Seachem Prime Fresh and Saltwater Conditioner - Chemical Remover and Detoxifier 50 ml...

Did some research after we brought our hermit crabs home from vacation and this brand was heavily recommended so this is what I went with. It will last so long since you only need 2 drops per 1 gal of water. I dont have a gal size water pool for our crabs so I only use one drop for their fresh and one drop for their salt water pool. A tip for easy dropping is to make a toothpick sized hole in the foil after unscrewing the lid instead of tearing in completely off. You get a quick perfect one drop every time without additional waste of product.

Product works great for water treatment. You more than likely are not going to use the whole bottle for a treatment. This is what you need to know. The next use do not open bottle over the tank. The liquid crystalizes on the cap ring. If the crystals drop in your tank and the fish eats it they can become distressed. Just shake it up, open the bottle over the sink, wipe the cap and the add treatment. Safety, safety!

Removes chlorine from tap water and removes nitrites from water. Concentrated, so it lasts a long time

Doing an emergency fish in cycle for my tank and this stuff is amazing. Can get me through the trials of being a new fish owner and keep him safe till healthy bacteria is established in my tank. Performing Emergency fish-in cycle with Seachem Prime Step 1: Set up your aquarium Its time to set up your aquarium. And, that includes all the equipment heaters, filters, air pumps Get it in there! Dont forget to rinse it with fresh water first! The beneficial bacteria need a surface to cling to, namely your substrate and filter media. So by setting everything up, you give your bacteria as many surfaces as possible to cling to. Add water to the tank, and dont forget to dechlorinate it with your water conditioner first. Finally, you want to keep all electrical equipment, such as heaters, filters and bubblers, switched on throughout the entire cycling process. Not only will this keep your fish as comfortable as possible, but it will also make your tank cycle faster. Want to cycle your tank as quickly as possible? Check out FishLabs tips for speeding up the cycling process. Step 2: Adding your fish Before you add your fish, you want to acclimate them first. This will give them the best chance of survival. You want to feed your fish throughout the cycling process You dont want them to starve! When feeding your fish, however, its important that you dont feed them too much. The more you feed them, the more they are going to poop. And the more they poop, the faster your ammonia levels are going to rise. Also, remove any uneaten food from the tank, a good aquarium net will make this easy. Any uneaten food left behind will break down into ammonia, causing the levels to rise. If a fish dies during the cycle, remove it from the aquarium ASAP. Its decaying body will also give off ammonia. Dont panic if one of your fish dies. It doesnt necessarily mean that all your fish will this one might have been extra sensitive. Step 3: Test, test, test, and test again Now, use your ammonia test kit every 24 hours. What you are looking for is any sign of ammonia. Trust me. It wont be long before it appears. Once your test kit returns positive for ammonia, its time to move to the next step. Step 4: Dealing with ammonia Once you detect ammonia, its time to start dosing with Seachem Prime. Follow the instructions on the bottle to determine what a single dose would be for your tank the larger the aquarium, the more Prime you will need. Fortunately, a little goes a long way, and many of you will find that a single bottle of Prime will get you through an entire cycle. For this method, Seachem Prime is the most important ingredient. You see, a dose of Prime will bind ammonia, nitrite and nitrate for 24 to 48 hours, making them harmless to your fish. Picture Seachem Prime locking up ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in a jail cell for up to 48 hours. While in the cell, these nasties cannot harm your fish. However, once their time is up, and they are released, they will once again attack your fish. It is for this reason that you need to dose regularly with Seachem Prime, to keep these nasties locked up. A single dose of Prime will treat up to 1 part per million (ppm) of ammonia. Prime can be dosed up to 5 times safely. So, 2 ppm of ammonia can be treated with two doses of Prime, 3 ppm can be treated with three doses, and so on. Anything less than 1 ppm should be treated with a single dose. Between 1 ppm and 2 ppm, two doses. You get the idea. Oh, and it goes without saying that its better to overdose than underdose. *Once your test kit reads 2 ppm of ammonia, you should perform a 50% water change. This should cut your ammonia levels roughly in half. Repeat this process until you notice that your ammonia levels are not rising as quickly as before. Typically, this will take a week or two. When this happens, you are ready to move to the next step. Bookmark this page so that you can easily find it when you are ready for the next step! Step 5: Nitrites start to appear Next, you need to test for nitrites. If none are present, keep repeating the previous step and testing for nitrites daily until you get a positive result. Now that nitrite has entered the equation, you need to make sure you are dosing with enough Prime to protect your fish from both ammonia and nitrites. Fortunately, working out your new dosage is pretty simple just add your nitrite and ammonia readings together. Lets say your test returns the following Ammonia 0.25 ppm Nitrite 1.5 ppm Adding the two together will give you a total of 1.75 ppm. A double dose of Prime will take care of it. This time, if your combined ppm of ammonia and nitrite reaches 4, perform a 50% water change. Keep repeating this. You will eventually notice that your ammonia drops to zero. This is a good thing bacteria are eating the ammonia as quickly as it is being produced, resulting in a zero reading. Continue daily dosing and testing for ammonia and nitrites. Once your nitrite levels stop rising as quickly, you are r...

