Seachem Prime Dechlorinator

[celaeno]

i recently switched from hagen/nutrafin aquaplus dechlorinator to seachem prime. i added 1/4 ml to a 2.5 gallon bucket as per directions, waited a minute, then poured the water into my 10 gallon tank. 4 days later, i use my non-expired api liquid ammonia test kit and i get a 0.25 ppm ammonia reading. is this just a false positive because prime 'detoxifies' ammonia? or is my bio-filter being nuked bit by bit?

can someone tell me what's going on and if i should switch back to aquaplus?

 

[drobbyb]

If ammonia is present it may be in your tap water. I've been using prime for years and I have never had a problem with it. How do you have your tank stocked?

 

[celaeno]

nope, my tap water has no ammonia in it. stocking is in my sig.

 

[drobbyb]

I see. There has to be something else. Did you clean your filter or change the media?

 

[celaeno]

nope. i'm getting a 0.25 ppm reading in both tanks (10g and 55g) ever since i started using prime this monday.

i hope it's because prime converts ammonia to 0.8 ppm of a nontoxic form, per 1 ml prime added. that is what they say on their website. and since i only used 1/4 ml, i should have about 0.2 ppm nontoxic ammonia. that is about equal to the 0.25 ppm ammonia reading i got.

 

[drobbyb]

Prime does detoxify ammonia by turning it to ammonium, but there has to be ammonia already in the water column for this to happen. I would say something has changed other than just the water conditioner. The ammonium does show up in ammonia test kits resulting in a false positive.

 

[celaeno]

well, fish produce ammonia constantly, so maybe it got converted to ammonium that way before being processed by the bio-filter?

 

[drobbyb]

well, fish produce ammonia constantly, so maybe it got converted to ammonium that way before being processed by the bio-filter?

That's possible. Your biological filter uses ammonium just the same as ammonia.

 

[celaeno]

if the bio-filter uses ammonium too, then shouldn't i be getting a zero ammonia reading?

 

[drobbyb]

if the bio-filter uses ammonium too, then shouldn't i be getting a zero ammonia reading?

That's what I have been saying. I doubt the Prime is causing a false positive. The answer lies somewhere else.

 

[three-fingers]

Pime converts chloramine into chlorine + ammonia and 'detoxifies' the ammonia by ionising it to NH4+, which doesn't harm fish but the filter bacteria can still use and it shows up on most test kits which will show the toxic and non-toxic ammonia combined.

So if you have chloramine in your tap water, that's what's happening, it's not a problem .

 

[celaeno]

i just did a bit of googling and some sources say that prime should not be used with biospira or when cycling, because the bacteria can't process the ammonium.

assuming that is true, then i should get a positive ammonia reading when i use any test other than seachem's ammonia test, which tests for free and total ammonia. this is because the reagents in other test kits raise the pH of the water sample to high levels, releasing the ammonia.

however, seachem's prime faq says that prime dissipates within 24 hours. so this sort of implies that i should get a zero ammonia reading if i test after 24 hours. however, i tested 3 days after the water change with prime and got a positive ammonia reading.

this is all very confusing to me. if what seachem says is true, that prime dissipates after 24 hours, what happens to the ammonium?

 

[drobbyb]

That's simply not true about not using prime with bio-spira. I started 3 tanks recently with bio-spira and have been using prime the whole time with zero problems. The ammonium is supposed to be used up by your biological filter.

There is only one way to find out for sure. Do a large 50% waterchange and use your old water conditioner to cut the ammonia in half. Test for ammonia immediately after and over the next 24 hours. If your ammonia reading drops then we know that in your case, Prime might not be the product for you.

 

[OldMan47]

You should check with your water supplier. They could be doing what they will call a shock rteatment. This time of year it is not unusual for the local water company to increase the chlorine addition , at least around here. If your water treatment includes chloramine, that means more ammonia in the water supply. Since Prime breaks that chemical bond, you will see it after a water change and might even have more chlorine than your treatment can keep up with.