Good Afternoon to everyone following this thread,
Typically, the Technical Support group answers questions or addresses forums at Seachem. Due to the increased interest surrounding Prime and a thirst for knowledge, the Research and Development Department will hopefully help work through some of the questions. I, for one, love a good scientific discussion and we are more than happy to answer any question posed by an individual without compromising the blends of our products no matter the level of detail involved. Forums such as this lead us to ask more questions: in turn fueling some of the research. It just so happens that this particular product has been around for a while, so we know it pretty well.
I would like to stick to the science of the matter at hand. There are quite a few terms and definitions thrown out in the forum. I will use the terms that apply to this particular environment i.e. a closed system.
Sostoudt
1. Prime has an indefinite shelf life left unadulterated closed in the container. If left uncapped and thus open to the air, then over time the product maybe diminished. CO2 and O2 will naturally diffuse into liquids such as Prime, which could alter the pH of the product. Of course, the bottle would have to be left open for quite sometime for this to occur at an appreciable rate to alter the pH. With no agitation this would be a very slow process. In either case, the inert compounds will still maintain reducing power. I would be of mind to leave it capped so what I purchase does not accidentally get spilled, but that's just me (I like my money and accidents tend to take away from that).
2. Plants can use the converted ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate as well. As I am sure this answer deserves more of an explanation, I will discuss this below even though it is somewhat off topic. I will apologize in advance for thoroughness.
3. We are not a 100% sure on the binding time of nitrite and nitrate. This is why we went a safe time frame of 48 hrs. We always use very conservative values. The binding of both follows a similar mechanism as ammonia. Nitrate as you have noted may take a few different routes. This is impart is related to the difficulty ad limitations of machinery capable of yielding the desired information. As science itself, grows and develops Seachem grows and develops.
No aquarium water conditioner simply removes unwanted elements. These elements are detoxified via a few mechanisms: bonding for example ammonia/Prime, precipitations from the water column (heavy metals), or bounds are cleaved to form an un-reactive -ide as is the case with chlorine to chloride. We have made a product that functions on all levels.
The formation of these "salts" does not mean that sodium, chloride, calcium chloride, etc are now dissolved in the water, therefore altering the salinity or the overall desired water parameters you, the hobbyists, would like to maintain. The current definition of salinity refers to" the weight in grams of dissolved inorganic salts in one kilogram of seawater, when all bromides and iodides are replaced by an equivalent quantity of chlorides, and all carbonates are replaced by an equivalent quantity of oxides." This definition allows hobbyists to measure salinity with a refractometer or hydrometer. The salts formed concerning Prime, are cations (a positive charge) with a particular structure important to organic chemistry.
If you’re still with me... ☺
The organic structure formed is what allows bacteria and plants the ability to consume Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate bound to Prime. One is able to cycle a tank and/or supply plants with a nitrogen source even with the use of a conditioner. Consumption keeps organic salts formed from building up over time. If one can imagine, the nitrogen from ammonia/nitrite/nitrate bound to Prime is not simply solely take in as ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, but rather the entire molecule bound to Prime is absorbed.
Prime is not recycled from this type of consumption. With continued use according to the label instructions neither buildup nor oxygen consumption is of no concern. The rate of gross overdosing to reduce oxygen would be difficult for anyone to give an end all beat all number. Many factors dictate the level of oxygen present in water. Oxygen carrying capacity of water is a result of temperature, organic load, biological oxygen demand (BOD), aeration, and more. Since everyone’s tank is different, we have no way of providing a blanket answer. 5X the original label dose is also a conservative number. Many people have dosed more with no issues. Any water conditioner used well outside the recommended dose could cause a reduction in oxygen. Water conditioners in general do not preferentially bind oxygen if this were the case all aquarium companies would have a hard time selling current water conditioners on the market (overdosing happens occasionally in this hobby).
I hope this helps and most if not all of the questions have been addressed.
Gmerice Lafayette-Research Manager