# Seachem Prime: My snails are not a fan.



## 2boys2fish (Jun 13, 2014)

I got some of this stuff because i hear nothing but raves about it. I had been using the tetra betta care conditioner.


Now, don't beat me up, but my tank is not fully cycled yet. *This was the reason why I got Seachem Prime*. I had solidly consistent 0 ammonia and nitrite spikes. My snails did ok with nitrite spikes. 

I figured that seachem prime would help my cycle along. I could maybe neutralize the nitrite spikes without having to change the water so often, and *hopefully* some nice nitrite>to>nitrate bacteria would find it a nice comfy home and settle in, you know?

What I did not expect was that every time I get a good rhythm of changes using prime going, I get HUGE ammonia spikes. It's never right away, always a few days later. 

Now, I read up on this. I read about how Prime can cause false ammonia readings with the API water test kit. But, if that was the case, why do the nitrite readings keep going back to 0?

Also, snails don't lie. False positive or not, they are *not* happy. They had been cruising along just fine with the nitrite spikes, but with the "false positive" ammonia readings from continued prime, they head to the top and are listless and unhappy every single time. It's not a false reading to them. 

I've gone through this thing twice, where I have elevated nitrite readings, 0 ammonia. Start using prime. suddenly sky-high ammonia readings and 0 nitrites. Then I stop using it, and start getting nitrite readings again. I feel like it has reset my cycling process twice.


What the heck is going on?


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

Prime is not going to help your tank cycle. It's not intended to. It will convert stuff like ammonia to stuff that isn't going to be toxic, but whether that will effect cycling I don't know. It would only help things if you were doing a fish in cycle and it would only help that fish survive. If that's not the case it's likely not going to help at all.


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## 2boys2fish (Jun 13, 2014)

I already know how Prime works already. I also know how the whole cycle works.

Prime helps by neutralizing the ammonia and nitrites for a short period of time. Then you can let the spikes happen without them hurting the fish. Allowing those spikes will allow the nitrates to come, allowing the ammonia and nitrites to reach 0, thus completing the cycle. Allowing the spikes to happen sometimes leads to completing of the cycle a bit earlier.

When you have to constantly change the water because the spikes are getting too high for fish, then it takes a bit longer for the cycle to complete.

This is why i purchased prime. I hoped to be able to allow the cycling to continue by using prime to neutralize the ammonia and nitrite effect on my fish, (also I already know that it wears off after 24 hours.) . But the problem is the snails can feel the ammonia spikes even with the Prime. I don't know what they feel, but the ammonia spikes are not neutralized for him.

Furthermore, the nitrites that I have always disappear when I start using Prime for some reason. Then the ammonia climbs even higher. Leading me to believe that the bacteria I had before starting Prime that turns ammonia to nitrites is somehow wiped out.


I don't know if I have a bad bottle of Prime or what. I ordered it from amazon.com.


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## jennandjuicetm (May 4, 2014)

Are the snails your olny source of ammonia? Prime doesn't necessarily neutralize the ammonia, it converts it to a less harmful version, ammonium. However, in great quantities the ammonium can be dangerous, too. I am not really sure what it does to nitrites exactly. Have you tried emailing Seachem?


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## 2boys2fish (Jun 13, 2014)

I haven't tried emailing them. I might end up doing that. If ammonium is felt by snails in a smaller quantity than fish feel it, then that would explain a lot. I have snails and one male betta in there, and a couple ghost shrimp.

I still don't know why the nitrite readings I have would go down to 0 after starting prime, though.

I know this may be frowned upon, but I went ahead yesterday and purchased some seachem stability. I figured it couldn't hurt. We'll just see what happens.

For what it's worth, I have two 10 gallon tanks. the other one has an angry betta fish that went buck wild on his nerite snails recently. So i removed everything but him from that tank. Since there were no snails in his tank, I continued to use prime in there. I noticed that at first the ammonia went high and the nitrites went to 0, but after continueing to use just prime for a couple of days, the nitrites seemed to come back, and yesterday, I noticed a reduction in ammonia, which happened on it's own, I ***finally*** saw some nitrates for the first time. So Prime definitely seems to be working for him.

I guess if I continued to use prime in the tank with the snails, the nitrites would probably go away and then come back the same way, but usually before that happens, all the snails head straight to the top and are extremely unappy. I hope that seachem stability can maaaybe help get us over the hump.

if not, I will continue to do extreme frequent water changes in the snail tank, and then once the other 10 gallon tank that's showing nitrates has completed it's cycle, I can just take one of it's sponges from it's filter and replace it with the one of the sponges in the snail-tank's filter.


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## jennandjuicetm (May 4, 2014)

Stability didnt work well for me. Safe Start did, though. As did an activated sponge from Angelsplus.com. 

I also have no idea about the nitrites.


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## 2boys2fish (Jun 13, 2014)

Ok, thanks. I'll try that next if the seachem stability doesn't work.


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## 2boys2fish (Jun 13, 2014)

I also have half a mind to, after the angry betta's tank has completed it's cycle, moving *him* to a bowl temporarily, putting all the snails in his tank, and then leaving the snail-tank with just the one betta, and prime-ing that one up until it cycles. then, after the snail's tank have finished cycling, shift all the snails back to that one, put the angry betta from the bowl back to his 10 gallon.

I'll figure it out somehow. Hopefully it won't come to that.


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## jennandjuicetm (May 4, 2014)

What if you just divide off a piece of angry's tank?


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## 2boys2fish (Jun 13, 2014)

That could work. I'll see what I can work out.


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