PlanetCatfish.com

A friend of mine uses only Seachem Prime, and is afraid to switch to a generic dechlor or anything that doesn't
'remove ammonia.' She's afraid of having her tanks go through a cycle if she ceases using this wonder liquid. I've tried to tell her it doesn't matter (we have the same water and as far as I know there is no ammonia in it), but she is wary of changing to a cheaper kind, like the PetsMart brand or Aquarium Pharm, etc.

Is there really anything to worry about? Prime doesn't 'stop' the cycle via removing ammonia (or ammonium, has been a while since I had a chem class) so there shouldn't be any fish deaths on changing something as simple as the dechlor, right?

I don't think it matters if you switch, as a general proposition. Your friend should determine if her water supply includes chloramine. Most major water utilities in the U.S. use it and not all water conditioners deal with it. Prime does; cheaper generics may not.

Personally, I use Prime and think that it is very inexpensive, when you compute the cost per gallon. The only thing I've found that is cheaper is Seachem Safe, which is a powdered conditioner. Because it's powdered, it's a little trickier to use. It's also harder to find.

The maximum level of chlorine in tap-water is 4ppm [which is 4x higher than in the UK legal limit]
From here:
http://www.city.ketchikan.ak.us/public_ ... lFacts.pdf

Chloramine is NH2Cl. NH2 weighs 14 + 2 = 16 units, Cl weighs 35 atomic units. So if we have 4ppm Chlorine, we have about 2ppm ammonia.

That is quite a bit if you don't neutralize it.

Otherwise, the cycle is related to the ammonia that is produced by the fish.

--
Mats

I use Prime also.

I don't quite get the link between the chlorine/chloramine in the incoming water and the cycling. For one, chlorine/chloramine is toxic to fish too, so I don't get it why you are concerned with killing off good bacteria (thus leading to cycling, if I understand correctly) and are not concerned with other effects of chlorine/chloramine.

Anyway, the dechlorinating agent is the same AFAIK in almost all water dechlorinators: the mild reductant sodium thiosulfate. I use API super concentrated kind from Petsolutions.com, $20 for 1 US gal jug. 1 ml per 5 US gal if need to break the chloramine bond and get rid of both chlorine and chloramine or 1 ml per 20 US gal to get rid of just chlorine.

Check out this thread on the topic.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hlorinator

-Shane

MChambers wrote:I don't think it matters if you switch, as a general proposition. Your friend should determine if her water supply includes chloramine. Most major water utilities in the U.S. use it and not all water conditioners deal with it. Prime does; cheaper generics may not.

Personally, I use Prime and think that it is very inexpensive, when you compute the cost per gallon. The only thing I've found that is cheaper is Seachem Safe, which is a powdered conditioner. Because it's powdered, it's a little trickier to use. It's also harder to find.

Hi there, sorry to jump in here with a question... hope you don't mind.

I'm new so haven't any experience. But I recently switched from Stress Coat to Prime. SCoat is far more expensive; I didn't think anything could be less expensive or better than using Prime. I mean it's only 1ml per 20 gallons IF I've calculated correctly. I used the label text, each cap = 50 gallons; and, each thread = 1ml... and further to gallon increments to suit my situ.

Since you're a Prime user could you tell me if I've calculated the correct forumula? I don't want to overuse it. My CI=0 w/ it as w/SCoat. It's just the price dif... outrageous really.

I'm able to carry 4 gallons of water adding 3 drops Prime to it. I've got it down to: 0.25ml=4 drops= 5 gallons water condition and CI=0. I couldn't get any closer than that. What do you think? Is there a better way to use it or calculate it?

Thanks for any time on this... when you have a moment, I would very much appreciate it.

GF

GoldenFeather wrote:

MChambers wrote: Personally, I use Prime and think that it is very inexpensive, when you compute the cost per gallon. The only thing I've found that is cheaper is Seachem Safe, which is a powdered conditioner. Because it's powdered, it's a little trickier to use. It's also harder to find.

Since you're a Prime user could you tell me if I've calculated the correct forumula? I don't want to overuse it. My CI=0 w/ it as w/SCoat. It's just the price dif... outrageous really.

I'm able to carry 4 gallons of water adding 3 drops Prime to it. I've got it down to: 0.25ml=4 drops= 5 gallons water condition and CI=0. I couldn't get any closer than that. What do you think? Is there a better way to use it or calculate it?


GF

Using the link above from Shane I checked out the thread and according to:

PeterUK wrote:I think it really depends on the amount of water that you are changing that will dictate the type of dechlorinator that would suite you best.
I started with Seachem Prime which is, I think, a very good product for the price.

Use 1 ml for each 10 gallons of water. 100 ml treats 1,000 gallons; 250 ml treats 2,500 gallons ; 500 ml treats 5,000 gallons; 2 liter treats 20,000 gallons.

<snip - really ginormous numbers>

[/quote]

I'm 50% over in my calculations using 1/2 the amount noted above. But my CI (chlorine) is removed 0 (zero). And I use half the amount. The bottle does say you can't use too much, well no, itays 5 x the normal dose will not hurt the fish if you are trying to remove N02 with it. ???

Just thought I should note it in case someone takes my word for it... "Don't" I don't know what I'm doing.

Thanks,
GF

GoldenFeather wrote:Hi there, sorry to jump in here with a question... hope you don't mind.

I'm new so haven't any experience. But I recently switched from Stress Coat to Prime. SCoat is far more expensive; I didn't think anything could be less expensive or better than using Prime. I mean it's only 1ml per 20 gallons IF I've calculated correctly. I used the label text, each cap = 50 gallons; and, each thread = 1ml... and further to gallon increments to suit my situ.

Since you're a Prime user could you tell me if I've calculated the correct forumula? I don't want to overuse it. My CI=0 w/ it as w/SCoat. It's just the price dif... outrageous really.

I'm able to carry 4 gallons of water adding 3 drops Prime to it. I've got it down to: 0.25ml=4 drops= 5 gallons water condition and CI=0. I couldn't get any closer than that. What do you think? Is there a better way to use it or calculate it?

Thanks for any time on this... when you have a moment, I would very much appreciate it.

GF

I don't mind, but I'm not sure of the answer. I'm fairly certain you should use 1 ml for every 10 gallons, not for 20 gallons.

In terms of drops, I've always understood that you should use 1.6 drops per gallon.

Maybe your water conditions are such that you need less.

Seachem has a forum where you can ask questions about its products, including Prime. You'll get a quick response: http://www.seachem.com/support/forums/f ... ay.php?f=7