Seachem Prime and Seachem Pristine are designed to make your tank water safe for your pet fish. So, can you use these products simultaneously?
You can find out in this guide at Aquarium Blueprints.
Can you use Seachem Prime and Pristine at the same time?
You should be able to use Seachem Prime and Seachem Pristine together without any issues.
Prime is a chemical solution that will detoxify ammonia, nitrites and nitrates for up to 2 days.
Pristine contains bacteria that takes up to 3 days to establish itself. Once established, it will breakdown excess wastes, resulting in less ammonia, nitrites and nitrates buildup.
These two Seachem products complement each other. Prime will help you with short-term spikes to the harmful nitrogen compounds while Pristine will help reduce the buildup of these compounds in the long term.
How to use Seachem Prime and Pristine during a water change with tap water
As we stated above, you should be able to use Seachem Prime with Seachem Pristine without any issues. If you are using tap water to refill your aquarium during a water change, however, then you may accidentally kill off the bacteria from Pristine due to the chlorine and chloramine.
To see how you can use both Prime and Pristine when you are using tap water to perform a water change, you can take the following steps:
1. First off, remove the used tank water from your aquarium.
2. If you want to clean the filter sponge, filter media and other objects in the tank, then make sure you rinse them using the used tank water you plan to throw away or used as fertilizer for your household plants.
3. After taking out water, we suggest adding Seachem Prime directly to your fish tank.
You should dose based on how much your fish tank can hold. For example, you can put in a capful, which is 5 milliliters, if you have a 50-gallon aquarium.
4. Next, you can add tap water to refill your tank to its previous water level.
5. We then recommend waiting a few minutes for the incoming tap water to mix with the rest of your tank water as well as for Prime to remove the chlorine and chloramine.
6. Before adding Pristine, make sure you turn off any UV or ozone equipment.
If you have recently used antibiotics to treat your fish, then you should also avoid using Pristine. Instead, you need to add carbon media to your filter for several days to remove the antibiotics from the water column of your fish tank.
7. After making sure that the UV or ozone equipment is turned off, as well as ensuring that there is on antibiotics in the water, you should now be able to add Pristine to your tank water.
Based on the official instructions, you can add one capful, which is 5 milliliters, for every 20 gallons, if you are putting it in your tank for the first time. If you used this product for your aquarium before, then you can use a half dose instead.
8. After adding Pristine, make sure you leave your UV or ozone equipment turned off for up to 3 days.
You should also make sure that you don’t do another water change or use antibiotics for a maximum of three days so that the beneficial bacteria colonies of Pristine can grow without any issues in your fish tank.
