Pristine is one of several water treatment products from Seachem that you can use for your aquarium. So, is this product harmful for your pet shrimp and snails?
You can find out in this guide at Aquarium Blueprints.
What is Seachem Pristine?
Seachem Pristine is a mixture of bacteria that will consume large proteins in your tank.
This product will help get rid of sludge, oil slick, excess food, wastes and other detritus. As a result, it will also help reduce excess ammonia, nitrites and nitrates from being produced.
Furthermore, these bacteria colonies, when established, will build biopolymers that will trap small particles in you tank, improving the water clarity in your tank.
Is Seachem Pristine harmful for shrimps and snails?
The bacteria from Seachem Pristine should not harm your pet shrimps and/or snails. In fact, it can only be beneficial as these microscopic organism will get rid of the wastes in your tank.
Trying to clean a shrimp-only tank can be especially bothersome as you have to make sure that you don’t accidentally kill the smaller shrimps. Not to mention that shrimps are sensitive to changing water parameters, so a big water change may cause extreme stress to the invertebrates.
With Pristine, you won’t have to clean your shrimp-only tank as often. Since this product should also reduce the production of ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, then you also won’t have to do a water change as often.
How to add Seachem Pristine to a tank with shrimps and snails
In order to safely add Seachem Pristine to a tank with shrimps and snails, you can take the following steps:
1. If you are adding Pristine for the first time, then you need to add 5 mL for every 20 gallons (or 80 liters). 5 mL is a full capful if you are using the cap that comes with the bottle for measurement.
If you don’t have a 20-gallon or 80-liter tank, then you can check out this Seachem Pristine dosage calculation guide to find the exact amount you should be adding to your tank.
2. The mixture of bacteria from Pristine should take a maximum of three days to establish in your tank.
Therefore, we recommend not doing any water change during that time period. Otherwise, you may end up slowing down the beneficial bacterial growth.
3. After adding the initial dose, you won’t have to add any more Pristine to your aquarium unless you are either planning to thoroughly clean out the tank and/or planning to add more living creates.
For additional doses, you should add 2.5 mL, or half of a capful, for every 20 gallons (or 80 liters) of water that your tank can hold.
4. If you managed to slightly overdose your tank with Pristine, then you don’t need to worry as excess bacteria won’t harm the shrimps and/or snails.
If you severely overdose, however, then we recommend performing 10% water changes spread 24 hours apart for 3 days. Otherwise, you may eventually get spikes in ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.
After 3 days have passed after the overdose, we suggest testing your water to see if there are any spikes in ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.
If the ammonia and nitrite levels are above 0 ppm and/or nitrate level is above 20 ppm, then we recommend that you continue to do daily 10% water changes until you get these levels under control.