Can Overdosing Of Prime Kill My Fish?

[Magic8]

not really sure if this qualifies for an emergency but it is an issue I have been encountering over the past 3 weeks with water changes in which I have lost 6 fish.

week 1 added amazon swords did http/www.fishlore.com/fishdictionary/w.htm#waterchange wiped algae from glass using clean dish towel.
(lost one fish A few hours after doing WC I chalked it up as A common casualty did not think nothing of it)

week 2 Bought some more plants the rest of my fish were doing fine so I did a wc and opened up my cannister to add Chemi-purewiped down glass again and added two more Black rubys one to replace my fish that died and a second to bring my numbers up to 10.I made A rookie mistake by when starting my cannister back up not having the first bit of water coming out of my outtake going into A seperate bucket instead it shot cruddy water back into the tank possibly dumping A bunch of toxins back into the tank.A few hours later all my fish looked flushed,lethargic and lack of color.(I lost two more fish A little while later I am thinking it was the two fish I just added hours earlier)After thinking I was going to lose half my fish the next day everyone colored back up and they were activley swimming around again.this kind of ruled out something coming in on the plants which is what I first suspected I was thinking now that the crud kicked back into the water by restarting my cannister killed my fish so the next day I replaced my fish and brought my numbers back up to 10

last night I did A WC again same procedure as usual clean glass light vacuum on substrate moved some plants around to get detris on top of sand added 

HERE IS WHERE I THINK I WENT WRONG I PRESENTLY DONT USE A Python I DO ABOUT A 15-20% WC EACH WEEK USING BUCKETS I ADD TWO CAPS OF prime TO ONLY ONE BUCKET THEN DUMP THAT BUCKET ALONG WITH ABOUT ANOTHER 3-4 BUCKETS EQUALING ROUGHLY 10-15 GALLONS ABOUT 3 GALLONS PER BUCKET INTO THE TANK.

I woke up this morning to three dead fish presumably the 3 fish I purchased a week ago who were doing great up until I did my WC yesterday.they were acting funny last night hanging near the bottom of the tank and not moving much staying at the very bottom of the tank huddled in A corner.This morning the rest of the fish seem fine can't check now as I am at work I am hoping they are all doing ok.

My theory is I have severely been overdosing my tank with prime during my water changes by at least 5x the recommended amount combined with using although clean dish towels to wipe down my glass they could have had some detergent residue on them.

I will be purchasing original magic eraser sponges today (I have been told this work really well on tank glass)along with A medical syringe to properly measure out my prime.

I really do not know what has killed my fish but I am thinking this is the cause as it was right after WC's that they died and it was two fish last time and 3 this time(presumably the new additions) that died.
 
someone mentioned ph but my water in the tank is the same that is coming from my tap and my temps of the water is close to the temps that I am adding to the tank within A few degrees!

So in your opinion does anyone feel like I am on point with my analysis of over dosing my replacement water with prime possibly led to the death of some of my fish.

Thanks

 

[Byron]

I would suggest a bit more data to help us analyse what is happening.  
 
How long has this tank been running with fish?  And which species and how many?  And what is the tank size.
 
Have you used any additives (aside from Prime, and the Chemi-pure)?
 
Have you tested pH immediately prior to a water change, and then a couple hours after, and if yes with what results?
 
Prime is a chemical solution, and like every substance added to the aquarium water does get inside the fish.  Keeping Prime minimal will be better for the fish, regardless of the manufacturer's claim that it is harmless if overdosed. Two capfuls of Prime in a bucket of water, which presumably would be 2 or maybe 3 gallons, is way beyond what is needed to deal with chlorine and chloramine.  The more you use the more it does affect fish so it won't help if/when something else is causing trouble.  I don't think there are studies to see at what level these conditioners do kill fish, but there is a limit.
 
No matter how well you launder cloth towels, they may still contain residue of soap or other chemicals and substances.  It is best to purchase a towel solely for aquarium use.  Even so, i would not use it inside the tank.
 
Byron.

 

[julielynn47]

I am so sorry that you are losing your fish.   I don't have an explanation for you on that part.  But as to cleaning the glass on the tank, I take an old debit card and scrape the glass with it. It works really well, better than those tank sponges on a pole thing.

 

[Magic8]

To get back to your responses I have ruled out changes in ph as my tank ph has not changed from my tap after numerous tests

I have ruled out water temperature differences as well as water temps were fairly close

Which brings me down to two culprits over dosing of prime which I doubt this is the problem as I have been dosing heavily with prime since my tank has been set up.

This brings me to my suspected theory after adding plants I started using clean bandanas to clean my glass as paper towels were not really doing the job I started doing this right about the time I added plants so it's just coincidence that when I added my first plant I had my first fish die. The next two water changes I again used a towel then a bandana and my theory is the fish that I just added were not as strong as my current residents so they were the first ones effected by contaminated towels/bandanas when I say contaminated they were clean too clean they most likely still had traces of detergent residue on them and by me using them on my glass it contaminated my water and effected the new residents first thus by the next day after the filter had a chance to do its work everyone colored back up I could be completely off base but I think this is what happened.

 

[NickAu]

 
HERE IS WHERE I THINK I WENT WRONG I PRESENTLY DONT USE A Python I DO ABOUT A 15-20% WC EACH WEEK USING BUCKETS I ADD TWO CAPS OF prime TO ONLY ONE BUCKET THEN DUMP THAT BUCKET ALONG WITH ABOUT ANOTHER 3-4 BUCKETS EQUALING ROUGHLY 10-15 GALLONS ABOUT 3 GALLONS PER BUCKET INTO THE TANK.

2 capfuls is 1o milliliters and that treats 100 gallons of water. 
 
 
In smaller tanks the correct dosage is 2 drops per gallon.
 
How big is your tank?
 
In emergency situations Seachem claims it is safe to use up to 5 times that, 
 
I concur with Byron the less additives you put in the tank the Better