Dosing Prime

[Airborne 82nd]

When you are doing a partial water change you only use enough prime for the amount of water you add back in correct?

[Misterpotato]

not sure if your meant to reply to my post but accidentally posted a new thread AHAHHA. But cause its a new tank and I saw an ammonia spike maybe I added some new fish inside so I dosed according to the whole tank which is 13 gallon.

 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

You can do that. Personally, I dose for the whole volume of the tank when I do a water change regardless of the amount of water I’m changing. 
 

My thought is that cities can flush lines and perform other changes without notice, so by dosing for the whole tank I give myself a bit of a buffer against those unknowns. Prime and Complete are safe up to 5x, and I’ve never had an issue dosing for the whole tank volume. 

Edited April 13 by AllFishNoBrakes

[Whitecloud09]

On 4/12/2024 at 11:25 PM, Airborne 82nd said:

When you are doing a partial water change you only use enough prime for the amount of water you add back in correct?

I dose it for the whole amount of the tank, which is 10 gallons, but you can do that too if you want. Like @AllFishNoBrakes said, you can dose it up to 5x. And most water conditioners can not be overdosed easily as well @Airborne 82nd.

[Lennie]

If you treat the new tap water in a separate container with prime and add the water to the main tank afterwards, yes. If you do a 5g water change and use a 5g bucket for a water change and use water conditioner there before adding to the tank, dose the 5g in the bucket, not for the  tank volume.

Otherwise, if you add the prime and new water directly to the tank, you directly dose the amount for the whole tank volume, not just for the changed water part. 

Quote

Use 1 capful (5 mL) for each 200 L (50 US gallons) of new water. For smaller volumes, please note each cap thread is approximately 1 mL. May be added to aquarium directly, but better if added to new water first. If adding directly to aquarium, base dose on aquarium volume. Sulfur odor is normal. For exceptionally high chloramine concentrations, a double dose may be used safely. To detoxify nitrite in an emergency, up to 5 times normal dose may be used. If temperature is > 30 °C (86 °F) and chlorine or ammonia levels are low, use a half dose.

https://www.seachem.com/prime.php

[goldie_girl]

Just to second what others have already said: I generally dose for the full volume of the tank because I fill directly from my sink using a python. If I was just treating a bucket to add to a tank, then I'd dose for the volume of the bucket. 

[Airborne 82nd]

Thanks everyone for your answers. To be on the safe side I will dose for the whole tank. However this is what I can not get right in my mind. Think about the 5 gallon bucket method I add 1 bucket treated water to the (75) gal. aquarium. Fish think everything is ok. Now next week same thing BUT I forget to treat the water bucket most people are saying if you add water directly either python or bucket (tank does not know what you are using) treat the whole tank but I still only added 5 gallons what is the difference? What am I not understanding? Not trying to argue I just don't get it. By the way I use a bucket treated for 2 gallons of evaporation  and a python for 50% water changes and treat the tank then add water. When I did my first water change I used a 1 gallon milk jug and took out 35 gallons then marked my tank so now I just drain down to the mark so I know I am adding 35 gallons back.

Airborne

[TOtrees]

On 4/16/2024 at 10:36 AM, Airborne 82nd said:

What am I not understanding? Not trying to argue I just don't get it.

you're not alone there 😛

[Whitecloud09]

On 4/16/2024 at 10:36 AM, Airborne 82nd said:

Thanks everyone for your answers. To be on the safe side I will dose for the whole tank. However this is what I can not get right in my mind. Think about the 5 gallon bucket method I add 1 bucket treated water to the (75) gal. aquarium. Fish think everything is ok. Now next week same thing BUT I forget to treat the water bucket most people are saying if you add water directly either python or bucket (tank does not know what you are using) treat the whole tank but I still only added 5 gallons what is the difference? What am I not understanding? Not trying to argue I just don't get it. By the way I use a bucket treated for 2 gallons of evaporation  and a python for 50% water changes and treat the tank then add water. When I did my first water change I used a 1 gallon milk jug and took out 35 gallons then marked my tank so now I just drain down to the mark so I know I am adding 35 gallons back.

Airborne

Yeah kinda is confusing for sure, i just use a 5g bucket, dechloranite my water in it, then add it back into jugs by using a a funnel. I am a little bit confused on your Q tho to @Airborne 82nd. I apoligize if i caused some confusion. Like @TOtrees said, i am confused as well lol.

