Prime
From The Aquarium Wiki
Prime is a commercial water conditioner made by Seachem.
This is a high quality liquid product that is highly respected by aquarist hobbyists throughout the World.
By adding it to your aquarium water you can instantly remove chlorine, chloramine and renders the released ammonia nontoxic for 24 hours. It also detoxifies nitrite and nitrate so that they too have no ill effect on the aquatic animals in your tank.
It also detoxifies any heavy metals that may be present in your tap water.
Available in different sizes bottles, 5ml of this liquid per 200 Litres (52.8 US G.) can remove 0.8 mg/L ammonia, 1.2 mg/L chloramine, or 3.3 mg/L chlorine. Or putting it another way, 1ml can detoxify a 40 Litres (10.6 US G.) tank of the above levels.
- Seachem claims it is the second highest concentrated water conditioner on the market after their other product Aquavitro Alpha.[1]
- Seachem also sells Prime in its dry powder form as Safe
- Seachem claim it doesn't significantly reduce oxygen in the water unless, seriously overdosed or there is no nitrogen compounds to remove.[2]
- Seachem claim that by using five times the normal dosage it will remove Nitrate.[3]
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Use
Aquarists can use this daily in conjunction with a bacteria starter product like Stability, BIO-Spira or Safestart to instantly make up a new aquarium safely within 24 hours and cause no harm to the animals with a typical cycling time of 5 days or less.
Special notes
Prime like all other water conditioners will cause most test kits to read a false high nitrogen level. For example if testing for ammonia, Salicylate or Nessler based kits determine the total ammonia by raising the pH of the test solution to 12 or greater. At this high pH all ammonia removal products will breakdown and re-release the ammonia, thus giving you a false ammonia reading. Same goes for nitrite or nitrate.
- Seachem's Multitest Ammonia kit use a different method and therefore that kit reading is not affected by any water conditioner chemical. But their Nitrate/Nitrite multitest kit will be. [4]
- Tip: Leave a sample of the water out in a cup for 24 hours and test it then. Any Prime in the sample will have gone by then.
Availability
This product is usually found in the better range of aquarium and pet shops in USA and Europe. It is widely available online.
References
- ↑ "Prime® is the second most concentrated dechlorinator on the market"
- ↑ Over-dosing Prime reduces oxygen? - Official reply by Gmerice Lafayette-Research Manager of Seachem
- ↑ Prime Dosage for Nitrate Removal
- ↑ Seachem Support - Prime and Nitrite levels
