water conditioner not working!!!!!!!!!

[dew]

I added seachem to 1 gallon of water I measured. I then tested for amonia three times 15 min. later and it was almost the same!! Please help!!!!!

[dew]

could someone please help !!!

[Oldfishlady]

Are you referring to Prime dechloranator? What kind of testing products are you using? liquid reagent or strips?
Have you tested your source water for ammonia
What are your water pram numbers for-ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH
What are you testing for-are you having problems with a tank/fish or cycling?
Depending on your testing products sometime the ammonia binders change the ammonia to ammonium a safer form but the testing product can't tell the difference.

[dew]

The tap water is 1 ppm. I use seachem prime and api liquid test kits. The lady at petsmart said that it can take 2 hour s for the water conditioner to remove ammonia. Is this trure? And I measure this in an uncycled 3 gallon with no fish yet. I thought prime works instantly.

[Oldfishlady]

Prime works on contact and your water should be safe to use after you add the prime-what you are seeing is ammonium and safe for fish but the nitrifying bacteria can still use it to cycle, usually after 24h you can get a true ammonia test of your water when using prime. Good thing you picked Prime for your dechlorinater since you have ammonia in your source water.
Also, you may want to do double dose with the Prime since you have 1ppm ammonia level in the tap water to start.
You can also go to their web-site for more information

[dew]

Thank you so much! I was so counfused!