article on prime /

[corrosionjerry]

A few years ago, I asked Greg Morin at Seachem what does Prime do exactly to Chloramine. Here are my questions (in bold) and his responses (in italics):

1.) what happens to the Chlorine?

it is reduced to chloride, rendered totally harmless

2.) what happens to the Ammonia? Does pH affect the toxifying of the Ammonia?

The ammonia is converted into a non-toxic form (not ammonium). It is

converted into the Schiff base of an aldehyde (R2C=NH) which is

non-toxic.

One person has said, "true they will detoxify ammonia NH3 to ammonium NH4"

Not the case, see above, a simple conversion to ammonium can only

occur quantitatively below pH 7, above pH 7 you would have some

ammonia and some ammonium.

The bacteria do use this non-toxic bound ammonia, but they use only

what they need... they do not "see" an excess of "ammonia" for them.

The bound ammonia converts very slowly back to ammonia but at a rate

that is much slower than the rate at which the bacteria can remove

it, so the net effect is you see no free ammonia rise in the aquarium

and the bacteria continue on just as they normally would.

(I mentioned using a holding tank to 'age' the treated water)

This is a good suggestion, it is always best to neutralize the change

water before adding it to the aquarium, however one can add change

water straight away and then add a dose of Prime based on the total

volume of water and not the change volume. Not ideal but one can

generally "get away" with this if they are not inclined to premix the

change water before adding to the aquarium.

Also, any test for ammonia will show positive when treated with Prime

or a similiar product because all commerical ammonia kits on the

market converts ionized ammonia and bound ammonia to total free

ammonia by raising the pH to 13+ which destroys the Prime-Ammonia

complex, thus giving a false impression of the level of toxic free

ammonia. To measure only toxic free ammonia one can use either our

Ammona Alert or MultiTest:Free & Total Ammonia which uses a sensor

technology that avoids the issue described above.

Hope that helps (probably more info than you wanted to know) - Keep using Prime and you should be okay.

[terrors r us]

so what are they saying???? does it remove amonia with Edmonton hard water or not?????

[corrosionjerry]

It binds the ammonia making it harmless....

Edited November 19, 2008 by corrosionjerry

[Xeroid]

I was using Big Al's dechlorinator and recently switched to Prime on the recomendation of a friend. My wife is still using the last of the BA stuff. I know it doesn't do as much as prime, but is the BA generic dechlorinator descent at what it does?

[gettingthere]

Prime is supreme IMHO

[PilsnerPounder]

Agreed! Prime and salt are the only things I put in my 3 tanks. Its the only chemical I've found that detoxifies and de-chlorinates. I looked hard, I work at a Petsmart

[Mike1962]

So using Prime (I always have) will show ammonia on test strips?

[ckmullin]

Found this on the net:

Suggest also to just ask the makers.

12-23-2010, 06:25 PM

The simple answer is Prime doesn't remove ammonia. It converts it to a stable non toxic form that will show on many ammonia test kits. Particularly liquid tests.

The API ammonia test kit tests for TOTAL ammonia including ammonium. Prime converts ammonia into ammonium (NH3 > NH+4), which is much less toxic to your fish, but still feeds the biofilter. So the API test kit is giving you a false positive for ammonia. Prime is good stuff because it protects your fish while feeding the biofilter.

[sgw1]

How long does prime keep the ammonia bound up for.