Doing an emergency fish in cycle for my tank and this stuff is amazing. Can get me through the trials of being a new fish owner and keep him safe till healthy bacteria is established in my tank.Performing Emergency fish-in cycle with Seachem PrimeStep 1: Set up your aquariumIt’s time to set up your aquarium. And, that includes all the equipment – heaters, filters, air pumps… Get it in there! Don’t forget to rinse it with fresh water first!The beneficial bacteria need a surface to cling to, namely your substrate and filter media. So by setting everything up, you give your bacteria as many surfaces as possible to cling to.Add water to the tank, and don’t forget to dechlorinate it with your water conditioner first.Finally, you want to keep all electrical equipment, such as heaters, filters and bubblers, switched on throughout the entire cycling process. Not only will this keep your fish as comfortable as possible, but it will also make your tank cycle faster.Want to cycle your tank as quickly as possible? Check out FishLab’s tips for speeding up the cycling process.Step 2: Adding your fishBefore you add your fish, you want to acclimate them first. This will give them the best chance of survival.You want to feed your fish throughout the cycling process… You don’t want them to starve!When feeding your fish, however, it’s important that you don’t feed them too much. The more you feed them, the more they are going to poop. And the more they poop, the faster your ammonia levels are going to rise.Also, remove any uneaten food from the tank, a good aquarium net will make this easy. Any uneaten food left behind will break down into ammonia, causing the levels to rise.If a fish dies during the cycle, remove it from the aquarium ASAP. Its decaying body will also give off ammonia. Don’t panic if one of your fish dies. It doesn’t necessarily mean that all your fish will – this one might have been extra sensitive.Step 3: Test, test, test, and test againNow, use your ammonia test kit every 24 hours.What you are looking for is any sign of ammonia. Trust me. It won’t be long before it appears.Once your test kit returns positive for ammonia, it’s time to move to the next step.Step 4: Dealing with ammoniaOnce you detect ammonia, it’s time to start dosing with Seachem Prime. Follow the instructions on the bottle to determine what a single dose would be for your tank – the larger the aquarium, the more Prime you will need. Fortunately, a little goes a long way, and many of you will find that a single bottle of Prime will get you through an entire cycle.For this method, Seachem Prime is the most important ingredient. You see, a dose of Prime will bind ammonia, nitrite and nitrate for 24 to 48 hours, making them harmless to your fish.Picture Seachem Prime locking up ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in a jail cell for up to 48 hours. While in the cell, these nasties cannot harm your fish. However, once their time is up, and they are released, they will once again attack your fish.It is for this reason that you need to dose regularly with Seachem Prime, to keep these nasties locked up.A single dose of Prime will treat up to 1 part per million (ppm) of ammonia. Prime can be dosed up to 5 times safely. So, 2 ppm of ammonia can be treated with two doses of Prime, 3 ppm can be treated with three doses, and so on.Anything less than 1 ppm should be treated with a single dose. Between 1 ppm and 2 ppm, two doses. You get the idea. Oh, and it goes without saying that it’s better to overdose than underdose.*Once your test kit reads 2 ppm of ammonia, you should perform a 50% water change. This should cut your ammonia levels roughly in half. Repeat this process until you notice that your ammonia levels are not rising as quickly as before. Typically, this will take a week or two. When this happens, you are ready to move to the next step.Bookmark this page so that you can easily find it when you are ready for the next step!Step 5: Nitrites start to appearNext, you need to test for nitrites. If none are present, keep repeating the previous step and testing for nitrites daily until you get a positive result.Now that nitrite has entered the equation, you need to make sure you are dosing with enough Prime to protect your fish from both ammonia and nitrites.Fortunately, working out your new dosage is pretty simple – just add your nitrite and ammonia readings together.Let’s say your test returns the following…Ammonia 0.25 ppmNitrite 1.5 ppmAdding the two together will give you a total of 1.75 ppm. A double dose of Prime will take care of it.This time, if your combined ppm of ammonia and nitrite reaches 4, perform a 50% water change.Keep repeating this. You will eventually notice that your ammonia drops to zero. This is a good thing – bacteria are eating the ammonia as quickly as it is being produced, resulting in a zero reading.Continue daily dosing and testing for ammonia and nitrites. Once your nitrite levels stop rising as quickly, you are ready for the next step.Step 6: Nitrates appearNow, you want to test for nitrates. If none are present, keep repeating the previous step and testing for nitrates daily until you get a positive result.Once nitrates are present, you are nearing the end (woohoo!). Continue