Prime Or Dechlorinator Question.

[ColR1948]

I normally use prime when doing a water change, as most of you already know it acts as a dechlorinator but it also removes Ammonia, Chloramine and Chlorine plus it detoxifies Nitrite & Nitrate.

The ordinary dechlorinator as far as I'm aware just remove Chlorine and possibly Chloramine.

So the person who uses the ordinary dechloinator when doing a water test gets their water to show perfect, is their water in better quality than the person who uses Prime?

The reason I ask is Prime is more of a chemical and if it is removing Ammonia and detoxing the Nitrate and Nitrite it might be hiding the real water quality.

Just to add, I have often read where people say they don't like using chemicals but they use Prime so am I right in thinking Prime is a chemical?

 

[freshwaterfishlover]

I use Stress Coat that has Aloe in it. It can be used for water changes, adding fish, replacing Slime coat.

 

[phantomlink]

Prime doesn't remove ammonia, it just detoxifies it for awhile ( some say ~24 hours ) Unless your going to have buckets of water laying around for 24 hours to get the chlorine out, people use a chemical to dechlorinate the water. Especially when you get into larger tanks. I currently change out a total of 180 gallons of water a week so I definitely use chemicals

 

[Tuxyu3]

Technically everything is a chemical.....

 

[Bugdozer]

There are several other dechlorinators out there that do exactly the same as Prime but forumites write them off because Prime is supposedly better value for money as it's more concentrated. Which means if you have a very small tank it's easier to overdose and also apparently it smells vile.

 

[Tuxyu3]

I love the smell but that's probably not a good sign.

 

[phantomlink]

It does smell pretty bad, but around here its the best bang for the buck, there aren't many dechlorinators (locally) and Prime is the only one that uses 1ml for 10 gallons, the rest are 5ml or 10ml per 10 gallons

 

[ColR1948]

But nobody has really answered my question.

It say on the bottle of Prime REMOVES Chlorine, Chroramine, Ammonia. DETOXIFIES Nitrite & Nitrate, it doesn't say ir detoxifies Ammonia as previously sated it says removes.

So again my question: If someone doesn't use Prime and uses a normal type dechloinator and their water parameters are showing good is their water better quality than the person who uses Prime?

Again: If Prime is hiding/removing Ammonia how does the person using it know they did or didn't have it but the person who doesn't use it and has no Ammonia then he knows he hasn't got it?

 

[Essjay]

If you look on Seachem's website it says

Product Description
Prime® is the complete and concentrated conditioner for both fresh and salt water. Prime® removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. Prime® converts ammonia into a safe, non-toxic form that is readily removed by the tank’s biofilter.

my italics.

I can only assume that they mean ammonia is removed from doing harm by converting it into a non-toxic form.


Further down it says

Prime® also contains a binder which renders ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate non-toxic.

In other words, prime contains something(s) that binds to ammonia and nitrite and nitrate. They aren't removed from the water as such, they are just rendered less harmful by binding to something.


Edit - forgot to say:

The ammonia bound by prime will still show up in an ammonia test. Presumably so will the bound nitrite and nitrate. Dechlorinators like prime are at their most useful during fish-in cycling or if the filter bacteria have died back for some reason. They can help prevent the fish suffering from the toxic effects of ammonia and nitrite. A mature tank doesn't need the ammonia and nitrite detoxifying as the amounts of them should be so low they can't be measured. Pirme is just very concentrated and good value for money, the reason most people with mature filters use it.
I don't use it. I have chlorine rather than chloramine in my tapwater so I use the equally ecconomical API tapwater conditioner. That doesn't have anything to 'stimulate the slime coat', another reason I use it.

 

[ColR1948]

This is what I'm trying to get at, if someone had ammonia and Prime hid it by binding as you say they wouldn't know but someone who doesn't use it would know.

 

[Essjay]

Prime doesn't hide it. It still shows up in the ammonia test and the filter bacteria can still use it. Even if you were using prime, you'd still know if you had ammonia in your tank. Prime just makes the ammonia less toxic for around 24 hours.

One good reason for using a dechlorinator like prime is if you have chloramine rather than chlorine in you tapwater. All dechlorinators split chloramine into chlorine and ammonia, then neutralise the chlorine. Dechlorinators like prime also detoxify the ammonia made from the chloramine. The filter bacteria will remove it quickly, long before the detoxifying effect has worn off.

There are other dechlorinators on the market that do the same. They are just less cost effective than prime, which is why prime is recommended.

 

[ColR1948]

Thanks again essjay, you answered a question I asked in another thread if Prime gave a false positive when testing water, so it looks like it does or have I read your post wrong?

 

[Essjay]

I have read that prime can give odd results for the first 24 hours, but as I've never used it I don't know if that's true or not.

 

[bmonki]

as someone who uses prime and used it during a fish in cycle i can confirm, prime DOES show ammonia up on a test even after its converted it to ammonium so yes it can give a false positive, but only if there was ammonia there to be converted in the first place, it wont give you a positive test result if there was no ammonia to 'remove'.

 

[ColR1948]

Thanks bmonki, so now this is starting to answer questions.

If you have no Ammonia then Prime won't show it on a water test as a false positive.
If you do have ammonia then Prime binds it and it will show on a water test.