Can Someone Please Help Me With Prime

[natedawg879]

Hey everyone reading this, so I have a 60 gallon fresh water that is high in nitrates (40-80ppm.) I am currently using aquasafe by tetra as a water conditioner, to get rid of chlorine and choloramines. Many people in a another thread suggested using prime, so I went out and bought enough to treat 5000 gallons. I am confused and hesitant to use it right now. I have a few questions.

1. What is the difference with removing something (chlorine/ choloramine) and detoxifying something (nitrates/nitrites?)
2. Should I add Prime to the bucket of new water (gallons,) or the aquarium (before or after?)
3. If I add it directly into the aquarium, it will remove ammonia, so wouldn't that mean the bacteria wouldn't have anything to turn into nitrites and starve?
4. I am using an API master test kit, I heard if I use prime, it would throw off my ammonia reading, is this true?
4. If I add Prime into the aquarium before adding new untreated water, will it still take care of taking out chlorine and the heavy metals, and all that other stuff?
5. Some people say add it after adding new untreated water, if I do that wouldn't the chlorine affect the fish before I have a chance to add it?

I tried to word these as well as possible, any help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[anon02]

In answer to your questions

1. Removing chlorine / chloramine is a chemical process carried out by your water conditioner and de toxifying nitrite is a biological function carried out by your filter and removing nitrate is your job, done by frequent partial water changes. In time you will get an idea of how much nitrate your tank is producing (via weekly nitrate tests)then you can tailor the amount of water you change to keep the nitrate at an acceptable level (usually within 20-40ppm above tap water levels)

2. Either

3. If your water conditioner has any effect on ammonia it will only be to convert it to ammonium which is less toxic to fish and can still be used by your biofilter

4. No, the API kit measures total ammonia ( NH3 and NH4)

4. Yes

5. Chlorine / chloramine are added to kill bacteria in the water supply. The danger of adding untreated water to your aquarium is in the first instance to your biofilter

Hope that helps, most water conditioners do what it says on the bottle, Prime works out cheaper because you use so little of it