# Seachem Prime



## FishKeeper55 (7 Jun 2020)

I started to run out of aqua safe to treat tap water and bough the Seachem Prime, I know is highly concentrated so less is required which should last lot longer, question is how much do you dose? it says 5ml treats 200L, due to small tank size at most 50% water change = 15L, this will be very hard to measure anything under 1mL

Couple questions:
1) if you overdose are there any side effects?
2) I'm sure I have read somewhere where this remain in water column for up to 48h which could give wrong reading on some test kits?


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## mort (7 Jun 2020)

I use seachem prime and just bought a 1ml syringe https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BD-Steri...=39095421929223fb551b9a5740cc8d3c507c63b46a9a

Makes everything so much simpler.


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## Dr Mike Oxgreen (7 Jun 2020)

For my 25-litre tank, I just do a full tank dose of Prime with every 50% water change. So I add 1 ml using a syringe.

I‘ve never had any false positives for NH₃ NO₂ etc.


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## milla (8 Jun 2020)

FishKeeper55 said:


> it says 5ml treats 200L, due to small tank size at most 50% water change = 15L, this will be very hard to measure anything under 1mL



You should dose for the full aquarium volume rather than what you add.   Same goes for all medicatiions


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## jaypeecee (8 Jun 2020)

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:


> I‘ve never had any false positives for NH₃ NO₂ etc.



Hi @Dr Mike Oxgreen 

That's useful to know. I don't use tap water very often but I know a lot of people that do. So, my question is - which test kits are you using to measure NH₃ and NO₂?

TIA.

JPC


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## FishKeeper55 (8 Jun 2020)

milla said:


> You should dose for the full aquarium volume rather than what you add. Same goes for all medicatiions


Why would you want to dose full volume if you doing water change by bucket? Doing 15l water change fill bucket up and dose for 15l, I can understand your reply if you working on large tank where you fill with hose and then add prime to tank, unless I'm missing something? 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


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## milla (8 Jun 2020)

You dilute it as soon as you add it to your tank.


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## alto (8 Jun 2020)

milla said:


> You dilute it as soon as you add it to your tank.


But why would this matter?
The new water has already been treated for chlorine etc

The only reason to increase Prime etc dose is if your water company may be dosing higher levels of chlorine or chloramine or both
(Prime states on the bottle how much each dose neutralizes)


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## BarryH (8 Jun 2020)

milla said:


> You dilute it as soon as you add it to your tank.



But the water in the tank already has the correct amount of Seachem Prime in it  so surely that's not diluting but simply adding to what's already there?


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## Wookii (8 Jun 2020)

If you add the water to the tank directly, for example via a Python, you dose the tank volume. If you add the water via a container, you dose the container volume before adding to the tank.

A small overdose of Prime is probably not an issue, a large overdose can also bind oxygen along with the chlorine etc, so is best avoided.


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## Wookii (8 Jun 2020)

FishKeeper55 said:


> I started to run out of aqua safe to treat tap water and bough the Seachem Prime, I know is highly concentrated so less is required which should last lot longer, question is how much do you dose? it says 5ml treats 200L, due to small tank size at most 50% water change = 15L, this will be very hard to measure anything under 1mL
> 
> Couple questions:
> 1) if you overdose are there any side effects?
> 2) I'm sure I have read somewhere where this remain in water column for up to 48h which could give wrong reading on some test kits?



If you don’t have access to a 1ml syringe (though they are cheaply available on Amazon), 20 drops is equal to 1ml, so for your 15 litres you need approximately 8 drops (0.37ml)


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## FishKeeper55 (9 Jun 2020)

@Wookii  Thanks for your clear explanation, I was getting confused when @milla  said to dose full volume as I was under impression if change by container/bucket you only  dose that, this is very concentrated product compare to others, I have been using 1ml pipette that I dose half of it so should be around 0.5ml, which is not to bad, have 1ml siring in post now is well.


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## mort (9 Jun 2020)

FishKeeper55 said:


> Why would you want to dose full volume if you doing water change by bucket? Doing 15l water change fill bucket up and dose for 15l, I can understand your reply if you working on large tank where you fill with hose and then add prime to tank, unless I'm missing something?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk



I use a 15 liter bucket, squirt the 0.4ml of prime in first and then add the water. By the time it's full, with the oxygenation of the tap, it's ready to go in the tank.


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## Dr Mike Oxgreen (10 Jun 2020)

jaypeecee said:


> Hi @Dr Mike OxgreenThat's useful to know. I don't use tap water very often but I know a lot of people that do. So, my question is - which test kits are you using to measure NH₃ and NO₂?


I use the API 5-in-1 test strips for NO₂ and NO₃ and separately the API Ammonia test strips.

I personally don’t get along with liquid tests that require you to compare colours with a chart, because in my experience you get completely different shades of colour depending on whether you hold the test vial in contact with the white part of the card versus holding it slightly away. I’ve never seen a definitive view on which technique is right. Strips, on the other hand, don’t rely on light travelling through a coloured liquid so they don’t have this issue.

For GH and KH I use the API 5-in-1 strips as a general indication, but I far prefer to use the JBL titration kits. The instant colour change when you reach the correct number of drops eliminates any question of subjective colour comparison.


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## dw1305 (10 Jun 2020)

Hi all, 





Dr Mike Oxgreen said:


> but I far prefer to use the JBL titration kits. The instant colour change when you reach the correct number of drops eliminates any question of subjective colour comparison.


I think that titrimetric tests <"are more likely to be accurate"> as well.

cheers Darrel


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