Does Seachem Prime Work?

[Kasey Grohowski]

Would anyone actually trust putting a fish into a cycling tank and following seachem's prime and stability instructions? They say to dose prime every other day in a cycling tank until it is completed, and add stability everyday for the first 7 days. Prime supposedly detoxifies ammonia nitrites and high nitrate levels. Has anyone ever tried this or seen it work? Thank you.

 

[Hemmdog]

I’ve cycled a tank on only stability. I haven’t used prime before though.

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

I’ve cycled a tank on only stability. I haven’t used prime before though.

I used twice the reccomended dose of stability on my tank, still only putting down about .25 ammonia a day, disappointing.

 

[bluprntguy]

Yes. Prime works to detoxify ammonia into ammonium. It’s used all the time in hospital/quarantine tanks.

I’d prefer not to add it to my display tank at all. Why don’t you just use a better bacteria like Fritz’s turbostart 900. Then you don’t have to worry about ammonia at all.

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

Yes. Prime works to detoxify ammonia into ammonium. It’s used all the time in hospital/quarantine tanks.

I’d prefer not to add it to my display tank at all. Why don’t you just use a better bacteria like Fritz’s turbostart 900. Then you don’t have to worry about ammonia at all.

I used fritz turbo start, microbacter 7, api quick start, and stability. Still not cycled.

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

Yes. Prime works to detoxify ammonia into ammonium. It’s used all the time in hospital/quarantine tanks.

I’d prefer not to add it to my display tank at all. Why don’t you just use a better bacteria like Fritz’s turbostart 900. Then you don’t have to worry about ammonia at all.

Why dont you want to add it to your display tank?

 

[bluprntguy]

Why dont you want to add it to your display tank?

I just try to minimize the number of chemicals in my tank as much as possible. It’s generally safe to use though if you want to add fish.

Are you sure your ammonia test is working? It seems like you’d have plenty of bacteria with everything that you say you added. Did you start with live rock or dry rock?

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

I just try to minimize the number of chemicals in my tank as much as possible. It’s generally safe to use though if you want to add fish.

Are you sure your ammonia test is working? It seems like you’d have plenty of bacteria with everything that you say you added. Did you start with live rock or dry rock?

Yes I've tested with Red Sea and API both are showing same results. Ph 8.1,temp 79 degrees, 40 pounds dry rock, 180 pounds live sand, and bio matrix rated for 400 gallons. Probably going to get more matrix. Ive posted on here a few times wondering why my tank isnt cycled with all the bacteria in there.

 

[bluprntguy]

Yes I've tested with Red Sea and API both are showing same results. Ph 8.1,temp 79 degrees, 40 pounds dry rock, 180 pounds live sand, and bio matrix rated for 400 gallons. Probably going to get more matrix. Ive posted on here a few times wondering why my tank isnt cycled with all the bacteria in there.

Something doesn’t add up there. 40lbs of live rock and 180 lbs of sand. Assume you have 400 lbs of rock?

What’s your ammonia level?

 

[bluprntguy]

Just read your post about your stalled cycle. Likely due to lack of carbon source since you are using bottled ammonia. I’d suggest dosing vinegar or using something like Zeostart.

May want to check out the R2R thread where they tested all the bottled bacteria. There was a definite stall with most cycles when there wasn’t a carbon source. The only one that didn’t stall without carbon was fritz.

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

Something doesn’t add up there. 40lbs of live rock and 180 lbs of sand. Assume you have 400 lbs of rock?

What’s your ammonia level?

No 40 pounds of dry rock I started with, Sand is live, 180 pounds. I have bio matrix, enough rated for 400 gallons, I think it is 2 liters of bio matrix.

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

Something doesn’t add up there. 40lbs of live rock and 180 lbs of sand. Assume you have 400 lbs of rock?

What’s your ammonia level?

Its 0 now finally was at .25 yesterday and .5 the day before yesterday.

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

Just read your post about your stalled cycle. Likely due to lack of carbon source since you are using bottled ammonia. I’d suggest dosing vinegar or using something like Zeostart.

May want to check out the R2R thread where they tested all the bottled bacteria. There was a definite stall with most cycles when there wasn’t a carbon source. The only one that didn’t stall without carbon was fritz.

Carbon source? First time I heard about that. 2 threads about stalling and heard nothing but be patient, and now I hear about it in a completely unrelated thread. Anyway do you know the reason for carbon?

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

Just read your post about your stalled cycle. Likely due to lack of carbon source since you are using bottled ammonia. I’d suggest dosing vinegar or using something like Zeostart.

May want to check out the R2R thread where they tested all the bottled bacteria. There was a definite stall with most cycles when there wasn’t a carbon source. The only one that didn’t stall without carbon was fritz.

Also I did read that thread, it's weird because I dosed my ammonia to 8 and in a week it dropped to 1, meaning it was dropping 1 per day. Then the nitrite spiked, I had dosed the ammonia back to 4 and it wasnt dropping at all until I added the bio matrix. Could it be because of the lack of rock that the cycle stalled? 220 gallon tank

 

[bluprntguy]

Also I did read that thread, it's weird because I dosed my ammonia to 8 and in a week it dropped to 1, meaning it was dropping 1 per day. Then the nitrite spiked, I had dosed the ammonia back to 4 and it wasnt dropping at all until I added the bio matrix. Could it be because of the lack of rock that the cycle stalled? 220 gallon tank

Definitely seems like not enough rock for such a large tank. If you like the amount of rock visually, you may want to add more surface area in your sump using seachem matrix or a marinepure block or two.

Again, I’d suggest adding vinegar or zeostart before you jump to cycling it using prime on a daily basis. You should see some movement in a few days once there is carbon.

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

Definitely seems like not enough rock for such a large tank. If you like the amount of rock visually, you may want to add more surface area in your sump using seachem matrix or a marinepure block or two.

Again, I’d suggest adding vinegar or zeostart before you jump to cycling it using prime on a daily basis. You should see some movement in a few days once there is carbon.

Do you mean adding straight white vinegar? Wouldnt that drop the ph drastically?

 

[bluprntguy]

Do you mean adding straight white vinegar? Wouldnt that drop the ph drastically?

Yes. Plain white vinegar. You’ll start using a few ml of vinegar and slowly increase it every day. You can also use vodka, or sugar also or a combination. It’s not enough to change the ph.

Here’s a link that explains carbon dosing in more detail:
http://www.reefaquarium.com/2012/carbon-dosing-in-laymans-terms/

 

[Kasey Grohowski]

So has anyone actually put fish into a tank that had ammonia and nitrites along with seachem prime, and the fish survived?