How long does prime last I'n water

[Zander_The_RBP]

so you will dose 1.5x which really is not that bad.also keeping chemicals in the water consistantly probably not the greatest idea when keeping rays.dont know how hard those chemicals in prime are to rays but maybe i will juts hook up a drip system and drip into buckets for now than dump into my tanks upstairs.

Don't ever think the word "chemical" means something bad. Rays are sensitive but nothing in any dechlorinator is toxic, period, end of story. Far worse chemicals are innately present in your tapwater that can do far more harm and that prime can't neutralize, think pesticides.


Theres also this other chemical that comes from our taps called dihydrogen monoxide that if you drink too much of it can throw off the salt balance of your blood and you could die. It's used in nuclear plants and factories and it ends up in our lakes and rivers by way of rain and it can encourage nuisance plant and weed growth and too much of it in an area can change whole ecosystems. Not sure of it's effects on freshwater fish but i know that too much of it can kill saltwater fish....

maybe you should look it up.

 

[dayak]

whats i heard from my LFS that its wrok but harsh chemical for fresh water, and dont pour in more than recommended unless u have salt water tank

 

[JK47]

ok just called seachem here is the official correct answer .

"prime will last a full 48 hours in water until it dissipates"

he also said since i am doing 50% water changes with tap water ex.100 gallon tank taking out 50 gallons a day and adding 50 gallons of untreated tap water directly means i could get away with a half dose because their is only so much chlroine to absorb.
but if i were to do a 50% water change daily and dose for the full 100 gallons everytime i will overdose the tank.and since water temp is high prime will not allow for dissolved oxygen in the tank.so basically around 86 or 30 degrees and you overdose with prime you may suffocate your fish or rays he said.he siad their is not a big issue overdosing the tank with prime but because of the temperature their is,due to prime reacting with dissolved oxygen in the water.

hopefully everbody on here learned something because not one person on this thread knew how long it last.everybody just quessing could have resulted in bad things

^ that is the smartest thing I have seen posted in some time.. People offering advice without willing to do research is such a horrible thing.. Yet another reason post count should be removed from this site..

 

[RD.]

The most informative comments in this thread were by Zander, some of you may want to re-read what he/she posted. Without knowing the intimate details of ones tank set up, there is no way that a Sechem rep could give you any kind of definitive answer as to how long Prime would stay active in your tank. In most tanks it's probably knocked out by organics within a few hours. I believe that Greg Morin has stated the same thing to me in the past. (see below)

I have contacted Greg Morin from Seachem a few times over the years & I thought that some of you might be interested in the following info. Greg is not only the CEO of Seachem, but also has a Ph.D in this "stuff", so I felt that it would best to let him explain the reasoning behind treating for the entire tank volume, when refilling directly from the tap.

Below is a portion of some of our discussions.

I was wondering if you could explain the reasoning behind the instructions by Seachem for treating the entire tank volume (when using Prime/Safe), if one is treating the new water while refilling the tank. "May be added to aquarium directly, but better if added to new water first. If adding directly to aquarium, base dose on aquarium volume. "
Personally I typically add the conditioner (Prime/Safe) to my tank based only on the water volume being replaced, and then refill my tank.
Is this not adequate?

Greg's response:

"some people prefer to just add the new untreated water directly to the tank... if they do that then we recommend the amount of Prime they add be based on the total gallonage of the aquarium rather than just what they added. The "extra" amount speeds up the rate of removal."

I then asked: Is the reaction time based on pH, or any other factors?

I was curious about pH being a factor as the makers of ClorAm-X state:

"At low pH's this reaction proceeds slower than at pH's above 7, but in practical terms the reaction proceeds quickly enough to provide complete ammonia removal in an hour or less."



Greg's response:

It would be influced by pH although I'm not sure if the differences we see in an aquarium would contribute significantly to the time scale at a level where it would be noticed. But the reaction is one that produces H+ so higher pH would tend to favor the reaction although I'm not sure if kinetically it would have a noticeable effect.


But, at the end of the day, if what you are doing works and does not cause any problems then it is ok. Our recommendations are meant to cover a broad range of users and we tend to prefer to err on the side of being overly cautious.





The following question was asked back in 2004 when I noticed that Prime labels no longer had any mention about detoxifying heavy metals. The reality is Prime will only detoxify trace amounts of heavy metals, as in what is typically allowed by local water municipalities. This would fall in the PPB range, which in most cases (if not all) would be considered non toxic to even the more sensitive marine invertebrates. In other words, in the typical ranges found in most tap water, these substances would have no effect on fresh water fish.


Has the regular Prime formula changed, if not, why is their no longer any mention of Prime being able to detoxify heavy metals?

Prime has not changed, that is just a clerical error in the text
description during one of our website updates. it should be corrected
shortly. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We did remove
from our labeling as it is a fairly minor effect and did not want to
mislead people into thinking it was some kind of heavy metal removing
product... but maybe removal of that has caused more confusion since
competitors still make the claim for an effect that is identical in
their products as well.




Greg Morin
--

Gregory Morin, Ph.D. ~~~~~~~Chairman/CEO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seachem Laboratories, Inc. www.seachem.com 888-SEACHEM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[dayak]

very good info me like it!!
thank you

 

[RD.]

There are a lot of things one has to factor in before they can say with certainty "how much" water conditioner each tank requires, starting by knowing whether you have chlorine, or chloramine treated tap water, and how much of either (in mg/l) you are treating for.

Seachem Prime states 1 capful per 50 gallons, but that's for 4 mg/l chloramine, and/or 5 mg/l chlorine. In my case I can safely use half that amount, as I'm only treating for 2 mg/l chloramine. (the max found in our local water supply)

Some of you may find this past thread to be an interesting read ......
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=309623


HTH

 

[brich999]

good info, but why so much water change? i do like 25% every other week, and always had almost perfect levels.

 

[RD.]

It all depends on the bio load of the tank, one can't really compare one set up to another without knowing all the details of each set up.

For myself, I like to live by the old Army Corps of Engineers dictum of; "The Solution to Pollution is Dilution"

 

[Laticauda]

good info, but why so much water change? i do like 25% every other week, and always had almost perfect levels.

Unless you have a very very low stock-load in your tanks, 25% every two weeks simply isn't enough.

*Most* people have decently stocked tanks, and to prevent nitrAte climb, must do 50% weekly, and about once a month 2-3 50% water changes 2-3 days in a row. (i.e. people who keep goldfish, and other big, messy fish.)

In this case, he keeps rays, which are very sensitive to water quality, and if it comes down to 50% water changes every day to be on the safe side, or being lazy and losing 100's or 1000's of dollars in fish, I think the choice is clear.