seachem prime and nitrite testing

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Charney

Charney

The Fish Doctor
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Nov 15, 2005
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I think I read somewhere on here that seachem prime can interfere with nitrite and ammonia testing. Is this true and how long should this last? I have one tank that I was having issues with. A 46g not heavily stocked filtered by two eheim 2213 setup in February. The tank was fully cycled yet occasionally I would get an ammonia reading. Four days ago I accidentally doubled my dose of prime into the tank. The tank is doing great and the fish look great. Today I decided to check parameters and I have somewhat high Nitrites. Don't know if this is real. There is no reason for it to be high. thanks
 
Charney said:
I think I read somewhere on here that seachem prime can interfere with nitrite and ammonia testing. Is this true and how long should this last? I have one tank that I was having issues with. A 46g not heavily stocked filtered by two eheim 2213 setup in February. The tank was fully cycled yet occasionally I would get an ammonia reading. Four days ago I accidentally doubled my dose of prime into the tank. The tank is doing great and the fish look great. Today I decided to check parameters and I have somewhat high Nitrites. Don't know if this is real. There is no reason for it to be high. thanks
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Prime doesn't alter ammonia, nitrite or nitrate reading at all. It can detoxify these rendering them less harmful to your fish but it will not make either of those reading show a lower ppm either. There's something causing your nitrite spike, maybe a dead inhabitant or a disruption in your nitro cycle. It's also not very easy to overdose with prime at all. What is the size of your tank and stocking levels and water change schedule so we can try to help figure out what's happening with your nitrites?


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JwHiser13 said:
Prime doesn't alter ammonia, nitrite or nitrate reading at all. It can detoxify these rendering them less harmful to your fish but it will not make either of those reading show a lower ppm either. There's something causing your nitrite spike, maybe a dead inhabitant or a disruption in your nitro cycle. It's also not very easy to overdose with prime at all. What is the size of your tank and stocking levels and water change schedule so we can try to help figure out what's happening with your nitrites?


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Click to expand...

I thought that if you had chloramine in your source water you would get a reading for ammonia after using water conditioners. The conditioner splitting the chloramine into chlorine and ammonia? Theoretically, couldn't a high chloramine content result in a higher than usual ammonia level which results in a higher nitrite reading than expected? Just an idea. Not sure if op even has to deal with chloramine at source

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Ian21777 said:
I thought that if you had chloramine in your source water you would get a reading for ammonia after using water conditioners. The conditioner splitting the chloramine into chlorine and ammonia? Theoretically, couldn't a high chloramine content result in a higher than usual ammonia level which results in a higher nitrite reading than expected? Just an idea. Not sure if op even has to deal with chloramine at source

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Well it depends on wether you municipal water uses chlorine or chloramines to treat the water in your tap. Chloramine is a combination of ammonia and chlorine chemically (greatly simplified). Prime rids both of these substances to render tap water safe for use in aquariums by removing the chlorine portion and "binding" the ammonia portion with chloramines. You would be able to get a reading of ammonia from your tap if your local water company uses chloramines and not chlorine. Either way prime and safe both made by seachem take care of these so once added to the tap water being used the water would no longer have chlorine, or chloramine ammonia readings. Any conditioner now adays (that I've used) remove both of these.


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Thanks for the input. Its a very well kept tank and there are no rotting fish or excessive rotting plants in the tank. I accidently did a double dose of prime, which wouldn't be considered an overdose. I am really not sure why there is so much trouble with this one tank. The water out of the tap does test positive for low amounts of ammonia and nitrite.
Also prime can definitely give a false ammonia reading - its not because there is ammonia but interactions with the test kit
http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Prime.html
 
Did you recently clean a filter, Charney? or any sort of changed in the tank for that matter, i.e. substrate?
 
no change in substrate. cleaned one of the canisters about three weeks ago using tank water. I considered that but never seen that much of a change in water quality after cleaning a filter before.
 
Charney said:
Thanks for the input. Its a very well kept tank and there are no rotting fish or excessive rotting plants in the tank. I accidently did a double dose of prime, which wouldn't be considered an overdose. I am really not sure why there is so much trouble with this one tank. The water out of the tap does test positive for low amounts of ammonia and nitrite.
Also prime can definitely give a false ammonia reading - its not because there is ammonia but interactions with the test kit
http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Prime.html
Click to expand...

Yeah but that would be a false positive as you said. But it your tap has ammonia and nitrite in it then that would be where your reading is coming from. Prime is a reducing agent and won't eliminate nitrite from your tank only detoxify it with a dose of up to 5x I believe it says on the bottle being able to detox a given amount. Could be your filters having trouble keeping up with your tanks bio load coupled with your tap waters nitrite. One possible ave anyway sense it would take a massive overdose of prime to cause any problems if any in your aquarium.


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