Prime versus Stress Coat and others

rodger said:

Prime and Safe ( dry Prime) turns ammonia into ammonium, which is non toxic. It gives your bio filter 48 hours to process it into nitrates. If you do large waterchanges you need to worry about ammonia being released by chloramines. I nearly killed a tank of fish years ago thinking my filter would handle the free ammonia. I no longer worry about it as my water uses free chlorine.

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Pretty much this right here, i do 80% water changes, +1 Prime.

My water is treated with chlorine so no need for prime. Sodium thiosulfate solution does the job just fine and the dry chemical costs a few $/lb. If my water was treated with chloramine and I was doing large WCs I'd use safe.

houie925 said:

My water is treated with chlorine so no need for prime. Sodium thiosulfate solution does the job just fine and the dry chemical costs a few $/lb. If my water was treated with chloramine and I was doing large WCs I'd use safe.

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I think it is a good idea to keep a small bottle of Prime on hand in case you end up with an ammonia spike.

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Prime will treat a whole 125 gallon tank with 2 capfuls, (10ml) we are talking 6 large capfuls (60 ml) for something like tetra brand.
Prime also can treat water emergencies by binding ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc.
If you use purigen and bleach it, then prime will remove any chlorine in it also.

This might help.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?309623-Cost-Effective-Water-Conditioners


Seachem Safe is the dry version of Prime and is thus more concentrated, and more economical. For anyone dealing with chloramine it is what I recommend, and what I personally have been using for several years.

But that's why you use a conditioner, to removes chlorine and chloramines. Any and conditioner will do that.

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The vast majority of water conditioners are based on sodium thiosulfate, which when using a proper dosage rate converts chlorine, to fish safe chloride. It does not remove chloramine, which is a mixture of chlorine, and free ammonia - it simply breaks the chlorine/ammonia bond, resulting in a spike of ammonia.

and sure, primes detoxifies ammonia and no2 and no3, but if your bacteria is where it should be and youre doing proper water changes then ammonia, no2, and no3 is all taken care of already.

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It's not that simple. The toxicity of free ammonia (NH3) is highly dependent on both temperature, and pH, so this can vary GREATLY from one hobbyists tank to another. Then factor in the level of toxicity (LC50 values) for the various species that everyone keeps in captivity (no such data exists) and what might work for one hobbyist could prove to be disaster for another. Size of tank, size of water change, planted/non planted, established for years, established for weeks/months, age/size of fish, will also all play into how safe ones water change will be for their fish.


Threads such as this is exactly why I wrote the article linked to above.