Prime???

Well I just switched to prime since going to a large tank. I had the tank whole tank treated and did a water change of about 1/3 and only added three caps of prime when I refilled my tank. I also drained the wet/drys. I read the directions wrong. I guess when you add the prime to your tank you have to treat the entire tank. My tank is 210 gallons with two wet/drys. I'm not sure what the total amount of water in the filters is but I would guess around 50 gallons. Do I need to add some more prime or treat the entire tank again? There are no fish in the tank yet. I'm waiting on it to heat up.

With no fish in the tank it really is not an issue.

i add the amount of prime to the gallons changed not to the tank volume. just got seachem safe. the bottle treats about 50000 gallons so i wont be buying anymore for at least a month lol

I only use enough Prime to treat the water I've added as well.

So I'm safe then? I want to add fish tomorrow. It's taking a long time to heat up. It's been going since last night and it's only up to 75. The heater in the link below is the one I'm using.

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I use the 300watt model which is good enough for tanks up to 264 gallons.

Heaters should be sized not only by the number of gallons, but the degree differential between the ambient air in the room and the desired tank temp. It's far easier to heat a 74 degree room to 78 degree water temps than a 64 degree room.

Perfectly safe too because of the time frame.

The Jager heaters are hot, should work for your tank. I had 300w in a 120g and I had to turn that thing way down. Turned out to be bigger (length) than you expected, have to put it the tank instead of the sump?

I guess my heaters must work to hard then, my house stays around 58 degrees. As for the Prime, I dont even use any on 30% or less water changes. I would go broke, not to mention 30% of water volume is nothing.

Now I am tired of hearing about this tank, so lets get some darn fish in the damn thing. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

madness, your house is 58 degrees???? that flippin freezing.... you gotta wear 3 or 4 layers at your house:????

A breeder I know doesnt even use prime or any other water treatment..... he just lets his water sit out in a big garbage can for awhile... I guess chlorine evaporates, so thats good enough.... its seems to be fine for him, and he breeds gorgeous tropheus... (which are not an easy fish to keep at all)... so you should be fine even if you didnt add anything man... let us know when you get some fishes swimmin in there.

DMD123 wrote:Perfectly safe too because of the time frame.

The Jager heaters are hot, should work for your tank. I had 300w in a 120g and I had to turn that thing way down. Turned out to be bigger (length) than you expected, have to put it the tank instead of the sump?

The heater is as long as a baseball bat so it didn't fit in the sump. So it's in the tank. The tank is only up to 77. I'm waiting on it to get up to 80. Since about 9:30 last night it went up two degrees.

sandnuka wrote:madness, your house is 58 degrees???? that flippin freezing.... you gotta wear 3 or 4 layers at your house:????

A breeder I know doesnt even use prime or any other water treatment..... he just lets his water sit out in a big garbage can for awhile... I guess chlorine evaporates, so thats good enough.... its seems to be fine for him, and he breeds gorgeous tropheus... (which are not an easy fish to keep at all)... so you should be fine even if you didnt add anything man... let us know when you get some fishes swimmin in there.

Well I did add prime I just added three caps instead of the 5 I needed. I thought I needed enough prime for the water I added not the entire tank volume. The water that was in the tank before my water change was treated. There wasn't any point in me doing a water change it just made me feel better. There has never been fish in there.

sandnuka wrote:madness, your house is 58 degrees???? that flippin freezing.... you gotta wear 3 or 4 layers at your house:????

A breeder I know doesnt even use prime or any other water treatment..... he just lets his water sit out in a big garbage can for awhile... I guess chlorine evaporates, so thats good enough.... its seems to be fine for him, and he breeds gorgeous tropheus... (which are not an easy fish to keep at all)... so you should be fine even if you didnt add anything man... let us know when you get some fishes swimmin in there.

My thermostats are set at 55 and the heater doesnt come on.

As for Prime, I say it again, I dont use any.

Jantilla, I hope you dont drop a bunch of fish in there all at once. Your tank has not cycled, so start off slow or else you will get a huge ammonia spike issue. You would end up with dead fish before you realize it.

madness wrote:

sandnuka wrote:madness, your house is 58 degrees???? that flippin freezing.... you gotta wear 3 or 4 layers at your house:????

