Seachem Safe

[howard_hopkinson]

I just ordered some Seachem Safe. According to the product label it removes ammonia, yet on the back of the pack it says it only detoxifies ammonia. I feel the front label is misleading to say the least.

 

[Byron]

This seems to be a dry powder form of their liquid conditioner Prime. There is nothing I can find on their site to explain your question, but when asked directly about Prime's "detoxification" of ammonia they advised that the product converts ammonia to ammonium (which is basically safe) but the detoxification was not permanent. Prime loses its effectiveness in roughly 24-36 hours, and at that stage any ammonium will revert back to ammonia, same as any nitrite or nitrate that may have been "detoxified" initially.

You could contact them directly through their website, they are good about responding.

 

[seangee]

It is indeed the pond version of prime. You just need less and measuring can be tricky for typical aquarium volumes.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

It is indeed the pond version of prime. You just need less and measuring can be tricky for typical aquarium volumes.

I agree, @howard_hopkins, are you wanting to remove ammonia? Or remove chlorine? Or both?

 

[AbbeysDad]

Yes it is somewhat misleading. As Byron mentioned, ammonia is converted to ammonium by the product which detoxifies it (ammonium is relatively harmless and does not burn gill tissue). Although the chemical conversion may only last 24-48 hours, it does typically give the bio filter time to convert it to nitrites/nitrates. This can be very helpful if there are traces of ammonia in source water, when cycling a new tank, or when there's an ammonia spike from over feeding. (I used it recently when I was trialing/testing an auto feeder on a fry grow out tank and the volume was excessive!)

 

[AbbeysDad]

It is indeed the pond version of prime. You just need less and measuring can be tricky for typical aquarium volumes.

Actually just the granular version of Prime. I use it as necessary in tanks instead of Prime because of the cost advantage.

 

[seangee]

Actually just the granular version of Prime. I use it as necessary in tanks instead of Prime because of the cost advantage.

So do I. No longer use it in my tanks since I switched to RO but bought it for the pond because when you are changing 4000 litres Prime (or any other aquarium product) really isn't very economical.