I've been using Prime for quite a while now and it seems to be working out for me. When I first started out with my tanks I was using "Jungle" water conditioner and it seemed to do it's job but I wanted something more "top of the line" if you will. I didn't make the switch because I thought the "Jungle" product was inferior but I just wanted the "best" for my fish. I started researching about the best water conditioner and everyone kept raving about "Prime" they would talk about how affordable it was and the benefits that came from using this product. It seemed like the best choice for me so I made the switch I did notice that the stuff is very strong and concentrated so it doesn't take much to treat your water. As far as dosing Prime you just need to follow the instructions on the back of the bottle. I'm usually careful when I dose with Prime because of it's potency so when I prepare my water in a 5 gallon bucket I usually dose 2 drops per gallon. The reason I do it this way is because I don't want to overdose on Prime I rather be safe than sorry. With that said when I first started dosing with Prime I would dose it straight into the bucket of water. Then I would siphon the water into my tank without letting the water age. I started noticing that every time after I did a water change my fish would start gulping for air at the surface. I started reading certain threads and some people stated that in some cases too much Prime can cause oxygen depletion. Seachem has stated that you can overdose Prime about 5x the recommended dosage and it still would be safe for fish. I personally wouldn't take the risk especially if you don't have proper aeration in your tank. I know most people will say that it doesn't matter if you let your water age or if you wait for the water conditioner to take effect (since it works instantly) and they might be right but in my situation it seems to make a difference. I let my water age for about 24 hours and I sometimes even dose the water before letting it age. I also give the water a little stir just to make sure everything is mixed up well I'm not sure if it helps but I do it regardless. I've noticed that after doing all of the above my fish don't gasp for air anymore and they don't seem to be bothered at all by weekly water changes. The only downside to my method would be that the agents that lock down ammonia, nitrites and nitrates to something less toxic wouldn't really be taking effect. These locking agents stop working after 24 hours or 48 hours depending on how much you dose. I'm not too worried about it though because I keep my tanks fairly clean and I methodically keep up with my water changes. Be warned that Prime does not get rid of ammonia, nitrites or nitrates for good it just converts it to something less toxic which then allows your biological filtration to clean it up for a short period of time. Like I stated before Prime only takes effect for a brief moment and once it stops working the toxins that were locked down are released back into your water. That's where regular water changes come into play having clean water and using Prime in conjunction will definitely work to your advantage. I would say that in laymen terms Prime is a good water dechlorinator that happens to come with a few extra's. Would I say it's worth making the switch? I wouldn't really be able to answer that question because there are a lot of great products out in the market that work similar if not the same as Prime. I would however say that from a personal stand point Prime is a great product and it works very well and if used correctly it can be very effective and affordable at the same time.