That's a hard question, because my tank is fairly new. I have a TON of live plants in there that have a lot of new growth and so I have been surprised to be seeing ammonia readings the last week. I've been doing water changes but thought I would try the Prime on top of it. The tank has only been set up since 12/22. I added fish right away and the tank was seeded by taking the filter floss out of my mom's filter and placing it in mine. The only thing I can think of is I have quite a few dropped anacharis leaves that I haven't been able to siphon out because I don't want to disturb the plants. It is possible that the "silent cycle" I'd hoped for isn't happening and I'm going through a normal cycle now, though.
Adding fish means a fish IN cycle, a silent cycle from my understanding is strictly using plants. It's possible the filter media wasn't seeded enough & you have a mini cycle going on, it really shouldn't last too long though, IMO.
Good to know, I hope it's over soon! All my fish seem fine, even my otos which I've heard are very sensitive. I have heard good things about Prime though and it was on sale at Petsmart which is a definite plus!
CarbonKidd, with all the plants you have, I wouldn't worry about your ammonia too much. It sometimes takes time for a tank to "establish" even with plants growing. I'm also interested in what your other readings are.
As for Prime:
Prime detoxifies ammonia by turning it into harmless ammonium. The API test kit reads ammonium as if it were ammonia. (Seachem's test reads each separately.)
Prime dechlorinates by converting chloramine into chlorine and ammonia. It then detoxes the chlorine and turns the ammonia into ammonium. You can see how the ammonia/ammonium might read higher after adding Prime.
CarbonKidd, with all the plants you have, I wouldn't worry about your ammonia too much. It sometimes takes time for a tank to "establish" even with plants growing. I'm also interested in what your other readings are.
As for Prime:
Prime detoxifies ammonia by turning it into harmless ammonium. The API test kit reads ammonium as if it were ammonia. (Seachem's test reads each separately.)
Prime dechlorinates by converting chloramine into chlorine and ammonia. It then detoxes the chlorine and turns the ammonia into ammonium. You can see how the ammonia/ammonium might read higher after adding Prime.
Nitrite and nitrate are both 0 - when I planted my tank nitrates were at about 20 because I also added about 10 gallons of water from my mom's tank and her nitrates are sky high. I'm assuming the plants took care of those. pH is 8.0
CarbonKidd, with all the plants you have, I wouldn't worry about your ammonia too much. It sometimes takes time for a tank to "establish" even with plants growing. I'm also interested in what your other readings are.
As for Prime:
Prime detoxifies ammonia by turning it into harmless ammonium. The API test kit reads ammonium as if it were ammonia. (Seachem's test reads each separately.)
Prime dechlorinates by converting chloramine into chlorine and ammonia. It then detoxes the chlorine and turns the ammonia into ammonium. You can see how the ammonia/ammonium might read higher after adding Prime.
I understand everything you said except how the ammonia reading would increase. If it detoxifies by changing it the non hazardous form, how does that increase the level of ammonia? If I have .5 bad ammonia which is converted to ammonium, shouldn't it still be .5?
+1 hallyx. prime, after it bonds to ammonia to make it ammonium will give a false positive. the water is safe. it just shows up as ammonia. prime will dissipate in your tank in 24 hours. test then. you can get on seachem primes website and look under customer support. it will explain false positives and your testing kit. i believe they use a ammo test with a gas exchange sensor, which is not effected by prime.
Last edited by sandybottom; 01-11-2013 at 07:42 AM.
has anyone here on this site used amquel or any other water conditioner , and had these results? the website says it can happen with almost any water conditioner.
I understand everything you said except how the ammonia reading would increase. If it detoxifies by changing it the non hazardous form, how does that increase the level of ammonia? If I have .5 bad ammonia which is converted to ammonium, shouldn't it still be .5?
from what i understand, the ammo appears to increase because it is reacting with the reagent in your testing kit.
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