How Much Prime To Use

[scampi]

Hi
I have a new bottle of Seachem Prime & I'm sure someone out there must use this regularly for pwc's. If so could you please help me with quantities. All I need to know is how much to add to one gallon or 4 ltrs of water. I a real dummy when it comes to understanding things like this.

I've been using Aquasafe in the past but was advised that Prime is better for my fish.

Many thanks

 

[Dylan_89]

Never used it before - but shouldn't the product say appropriate quantities??

 

[anon02]

0.1ml, about 2 drops

 

[Aqua Tom]

size of tank please?

 

[Rynofasho]

http/www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Prime.html

Directions at bottom. FYI you can overdo it a bit, it doesn't hurt anything. It might seem crazy but yes, the stuff is so concentrated that you need only a few drops for that little water.

 

[scampi]

Thankyou anon02 - 0.01ml it is then...it's only a very small tank 2.1/2 gallon (9ltrs), hence when I do a 50% pwc (if necessary) that'd only be about 1 gallon. The instructions on the bottle talk about 120 litre tanks etc., so was well confused.

 

[waterdrop]

In addition to understanding the correct dosing instructions from Seachem, which have been established in the previous posts and link, it is also useful to be aware that when a tank is less than 6 months old, it can be good insurance to dose the Prime at 1.5x to 2x (1.5 times to two times) whatever the manufacurer has recommended, but not more than 2x. This is because the bacterial colonies are more fragile during those first months and if your water authority happens to overdose the chlorine product, your bacteria can be killed or decreased. Not dosing more than 2x is because the N-Bacs (the nitrite oxidizing species) will have their growth slowed by to large an amount of conditioner, so during these first months you also want to avoid that. After a filter is very mature, say, over a year, you can be more sloppy and not worry if a dose happens to go higher than 2x the recommended. (Sorry if that seems a bit complicated but you can always look back at it later as a bit of reference advice!)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Aqua Tom]

In addition to understanding the correct dosing instructions from Seachem, which have been established in the previous posts and link, it is also useful to be aware that when a tank is less than 6 months old, it can be good insurance to dose the Prime at 1.5x to 2x (1.5 times to two times) whatever the manufacurer has recommended, but not more than 2x. This is because the bacterial colonies are more fragile during those first months and if your water authority happens to overdose the chlorine product, your bacteria can be killed or decreased. Not dosing more than 2x is because the N-Bacs (the nitrite oxidizing species) will have their growth slowed by to large an amount of conditioner, so during these first months you also want to avoid that. After a filter is very mature, say, over a year, you can be more sloppy and not worry if a dose happens to go higher than 2x the recommended. (Sorry if that seems a bit complicated but you can always look back at it later as a bit of reference advice!)

~~waterdrop~~

aha, maybe that was my problem with the big water changes on my cycle? i was well overdosing (tetra aquasafe)

 

[scampi]

In addition to understanding the correct dosing instructions from Seachem, which have been established in the previous posts and link, it is also useful to be aware that when a tank is less than 6 months old, it can be good insurance to dose the Prime at 1.5x to 2x (1.5 times to two times) whatever the manufacurer has recommended, but not more than 2x. This is because the bacterial colonies are more fragile during those first months and if your water authority happens to overdose the chlorine product, your bacteria can be killed or decreased. Not dosing more than 2x is because the N-Bacs (the nitrite oxidizing species) will have their growth slowed by to large an amount of conditioner, so during these first months you also want to avoid that. After a filter is very mature, say, over a year, you can be more sloppy and not worry if a dose happens to go higher than 2x the recommended. (Sorry if that seems a bit complicated but you can always look back at it later as a bit of reference advice!)

~~waterdrop~~

aha, maybe that was my problem with the big water changes on my cycle? i was well overdosing (tetra aquasafe)

So if I add 0.2ml to a gallon is that correct? Sorry to be so dim

 

[Aqua Tom]

0.1ml, about 2 drops

here is how to get that result.

Ok, i have my bottle of prime in front of me & it says 5ml to 200 litres.

So to figure out how much per litre it is 5 divided by 200 which is 0.025 ml.

So for 4 litres it is 4 x 0.025 which is 0.1ml.

Hope this helps

In addition to understanding the correct dosing instructions from Seachem, which have been established in the previous posts and link, it is also useful to be aware that when a tank is less than 6 months old, it can be good insurance to dose the Prime at 1.5x to 2x (1.5 times to two times) whatever the manufacurer has recommended, but not more than 2x. This is because the bacterial colonies are more fragile during those first months and if your water authority happens to overdose the chlorine product, your bacteria can be killed or decreased. Not dosing more than 2x is because the N-Bacs (the nitrite oxidizing species) will have their growth slowed by to large an amount of conditioner, so during these first months you also want to avoid that. After a filter is very mature, say, over a year, you can be more sloppy and not worry if a dose happens to go higher than 2x the recommended. (Sorry if that seems a bit complicated but you can always look back at it later as a bit of reference advice!)

~~waterdrop~~

aha, maybe that was my problem with the big water changes on my cycle? i was well overdosing (tetra aquasafe)

So if I add 0.2ml to a gallon is that correct? Sorry to be so dim

Yes 2 x 0.1 = 0.2ml

 

[markandhisfish]

you will find it much easier to measure out if you just add it directly into the tank each waterchange , doing it this way you dose based on tank volume instead of the amount of water changed , and at 90L you may as well just round that up to 100 , therfore using 2.5 ml of prime which is easily measured out. you can either use 1 of those measuring caps like come on the lid of a lot of meds , or each thread inside the lid of the prime bottle itself is around 1 ml , so 2.5 of those .

i do ity this way , all i do is turn off the filters , dain required amount , add the prime , refill , give it a little stir to be sure then restart the filters .

 

[waterdrop]

you will find it much easier to measure out if you just add it directly into the tank each waterchange , doing it this way you dose based on tank volume instead of the amount of water changed , and at 90L you may as well just round that up to 100 , therfore using 2.5 ml of prime which is easily measured out. you can either use 1 of those measuring caps like come on the lid of a lot of meds , or each thread inside the lid of the prime bottle itself is around 1 ml , so 2.5 of those .

i do ity this way , all i do is turn off the filters , dain required amount , add the prime , refill , give it a little stir to be sure then restart the filters .

Agree, you could even squirt the measured 2.5ml once into the cap from the Prime bottle, eyeball it (is it up to one threadline, partially there (?etc)) and from then on just tip a tiny pour into the cap to dose the tank. WD

 

[OldMan47]

When I am using Prime to treat my tank water change I simply use about 6 drops in my 4 gallon bucket. It gives me enough Prime to adequately treat my water without being so much that I need to worry about the effects that WD talks about. I am a simple person who likes simple answers. If I add about 1 1/2 drops of Prime for each gallon that I change, I never have any problems with my fish. What that means to me is that I can pack up a small bottle with some Prime in it and go to auctions all over the country without any real worries. When I buy a few fish, I simply use that 1.5 drops per gallon and never seem to have any troubles.