testing for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Your ammonia levels should still be zero, and your nitrite levels should be declining.Keep dosing with Prime until both your nitrite and ammonia levels are zero. At this stage, the beneficial bacteria are eating them as quickly as they are being produced.Congratulations! You have successfully completed a fish-in cycle.On every fishkeeping website I’ve checked, this is the most recommended chlorine remover. And with good reason -- it works the best. I’ve tried a few others and I’ve had problems now and again with fish loss after a large water change. Never with this. I use two drops per gallon and the fish and frogs are healthy. This is safe for fully aquatic African Dwarf frogs and African Clawed frogs.The small container has a drop cap so it’s easy to measure. If you’re adding water a gallon at a time, you’re best off with the small one. It lasts a very long time. I only need buy a refill maybe 2 or 3 times a year for four small tanks. It’s tiny, so it’s easy to store in something like a medicine cabinet, or whatever is convenient for where you get water for your water changes, when not in use.I regret ever buying anything else. For quality above all, but also for price and convenience, this is the best.Prime has become a staple in the hobby, it's almost a religious icon at this point. Using a dropper, you add 2 drops per 1 gallon of water, dosing for your tank's entire volume every water change. You can double the dose for added insurance for the paranoid keepers out there. It's very difficult to overdose. I purchased a 500ml bottle 2 years ago according to Amazon, and I still have a third of the bottle left. In those 2 years Prime has dechlorinated, every week, multiple 10 gallon tanks, a few 5 gallons, and now a 30 gallon. The 30 gallon, obviously, now consuming the largest sum of the product and causing me to go through the bottle at a considerably faster pace. But, for the keepers with smaller tanks like 5s, 10s, and 20s, it's a steal for the price. $20 every 2 years? Easy. $20 every year, or even every 6 months would still be well worth it. I will worship Prime the entire duration of my fish loving life.This greatly helped lower ammonia levels in my reef tank. I found that ammonia was registering on my RO/DI water & likely has chloramine from the tab. After I added this along with more beneficial bacteria my ammonia levels finally started going down.I tried literally everything from poly filters, microbacter7, pureit, huge water changes...with no resolve!Prime was the missing element to make the products above work properly.So relieved!Dose every 48 hours if you continue reading ammonia.Disclaimer on my experience with prime: I added this in conjunction with a hang on refugium + algae barn chaeto starter kit. That helps with ammonia as well because it comes with bio media, micro algae, copapods & chaeto.Use it on well water for fresh water fish (guppies) for over 20 years now. Love I only have to use drops when adding water. Finally have a filter system on the water line again, but spent about 10 years without one. Fish have done fine, thus attributing it to this conditioner. Can't buy it locally, so this 500ml will last for years.I’ve been using this whenever I do a water change in my 5gal aquarium. Our city water has a decent amount of ammonia/nitrates and this stuff neutralizes it so that I can add to the tank. I’ve also used it in an emergency situation when there was a high ammonia spike and it helped keep my freshwater critters alive.Seems to work better than the Fluval brandThis is the easiest and best. It’s an all in one, so no need for multiple products even if your water has chloramine. I also add a PH stabilizer periodically, but for base water additions or changes, this is it.I love the product but it was delivered to the wrong address, my neighbor brought it to me!!I discovered yesterday, much to my horror, that my nitrite levels had spiked to around 4 - 5ppm - this is a toxic level for fish, my nitrate levels were up at around 50 (again not good news). I was gutted as I love the fish. I think the fault was not cycling the tank properly before I put my fish in and a few days after I bought my fish I changed my old and very used filter sponge for a brand new one - convinced I was doing my little fishies a lot of good!Yesterday afternoon, upon reading the results of my water test, I immediately did a 50 per cent water change and ordered this Seachem Prime as it had many reviews saying it immediately got rid of nitrites, nitrates and ammonia etcThis morning when I woke up I did another 25 per cent water change and an hour later tested my water - I had managed to get my nitrite levels down to roughly 2ppm. This is still no good, they MUST read 0 or your fish are in danger.The Seachem Prime arrived today (less than 24 hours after ordering) and I immediately put 3ml into my 60L tank, which is 3x the stated dose but I had a nitrite emergency and felt happy all would be well.I read my water levels an hour later and the nitrite readings are now roughly 0 - 0.5. It has clearly had an immediate effect on these levels and probably saved my little fish. I also have 3 minuscule little fry in the tank and I am hoping