While the BB in a bottle isn't cheap, it could save further disaster. And as previously mentioned, if you can beg-borrow-steal some well established filter media from a safe and trusted source, that could turns things around almost instantly.
With regards to Prime or Safe and ammonia ........
And this is coming from a long time user & supporter of Seachem, some of their reps talk out of both sides of their mouth depending on the companies current directive, and sometimes what they say is complete and utter nonsense. Such as their most recent explanation on how much Prime or Safe is required to neutralize a fixed quantity of chlorine/chloramine. Please do not believe everything posted by a Seachem rep, some are obviously confused, others are simply talking company speak. No pun intended, but a couple of prime examples of what I am referring to.
http://www.seachem.com/support/forums/showthread.php?t=7389
http://www.seachem.com/support/forums/showthread.php?t=7426
Which resulted in me having a private discussion with the CEO/President and head chemist at Seachem, Dr. Greg Morin. Which honestly I'm not even sure that I should share on a public forum. Suffice to say their lack of confidence in consumer smarts is what caused the recent change in recommended dose rates for both Prime & Safe. Better to slightly burn a fish from ammonia, than have some half-wit overdose & suffocate his fish when using a reducing agent in a closed system, containing a fixed amount of O2. From a liability and consumer confidence point of view I understand their reasoning, I just totally 100% disagree with it. I don't applaud idots, or laziness. The only thing that I applaud about the whole situation, is Greg's honesty - although he apparently mistook me for someone else, or he might not have been quite so frank in his response. lol
The following was posted by a Seachem rep many years ago, which may possibly only hold true for the 24 hr timeframe as previously posted, I honestly have no idea. Of course none of this really matters, if there is no bio bacteria present to utilize the ammonia, it's not going anywhere and could possibly return to NH3. (free ammonia) Personally I would only trust my own testing, within my own system. What I can state with 100% certainty is that the Seachem Ammonia Alert sensor work exactly as the manufacturer states. It's the exact same technology as found in the Seachem Multitest for Ammonia.
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/MT_Ammonia.html
From Seachem ........
If the pH drops ammonia will not be
released back into the water, and even if it did, it would be
ionized ammonia (NH4+) which is totally non-toxic; only free
ammonia NH3 is toxic. The only time ammonia removal products will
release ammonia is if the pH goes up, WAY UP, like around 12 to 14!
That only occurs when testing with Nessler or salicylate based
ammonia kits... they raise the pH to convert all ammonia to free
ammonia and test for free ammonia at pH 14. So actually if you are
using ammonia removal products and test for ammonia with these type
of tests you will get false readings for ammonia. You can get a
somewhat accurate result with a salycilate based kit if you take
your reading right away rather than waiting the full prescribed
time, but the trick is knowing when exactly to take that reading.
Our Ammonia Alert and MultiTest: Free & Total Ammonia both use a
gas exchange based sensor technology that is not affected by the
presence of ammonia removal products. Both give an accurate reading
for free ammonia without any interference.
Depending on how much chloramines you have you can use either Prime
or Safe. Prime is a liquid product for removing, chlorine,
chloramine and ammonia. It actually removes chlorine by converting
it to harmless chloride; the chloramine is removed by breaking the
chlorine-ammonia bond, the chlorine is then reduced to chloride and
the ammonia is then bound until it is utilized within the biological
filtration. Unless you raise your pH to 12 it will not release the
ammonia back. Safe is a dry version of Prime and is thus more
concentrated. Economically it is the best way to go, however many
prefer using a liquid product for ease of use.
All of the ammonia removal products on the market work chemically essentially the same way,
they reduce chlorine to choride and bind up ammonia. But, the chemical species used are all slightly different.
