Will or will not Prime deactivate harmful ammonia and nitrate (along with chlorine) in the tank and cause it to be less harmful? Then why not add prime and make the water safer for the fish? Many of us use prime as a water conditioner to kill chlorine in a tank without any fish it is (with no idea that we are also deactivating ammonia and nitrites) the tank will develop bacteria regardless of whether you use Prime as your water conditioner or something else as your water conditioner, The whole purpose when you cycle your tank is to build up good bacteria that will deactivate harmful ammonia and nitrate in the tank. By using Prime as a water conditioner you're also making sure your ammonia and nitrates can do no harm.
So when you put fish in a tank and suddenly have a spike in ammonia or nitrate you have two choices: 1. do a large and/or multiple water change and if your water conditioner of choice happens to be Prime go for it. 2. You can also add prime AND and Tetra Safe Start Plus. The Safe Start I've found has been the best way to build up bacteria FAST. So do the water changes every day or two and use prime and tetra safe start each day. Your fish will be kept safe from dying from ammonia and nitrate poisoning and your filter will also benefit from the live bacteria in the Tetra Safe Start. Once your Ammonia either disappears or goes away nightly two or three days in a row you can stop with all the additives - however, I always add Tetra Safe Start any time I add new fish just in case my tank lacks enough bacteria to handle the extra fish. I just add it for a day or two - only longer if I have an ammonia or nitrite spike and need more protection and more bacteria. I read some supposed expert (at least he had a phD after his name) and he too recommended that if you have an ammonia spike add prime every 48 hours. He also said that if your ammonia spike occurred after adding fish then your biological filter possibly needs more bacteria to support the extra fish and recommended Testra Safe Start (or some other formula that does the same thing) add that to the tank along with the Prime and the fish and check the ammonia and nitrite levels every day until everything is back to zero.
These days when you cycle a tank you use ammonia (OMG a CHEMICAL) as long as the tank does not have fish in it. That the way it is supposed to be done. Now I wonder how many people use PRIME (as I did) as their water conditioner? If so, you're doing the same thing I'm recommending. My guess is that Prime is one of the most popular water conditioners just because it works not because it has "extra chemicals" in it that won't harm anything.
Prime is a
water conditioner intended for fresh tap water. As for what it does, it detoxifies chlorine and chloramine, permanently; it also detoxifies heavy metals. If ammonia, nitrite or nitrate are present in the
source (tap) water, Prime will detoxify these by binding them--but this is
temporary (24-36 hours) and if these still remain after this period they revert back to being toxic. But note, this is dealing with ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in the
tap water. The temporary binding allows the plants and/or bacteria in the tank to then be able to deal with them, thus avoiding the initial influx of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate which could seriously harm fish. And further, nitrate at very high levels in the tap water cannot be controlled by Prime; a very different approach is necessary on a permanent basis, involving specific filtration media.
Prime is
not intended as some sort of treatment to deal with occurring ammonia/nitrite/nitrate in the tank. This requires a very different approach, involving regular (daily) significant water changes to keep ammonia/nitrite at zero and nitrate as low as possible--assuming fish are present, while finding and correcting the cause. [In a tank that is cycling but without fish present this is not necessary as the cycling will work through in anywhere from two to eight weeks normally.] Ammonia or nitrite occurring in a cycled aquarium with fish is a serious issue being caused by some problem, and the only way to resolve this is to determine the source of the problem and correct it. And that should never mean dumping in more chemicals which can only stress the fish even more. If the tank is not overstocked or inappropriately stocked, the fish are not being overfed, the water changes are regular and substantial, and the filter is regularly cleaned, ammonia and nitrite will never be observed, and nitrate will be very low.
Leaving that and turning to the sole issue of Prime as a general regular water conditioner, this is not something I and many others advise. There are chemicals in Prime that mess with the natural processes that should remain natural. Chemical soup is not a healthy aquarium. Use a conditioner that only does what is needed, depending upon the source water, and use it sparingly (i.e., never more than what is required for the fresh water). The less intrusive the better for the fish. Clean water, not some chemical compound, will allow fish to live naturally and with less stress.
If you would post your water test results (hardness, PH level) Also do you know the nitrogen cycle? very important. Sorry about your fish, Try and do a 75% water change there is probably ammonia in the water affecting and killing the fish.