[Airborne 82nd]

On 4/16/2024 at 11:02 AM, Whitecloud09 said:

Yeah kinda is confusing for sure, i just use a 5g bucket, dechloranite my water in it, then add it back into jugs by using a a funnel. I am a little bit confused on your Q tho to @Airborne 82nd. I apoligize if i caused some confusion. Like @TOtrees said, i am confused as well lol.

What about my Q can I explain? I need one of the scientific folks to chime in. I'm just a dumb old country boy. All my life it has been on/off, 1 or 0😉

[jwcarlson]

I dose for the whole volume *unless* I'm topping off the sump on my 125, for instance.  I just do a pump in the bucket and go.  

A couple reasons I do this. 

First, I have zero idea how much chlorine might be coming into my house through the city water system.  Have they flushed pipes?  Have they switched from chlorine to chloramine?  I want to be sure that I've got enough in the tank to account for fluctuations.  I know a discus keeper who lost a ton of fish this winter when his water suddenly had huge amounts of... something... chlorine, maybe as his pH was 14 (and maxed out on his kit).  Now, dosing for the whole tank isn't going to fix that problem, but the point being that swings can and do happen.

Second, the majority of my water changes are large.  And in a lot of cases, they involve full glass/bottom wipe downs.  And often, pretty invasive filter cleanings.  So it's fully possible that I disrupt the bacteria colony... a little bit... and I'd like there to be some buffer in the ability of Prime to lock those things up (like ammonia, for instance).  

In short... it's about "insurance" for me.

The real answer is that it probably doesn't matter... or at least doesn't matter that much.  The cost probably makes almost no difference at all unless you're using Prime in some sort of commercial or very large fish room application.  If you're like most of us doing water changes in 1 to 15 tanks it isn't too big of a deal.  I do quite a few water changes and I but Prime a gallon at a time and it feels like it last forever.

Edit to add: I'm no expert, but this might not be a bad thing to ask Seachem.  

Edited April 16 by jwcarlson

[jwcarlson]

From Seachem's website (and the Prime bottle, I think):

Quote

Use 1 capful (5 mL) for each 200 L (50 US gallons) of new water. For smaller volumes, please note each cap thread is approximately 1 mL. May be added to aquarium directly, but better if added to new water first. If adding directly to aquarium, base dose on aquarium volume. Sulfur odor is normal. For exceptionally high chloramine concentrations, a double dose may be used safely. To detoxify nitrite in an emergency, up to 5 times normal dose may be used. If temperature is > 30 °C (86 °F) and chlorine or ammonia levels are low, use a half dose.

Maybe I am misunderstanding, though.  I'm not sure you'll necessarily get a deep scientific explaination here, but hopefully someone can enlighten us all.

 

Geeze, I see @Lennie already posted this! haha

Edited April 16 by jwcarlson

[TOtrees]

I think the question here (posed by the OP) isn't "what' the instruction?", it's "why is the instruction different depending on how new water is added?"

Say I'm adding 5 gallons of new water to a 20 gallon tank. 0.5mL of prime is enough to treat that 5 gals in a bucket, but if that new water goes from tap to tank, I need 2mL of prime? Why is that? I'm already sensing the answer isn't available here (at least no one who has seen/read this thread seems to have it), but still, why? 

Can I follow directions without understanding why? Yes. Am I curious nonetheless? Absolutely. 

[Katherine]

My understanding is that if you put the prime in the bucket, then put that water to the tank, the prime will bind with the chlorine in the bucket water before anything in the tank has to opportunity to bind with it. If you put the water straight from the tap to the tank then if you only use enough prime for the replacement water then it may bind with things already in the tank (ammonia, nitrite, etc) and not have enough prime left to bind with all of the chlorine.

[Airborne 82nd]

First, I have zero idea how much chlorine might be coming into my house through the city water system.  Have they flushed pipes?  Have they switched from chlorine to chloramine?  I want to be sure that I've got enough in the tank to account for fluctuations.

This make some sense

My understanding is that if you put the prime in the bucket, then put that water to the tank, the prime will bind with the chlorine in the bucket water before anything in the tank has to opportunity to bind with it.

So does this

 I don't know what all prime binds with. I would contact Seachem but think I would just get a lot of sales hype. Sort of like how much there filters flow rate is.

[Tony s]

On 4/17/2024 at 6:48 PM, Airborne 82nd said:

I don't know what all prime binds with. I would contact Seachem

I think you go to their website and check under their recommendations. they usually have a large faq section under each product

[Galabar]

I'm not an expert, but it may be the case that there needs to be a certain concentration of a dechlorinator in order for it to work properly.

Edited April 18 by Galabar