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View Full Version : Age water... With prime or without???



HenryDiscus916
12-02-2011, 01:47 AM
I age my water in a 32g trash can for my wc.. was wondering whats better? age water with prime?.. or put prime in right before I do wc??

Hogman
12-02-2011, 06:50 AM
Depends on what is in your water source whether you need it at all. But I would add recommended dosage as you fill your ageing barrel/trashcan to give the product time to do what it claims it does

seanyuki
12-02-2011, 07:26 AM
Just put the right dosage of Seachem Prime b4 adding water to the tank.

corgi3
12-02-2011, 12:22 PM
or put prime in right before I do wc??[/QUOTE]

this is the way i've done it for years...usually about 30 minutes before i add it to the tank....

TNT77
12-02-2011, 03:57 PM
You can do it either way..but if you add Prime to the barrel as you age you only have to dose Prime for the amount of the barrel verses a whole tank. Just a thought on money conservation.

jball1125
12-03-2011, 12:02 AM
I prefer to add prime/safe directly to the tank before filling it back up. I have found that prime/safe will create a gunky slime in the barrel after a while.

Skip
12-03-2011, 12:05 AM
one of the reasons you age water is for the chlorine to be removed.. so you would not need prime.. :)

JamesHe
12-03-2011, 12:07 AM
one of the reasons you age water is for the chlorine to be removed.. so you would not need prime.. :)

Second this.

Skip
12-03-2011, 12:11 AM
it will dissipate faster if your aerate it..

jball1125
12-03-2011, 12:40 AM
one of the reasons you age water is for the chlorine to be removed.. so you would not need prime.. :)

Chloramines will still be present if your tap has them so its never a bad idea to use prime anyway.

Skip
12-03-2011, 12:54 AM
not necessary to age it... but adding it to the tank for water change.. yes..

jball1125
12-03-2011, 01:06 AM
not necessary to age it... but adding it to the tank for water change.. yes..

Aging is also useful to get water to the right temp and to gas off unwanted chemicals. I have tried both ways before and my fish always seem happier when I age the water. YMMV

eaglesfan3000
12-07-2011, 07:01 PM
I prefer to add prime/safe directly to the tank before filling it back up. I have found that prime/safe will create a gunky slime in the barrel after a while.

Will it create slime if it justs sits over night?

Skip
12-07-2011, 07:54 PM
Will it create slime if it justs sits over night?

well, DON"T do it and find out..

you add prime to tank.. since you are NOT AGING it..

Sean Buehrle
12-07-2011, 09:06 PM
Will it create slime if it justs sits over night?

You'll need to clean your barrel no matter what.

eaglesfan3000
12-10-2011, 02:47 PM
You'll need to clean your barrel no matter what.

OK thanks will do.

ericatdallas
12-10-2011, 03:03 PM
You might as well just treat it in the barrel. If you add it to the tank, you risk exposing your fish to chlorine/chloramine. It's a small risk as that's what I do and dechlor works fast. FAST. But if your barrel sits anyway, go for it.

Besides, the recommended dose for prime increases if you add direct to tank (this is to speed reaction rate). It's more economical to treat just the water being added than the entire tank.

But... IF you don't have chloramine in your water supply, just let it sit. Either way, I'm not sure why this is debateable.

Logically...

Method 1: Treat Barrel

Pros: Less Prime, time to react, time to absorb depleted oxygen
Cons: you add it to barrel ???

Method 2: Treat Tank
Pros: You don't add to barrel ???
Cons: you need more prime, less time to react, depletes oxygen during reaction

??? what am I missing that would strengthen the argument for adding prime to the tank if you're aging your water?

eaglesfan3000
12-11-2011, 10:23 AM
You might as well just treat it in the barrel. If you add it to the tank, you risk exposing your fish to chlorine/chloramine. It's a small risk as that's what I do and dechlor works fast. FAST. But if your barrel sits anyway, go for it.

Besides, the recommended dose for prime increases if you add direct to tank (this is to speed reaction rate). It's more economical to treat just the water being added than the entire tank.

But... IF you don't have chloramine in your water supply, just let it sit. Either way, I'm not sure why this is debateable.

Logically...

Method 1: Treat Barrel

Pros: Less Prime, time to react, time to absorb depleted oxygen
Cons: you add it to barrel ???

Method 2: Treat Tank
Pros: You don't add to barrel ???
Cons: you need more prime, less time to react, depletes oxygen during reaction

??? what am I missing that would strengthen the argument for adding prime to the tank if you're aging your water?

I'm using two 44 gallon Brute trash cans more of a temperature thing than anything else. I plan on doing a 80 gallon water change daily on a 120 gallon tank.

Jhhnn
12-11-2011, 11:32 AM
I add prime to the barrels before filling them so that I don't forget. It's procedural, for me. That way, I won't do anything stupid, like forget & kill my fish.

I then heat & aerate for 24 hrs before pumping to the tanks. Denver water definitely has chloramines, so prime is necessary. The barrels do develop brownish gook over time- my microscope tells me it's the same kind of bacterial community as in my biofilters. I just ignore it until there's a lot of it, then clean out most of it like with a canister filter. Even here in Denver, where tap water is gathered at high altitude above the sources of most pollutants, there is some dissolved organic content in the water for bacteria to feed on. I think of the gook in the barrels as a biological pre-filter for water going into the tanks...

Heating, aging & aerating the water also releases trapped gasses. In the winter, tap water is processed & then pressurized at low temps where solubility is higher. When heated, the trapped gasses want to escape as microbubbles, but can't until the pressure is relieved. Filling straight from the tap can cause the microbubbles to form on the wrong side of fish membranes, which isn't good for them, at all. For people in northern climates who need to fill straight from the tap, splashing or spraying new water into the tank helps dissipate the trapped gasses...

I never would have come back to discus keeping if I hadn't been in a position to create a permanently plumbed semi-automatic water aging, draining & filling system...