it has saved their little lives as well. The nitrate levels are now at around 20 ish which is perfectly safe for fish.I am planning to put around 1ml of Prime into my water every 24 hours now, and do a 25 per cent water change twice a week until I think my tank has cycled fully. I will then reduce the Prime to once every 48 hours and continue to test, then once every 3 to 4 days and test to ensure there are no spikes and that my tank is cycled!I am so grateful for this product, I did not sleep a wink last night desperate to sort this problem out!Just to note, Seachem Prime can be used as a water conditioner by itself and it makes tap water safe for fish. However because this product had not arrived when I did my water changes I used API Stress Coat Plus in my new water which also makes tap water safe for fish as it removes chlorines and chloramines etcThe Prime can be used in conjunction with other products, it will not harm the fish. In future when I do water changes I will use Prime only as my water conditioner.I also use a Gravel Cleaner liquid which breaks down waste and slows the build up of green algea.I cannot recommend this product enough if you have a nitrite spike, it will save fishy lives!UPDATE: LESS THAN 5 DAYS AFTER STARTING WITH THIS PRODUCT NITRITE AND NITRATE LEVELS BOTH 0.This is a great product. I'll now only use it as a water conditioner with my weekly water change!I’m doing an in fish cycle in my new tank and unfortunately due to wrong advice from my local pet shop, I’ve put a few too many fish. I’ve ended battling against high nitrate levels and doing 50% water change every day to keep the water chemistry at acceptable levels. I’ve tried Fluval Biological enhancer which made no noticeable difference. I thought I give Prime a go after reading lots of rave reviews! I now understand why. 24hrs after applying a good dose of this, my nitrite levels have been near 0. Although Prime only combats Nitrite and Ammonia levels temporarily (I think 48hrs) it will certainly get me through until my cycle is complete and certainly will decrease my frequency of 50% water change! This stuff is highly concentrated!! 5ml per 200litres!! I have a aqua nano 55litre tank. A full tank dose is only around 1.4ml! Yes that’s right 1.4ml! To get around the problem of measuring such a small dose, I use a syringe, the ones you get with Capol. Works a treat and 500ml will last me a very long time! Certainly recommend this over everything else.I don't usually review, but think I need to as I was dubious before buying. So to set the scene, I have pre-cured dry rock for 3 months - got a new tank and then done a very small cycle (due to cured rock). Everything going well fish were added. A few days later noticed the ammonia (NH3 only) went going up and up on my seneye. Not knowing why i obviously started to panic, got a bottle of Prime (to detoxify whilst battling the ammonia) and this Stability product which i added as described on the bottle.Turns out my RO system was allowing out a large proportion of solids, chlorine and chloramine kill beneficial bacteria and this is what caused the die off. The Prime sorted that too but it was too late. Anyway...Dosing with this my ammonia eventually stopped rising at 0.145 (on my seneye - so this is NH3 only, free ammonia). And then started creeping down. Within 6 days my ammonia has come down to 0.002 and no nitrites are registering either - basically fully cycled (again) in this time. I would REALLY recommend this for any startup, or emergency - hand in hand with Prime honestly, i dont think my fish would have survived this.I have 7 BIG fish in a 1000l tank (marine) - not one casualty due to quick action with this!Used in conjunction with seachem stability to save my fish after filter disaster and nitrite spike. Used it in emergency dose first then smaller ones on following days. Must say I still lost fish over first few days until I started to combine with seachem stability to restore balance in my filter so I'm not sure if it was working alone or if combination of both helped in the end. Levels now fine after a week though and remaining fish all great. Read multiple online expert forums on this product and stability and I am certain if I had not used either I would have lost all my fish so definitely worth having in and using if you have troubles in your tank.Prime is great stuff, yes it's not cheap but it's very concentrated. I have since moved to Safe which is even MORE concentrated, but they do the same thing.I just wanted to help people using it for ammonia and still getting a high ammonia reading after treatment.All Seachem products which detoxify ammonia do so to the free ammonia. Most of our tests kits test total ammonia. If you want to accurately check how much of the toxic free ammonia remains, get yourself the MultiTest Ammonia (Free & Total) from Seachem. The test seems a bit of a faff at first, but it's proven invaluable for me at the moment as my once mature filter seems to have crashed and I am struggling through a fish-in cycle as a result.I can tell you these products work as I can see from the behaviour of my fish.But, as I have said, you need to test for the Free Ammonia levels after dosing to get a true reflection of how it is working.