TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
The main reason I joined this site years ago was because of the existence of this sub-forum. It has basically died as the folks who use this forum the most wandered away from the site. That was a real shame.
However, I am one who believe in science and not anecdote. I read peer reviewed papers for much of what I know about the chemistry and biology of keeping fish.
When it comes to Sechem I have had a few issues relating to some of their claims as being scientific but having zero poroof or actually knowing betters. The first time I realized this was an issue was with Stability. This is supposed to "cycle a tank." Now the nitrifying bacteria which we all work to cultivate in our tanks are know not to dorm spores. The reproduce by dividing and they are able to go dormant as a way to survive bad times. The one thing these nitrifyers do not do is to form spores. But read the bottle of Stability and it says it contains spores. On their site the make a lot of claims re cycling and bacteria which are not true. And if the want to sue me for saying this I know they will have it thrown out before it can go to trial since this is a scientific fact.
Today I stumbled onto an unusual article about Prime and the claims that it detoxifies ammonia. It is not a scientific paper in the traditional sence but it does rely on science and it is written by a chemist who did the sort of tests suggested by SeaChem or by common sense. You can judge for yourself if you have the patience to read through it all. One important factoid you see towards the end of the article is that another person replicated some of the experiments the author did and got the same results.
The paper is titled: 5.5.3.2.1. Prime, Safe and Ammonia and you can read it here https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/5-5-3-2-1-prime-safe-and-ammonia/
You will have to decide for yourself whether the article as accurate or not.
Basically, this paper claims to show why Prime actually does not detoxify ammonia. It is pretty convincing. If you read the paper you will see they used both the SeaChem Ammonia Alert and the Seneye systems to do their testing. The author also concludes it is like this is also true for the SeaChem claims that Prime detoxifies nitrite and nitrate
The one thing they did not do and which I would have is i would have used the API Ammonia test kit which reads total ammonia and I would have used the pH, Temperature and salinity of the water to convert the test result into its two components- NH3 ammonia and NH4 ammonium. I also do not agree with the ammonia levels abnd how they can affect fish. My research has shown that the level of Ammonia NH3 of 0.05 ppm is where it starts to do harm. The higher above that level it gets, the more damage it will do.
So, if you are truly curious and do not mind having your eyes spin now and then from the specific science, most of the article is fairly easy to understand. Bear in mind it is not the same thing as a peer reviewed paper published in a scientific journal. But then Seachem offers none of these to support its claims.
One note, if you get into reading the article. I did a search on Google Scholar for imidium. I found it, but not in any way that would support Seachem's cleaims. Most of the papers that mention it do not provide any evidence of it in relation to ammonia in any way I could find. A lot of the papers were from the 1970s-90s and unrelated to anything to do with keeping fish.
I should mention that I have lovely water from our private well. I have never used dechlor in any of my tanks. However, I have used it to detox chlorine after bleach dipping plants. I rinse first then dechlor and then they go into tanks with fish. So I know dechor works on chlorine. I have both Prime and Amquel but I use them only on the road for dechloring as I do not need that function for my tanks.
Finally, I was able to locate the Mars Fishcare (API) patent for ammonia detoxifier here https://patents.google.com/patent/US5082573A/en but that was it. I could not find a Seachem patent or any other one. I need to search Google patents a bit more to be sure there are none.
However, I am one who believe in science and not anecdote. I read peer reviewed papers for much of what I know about the chemistry and biology of keeping fish.
When it comes to Sechem I have had a few issues relating to some of their claims as being scientific but having zero poroof or actually knowing betters. The first time I realized this was an issue was with Stability. This is supposed to "cycle a tank." Now the nitrifying bacteria which we all work to cultivate in our tanks are know not to dorm spores. The reproduce by dividing and they are able to go dormant as a way to survive bad times. The one thing these nitrifyers do not do is to form spores. But read the bottle of Stability and it says it contains spores. On their site the make a lot of claims re cycling and bacteria which are not true. And if the want to sue me for saying this I know they will have it thrown out before it can go to trial since this is a scientific fact.
Today I stumbled onto an unusual article about Prime and the claims that it detoxifies ammonia. It is not a scientific paper in the traditional sence but it does rely on science and it is written by a chemist who did the sort of tests suggested by SeaChem or by common sense. You can judge for yourself if you have the patience to read through it all. One important factoid you see towards the end of the article is that another person replicated some of the experiments the author did and got the same results.
The paper is titled: 5.5.3.2.1. Prime, Safe and Ammonia and you can read it here https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/5-5-3-2-1-prime-safe-and-ammonia/
You will have to decide for yourself whether the article as accurate or not.
Synopsis
The simple conclusion of this article is simply that no less than NINE tests done by three qualified scientists conclusively show that Seachem Prime does NO ādetoxificationā of ammonia, not even on a temporary basis. Seachem has ZERO tests which prove Prime detoxifies ammonia. That is correct, ZERO tests.
This article is very long and very boring and only for the real nerds like the author.
Basically, this paper claims to show why Prime actually does not detoxify ammonia. It is pretty convincing. If you read the paper you will see they used both the SeaChem Ammonia Alert and the Seneye systems to do their testing. The author also concludes it is like this is also true for the SeaChem claims that Prime detoxifies nitrite and nitrate
The one thing they did not do and which I would have is i would have used the API Ammonia test kit which reads total ammonia and I would have used the pH, Temperature and salinity of the water to convert the test result into its two components- NH3 ammonia and NH4 ammonium. I also do not agree with the ammonia levels abnd how they can affect fish. My research has shown that the level of Ammonia NH3 of 0.05 ppm is where it starts to do harm. The higher above that level it gets, the more damage it will do.
So, if you are truly curious and do not mind having your eyes spin now and then from the specific science, most of the article is fairly easy to understand. Bear in mind it is not the same thing as a peer reviewed paper published in a scientific journal. But then Seachem offers none of these to support its claims.
One note, if you get into reading the article. I did a search on Google Scholar for imidium. I found it, but not in any way that would support Seachem's cleaims. Most of the papers that mention it do not provide any evidence of it in relation to ammonia in any way I could find. A lot of the papers were from the 1970s-90s and unrelated to anything to do with keeping fish.
I should mention that I have lovely water from our private well. I have never used dechlor in any of my tanks. However, I have used it to detox chlorine after bleach dipping plants. I rinse first then dechlor and then they go into tanks with fish. So I know dechor works on chlorine. I have both Prime and Amquel but I use them only on the road for dechloring as I do not need that function for my tanks.
Finally, I was able to locate the Mars Fishcare (API) patent for ammonia detoxifier here https://patents.google.com/patent/US5082573A/en but that was it. I could not find a Seachem patent or any other one. I need to search Google patents a bit more to be sure there are none.