Should Increase The Dose Of Prime?

[Skittle13]

Sorry for missing the "I" out in the title >.<

Just a quick one,

I'm in a fish-in cycle and my ammonia is, as expected, to climb quite high.
I have been doing up to 3 times 50% water changes a day because of the ammonia. The only issue is after testing my tap water it is a definite pale green (between 0.1 and 0.25)which is the same as the water in my tank. I also notice the nitrates are also high (the same in tank and tap) at about 20ppm. A am using the API liquid kit.

Is it better to up the dose of Prime in my tank to combat the ammonia and if so by how much?


In the tank is 1 betta fish
tank is heated, filtered and 25 litres.
The cycle has been going for 3 weeks and whether i missed it or not the API test kit is still showing 0 for nitrites even after hitting the bottle on a hard surface.

 

[AbbeysDad]

It seems likely that your cycle hasn't really even started yet and you are putting it off with so many water changes. You should do a 50% water change weekly unless you test and see an ammonia spike.
You don't need an increase in the Prime dose and bear in mind that Prime only detoxes ammonia, nitrite and nitrate for 24-48 hours per Seachem Tech Support. This does however give the beneficial bacteria (once established) [more] time to process into the more harmless elements.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Test kits will still read for ammonia even if you have added prime. Prime converts ammonia into less toxic ammonium. It does not remove it from the aquarium. Only water changes can do that.