# Seachem Prime Question



## Markolodeon (Nov 4, 2007)

I just received a bottle, bought it on online and had no idea how concentrated it is! Wondering how people dose for water changes, and if it's even possible to accurately measure a correct amount for a 5 gallon bucket (mixing with buffer)?

Thanks!


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## pancakeloach (Feb 4, 2008)

2 drops per gallon  That's what the small bottle says when you buy it in 50mL.


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## Markolodeon (Nov 4, 2007)

Ok, maybe I have the math wrong?:

10ml per 100 gallons

So:

1 teaspoon per 50 gallons (5ml)
1/5th teaspoon per 10 gallons (1ml)
1/10th teaspoon per 5 gallons (0.5ml)

I bought the 2 liter bottle that treats 20,000 gallons. So that's right 0.1ml per gallon. A standard eye dropper is approximately 1ml, so that's a double dosage for a five gallon pail. Should have bought the smaller bottle?


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## Donfish (Dec 24, 2007)

A metric "drop" is 1/20 of a mL or 20 drops per mL. So at 1mL per 10 gallons it's 2 drops per gallon.

That's a single drop from the dropper, total volume of a full dropper will vary with the size of the dropper.


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## Markolodeon (Nov 4, 2007)

^ Which it sounds like I either buy the 50 ml bottle, just to get the right size dropper, or save the big bottle for new tank setups only.


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## Donfish (Dec 24, 2007)

Markolodeon said:


> ^ Which it sounds like I either buy the 50 ml bottle, just to get the right size dropper, or save the big bottle for new tank setups only.


Any drugstore dropper will do it's the drop size not how much it holds. Your bottle is fine just put 10 drops in a five gallon bucket or if you want to use mL most cooking measuring spoons now have metric equivalents on them.

I happened to find a glass dropper from some fertilizer I had and it even screws on to the Prime bottle perfectly. I always buy the biggest size Prime and transfer it to the smaller Prime bottle I have and keep the rest in the refrigerator .

You're bottle is fine it will just last a long time. 

And don't worry if your Prime gets stinky, smells like sulphur or my wife's far..  , it's still okay.


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## Markolodeon (Nov 4, 2007)

^ Yes, the sulfur smell was the first thing I noticed. The next, was holy ****, this stuff is potent! Thanks for the advice on the dropper, will have to head off to Walgreens and see what they have. That is some crazy concentrated stuff. And from what I understand unlike a product like Stresscoat, it's fairly easy to overdoae the tank with Prime and kill your fish?


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## Heyguy74 (Aug 11, 2005)

Prime can be overdosed if need in certain cconditions. For example, high ammonia or nitrites. Read the bottle, it tells you how much. Don't worry you wont kill your fish.


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## edouthirt (Jan 22, 2008)

> And from what I understand unlike a product like Stresscoat, it's fairly easy to overdoae the tank with Prime and kill your fish?


Is it really? wow... I have never been too concerned with getting exact measurements... in fact I usuallly add a bit more than recommended just to be safe. To google I go for some research.


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## bma57 (Sep 16, 2007)

I had the same issue. It was easy to dose my big tank, but was a pain to try to measure the tiny amount needed for a WC in the 10 gal fry tank. I asked about the possiblilty of pre-diluting some to a 1/10 strength, but was told (as was mentioned above) that 2 drops per gallon does the trick. Now, aside from the big bottle, I keep some in an old Aquasafe dropper bottle that I kept. When I mix up 5 gal for a small WC, I put in 10 drops.


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## Donfish (Dec 24, 2007)

About overdosing, I actually use 2, 3 or 4 drops per gallon depending on how strong the chlorine smell is on a given day from my tap. I understand that the amounts of chlorine and chloramine the water utilities use can vary according to their bacteria counts or whatever. Not really overdosing for the tank but never had a problem with this.

With drops I'm talking bucket haulers if you use a python or similar then you need to dose for the tank in the tank before adding water.


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## kornphlake (Feb 12, 2004)

I dose my tank water after draining the tank then add chlorinated water to the tank. If I think about adding it to the bucket before I dump it in the 10g I'll do that, for the other tanks I'm using a hose to fill so I can't treat the water outside of the tank. If you add it to the tank water before adding untreated water dose for the entire volume of the tank, not just the volume of the water changed. For example in the 10g tank I fill the cap to the first thread, which is supposed to be about 1ml, I don't think it's too important to be very precise, there aren't exactly 10g of water in the aquarium anyway.

I thought a small bottle would last me forever, but then I started doing weekly water changes on 3 tanks. I was able to burn though a bottle in about 6 months.


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## Markolodeon (Nov 4, 2007)

Found the perfect thing at Walgreens, a 1 ml Calibrated Plastic Dropper - $2. It measures in tenths of a ml making it easy to measure 0.5 ml for a five gallon bucket.

Too funny I had no idea what I was getting into. In Stresscoat terms I've got like a 55 gallon drum of this stuff.


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## Donfish (Dec 24, 2007)

Markolodeon said:


> Too funny I had no idea what I was getting into. In Stresscoat terms I've got like a 55 gallon drum of this stuff.


The cool thing about Prime is the older it gets the worse it smells, 6 months or a year down the road that bottle ought to be yummy good.


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## Markolodeon (Nov 4, 2007)

^ There's only one solution then, buy more tanks! :drooling:


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## JeffreyL (May 31, 2006)

Markolodeon said:


> Found the perfect thing at Walgreens, a 1 ml Calibrated Plastic Dropper - $2. It measures in tenths of a ml making it easy to measure 0.5 ml for a five gallon bucket.


Those things are great for all your measuring needs. Got one to pull samples from tanks, another to dose ferts, and so on.


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## bentcountershaft (Nov 23, 2007)

Before I started working my way towards being a responsible fish guy I didn't ever measure for proper dosage when using Prime. I generally would just poor a bit in with a water change. I did this for at least five years and never had any deaths due to it. As I said, I'm more responsible now, but with the fish I've kept, they've never shown any distress to overdosing with it.


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## mambee (Apr 13, 2003)

I buy the larger size Pond Prime which is more economical.

Mike


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## fishyfishyfishy (Dec 24, 2005)

I bought a little glass measuring cup at K-Mart. About twice the size of a shot glass I'd say. Anyway, it has all sorts marking for ml, tsp, tblspoon etc. Comes in real handy, especially if you have large tanks.


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