A breeder I know doesnt even use prime or any other water treatment..... he just lets his water sit out in a big garbage can for awhile... I guess chlorine evaporates, so thats good enough.... its seems to be fine for him, and he breeds gorgeous tropheus... (which are not an easy fish to keep at all)... so you should be fine even if you didnt add anything man... let us know when you get some fishes swimmin in there.

My thermostats are set at 55 and the heater doesnt come on.

As for Prime, I say it again, I dont use any.

Jantilla, I hope you dont drop a bunch of fish in there all at once. Your tank has not cycled, so start off slow or else you will get a huge ammonia spike issue. You would end up with dead fish before you realize it.

I'm putting in my old media from my cycled tank in the wet/drys so I have an instant cycle.

still may have a ammonia spike... not as bad as if you had clean filters, but still might have one.... thats what happened to me anyway.... depending how large the tank is I typically leave it sit with media and water for itleast 1 week, more for smaller tanks.... If I plan on dumping allot of fish in the tank, i always start with some feeders in there first for another week (cruel, I know, Im horrible).... if I am adding fish slowly, 1 or 2 at a time in a large tank I dont bother with anything.

Just wanted to throw in my two sence cause i lost a very expensive group of 15 or so tropheus lufubu to a mistake like that, it was actually a older tank I did 100% water change and new gravel, but kept filters in..... after fish died, i was so confused and checked water parameters only to find nitrite and ammonia were high.

The only problem with leaving your media in a filter that is cycling a tank for a week without fish, is that your beneficial bacteria will die. The bacteria needs the ammonia to live. You remove the food, it starves to death. So, personally I would not recommend running it for a week without any fish in the tank. But your idea of using feeders is exactly what I do. Just go spend $10 and buy 100 feeder guppies. Feed them good food and fatten them up, then introduce your fish in a week or 2. They will feed on the nutritious guppies, and all will be well.

There are other forms of ammonia that will suffice if you dont want to go the guppie route.

i never cycle my tanks. when i add new fish to a new tank i double the water changes and have never had any problems nor do i expect to. after a couple weeks the water changes go back to normal.

madness wrote:The only problem with leaving your media in a filter that is cycling a tank for a week without fish, is that your beneficial bacteria will die. The bacteria needs the ammonia to live. You remove the food, it starves to death. So, personally I would not recommend running it for a week without any fish in the tank. But your idea of using feeders is exactly what I do. Just go spend $10 and buy 100 feeder guppies. Feed them good food and fatten them up, then introduce your fish in a week or 2. They will feed on the nutritious guppies, and all will be well.

There are other forms of ammonia that will suffice if you dont want to go the guppie route.

I was going to put the fish in the tank at the same time. I'm only waiting on the tank to heat up.

fishman09 wrote:i never cycle my tanks. when i add new fish to a new tank i double the water changes and have never had any problems nor do i expect to. after a couple weeks the water changes go back to normal.

I pretty much do it the same way, I do the water changes and add Stability by Seachem. I do make sure to check the water during this time frame for ammonia spikes.

I pretty much do it the same way, I do the water changes and add Stability by Seachem. I do make sure to check the water during this time frame for ammonia spikes. [/quote]

ive never checked my water and dont add any bacteria unless i have some media on hand.

I knew a guy that pee'd in his tanks... lol.... seriuos, was a member here too... cool guy, genious when it came to water chem, think it was his major, marine biology or something like that.... he actually the one that told me about soil planted tanks.... fasted growing, best lookin tank i had ever had.... never had to touch the water either, maybe just small water changes biweekly....

I dont know why, but I have lost several fish to new tank syndrome...... ive also kept really delicate fish though... Thats why i always use precaution and take every step i can to prevent another incident.

sandnuka wrote:I knew a guy that pee'd in his tanks... lol.... seriuos,

So the yellow tint in the water was not from tannins...

sandnuka wrote:I knew a guy that pee'd in his tanks... lol.... seriuos,

I guess when you got to go you got to go.

Jantilla wrote:

sandnuka wrote:I knew a guy that pee'd in his tanks... lol.... seriuos,

I guess when you got to go you got to go.

As long as there are no "floaters" in the tank....

DMD123 wrote:

Jantilla wrote:

sandnuka wrote:I knew a guy that pee'd in his tanks... lol.... seriuos,

I guess when you got to go you got to go.

As long as there are no "floaters" in the tank....

he used to breed discus... I know so many people that got his fish.... they will never know there fish were swimming in human urine water. LMAO!