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Thread: Seachem Prime for planted plants?

  1. #1
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    Seachem Prime for planted plants?

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    Is using seachem prime as an additive (dechlorinator) good for the planted tank? It claims to detoxify nitrate so my question is what happens to the KNO3 that i have been adding in?

    Are the nitrates removed by prime and so i'd have to up my dosing? Or are the nitrates are still available for uptake by plants?

    according to chuck's calculator i'm adding about 14.5 ppm x 3 a week to a 2'x1'x1', co2 25ppm, 72W PL lights tank.

    i'm wondering if full 14.5ppm of nitrates actually do go to the plants or not

  2. #2
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    Hmm.. it detoxifys nitrate because nitrate and ammonia is produced when chlorine/chloramine is "removed". I read something like that somewhere. Will need confirmation though.

    If I'm right, nitrates will still be available. If you have enough plant mass to take up 14.5ppm, it will all go to the plants. In most cases there is always some ppm left over.

  3. #3
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    Chloramine is NH2Cl, it is possibly changed into NH3 + Cl2 via the addition of dechlorinators.

    i dun think NO3 would be produced unless our dechlorinators contains some strong oxidising agents.

    from http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Prime_faq.html
    "Q: How does Prime make a difference in reducing Nitrates?
    A: The detoxification of nitrite and nitrate by Prime (when used at elevated levels) is not well understood from a mechanistic standpoint. The most likely explanation is that the nitrite and nitrate is removed in a manner similar to the way ammonia is removed; i.e. it is bound and held in a inert state until such time that bacteria in the biological filter are able to take a hold of it, break it apart and use it. Two other possible scenarios are reduction to nitrogen (N2) gas or conversion into a benign organic nitrogen compound.
    I wish we had some more "concrete" explanation, but the end result is the same, it does actually detoxify nitrite and nitrate. This was unexpected chemically and thus initially we were not even aware of this, however we received numerous reports from customers stating that when they overdosed with Prime they were able to reduce or eliminate the high death rates they experienced when their nitrite and nitrate levels were high. We have received enough reports to date to ensure that this is no fluke and is in fact a verifiable function of the product."

    seems like even seachem themselves also does not know how prime works. sheesh

    i wonder how this detoxication affect the dosing of nitrates in planted tanks?

    thanks |squee|

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