacteria's ability to process that ammonia?
I always thought that dechlorinators like Prime convert ammonia to ammonium. Ammonium is not as toxic to fish, but it still feeds the nitrosomona bacteria that does the ammonia > nitrite conversion. In other words, as long as you don't overdose, treating tank water with Prime while you are establishing the nitrogen cycle should not cause any problems.
But I've seen a number of people contradict this, on this and in other forums. They say that you should be cautious of doing water changes while cycling a tank, because of the necessity of dechlorinating that water, and Prime, by binding the ammonia, will slow down the growth of enough bacteria. I've so far not found any articles that support this, just forum posts that I suppose must be based on personal experience.
All the articles I find says the opposite, that using Prime during a cycle is fine. But maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.
Is this true? Is it a bad idea to do big water changes during a cycle for this reason? Because Prime interferes with the bacteria's ability to process that ammonia?