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What to do if Seachem Pristine is not working

Seachem Pristine is a specialty product that will help make your tank look cleaner in addition to improving its water quality. If this solution doesn’t appear to be working as advertised, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Aquarium Blueprints to see what you can do to resolve the problem.

1. The first step we recommend taking is to make sure you turn off your UV and/or ozone equipment if you have these turned on in your fish tank. Otherwise, both will harm the bacteria introduced by Seachem Pristine.

2. You should also make sure that you are dosing the correct amount of the product.

For the first dose, you should be adding 5 mL, which is a capful, for every 10 gallons or 40 liters of the water volume in your tank.

3. Before adding Pristine, make sure you shake the bottle well. Otherwise, you may end up adding a lower concentration of the bacteria.

4. It can take up to 72 hours for the bacteria from Seachem Pristine to establish themselves in your tank. Therefore, we recommend that you simply wait.

5. If, after waiting at least 72 hours, Pristine still seems to be ineffective, then you can try dosing more of the product.

For subsequent dosage, you can aim for 2.5 mL, or half of a capful, for every 10 gallons or 40 liters of the water volume in your tank.

6. It is also very important to note that Seachem Pristine won’t directly reduce ammonia, nitrites and/or nitrates in your tank. Instead, the bacteria from the bottle will help break down the organic wastes, which should slow the production of these nitrogen compounds.

If you need to remove ammonia and/or nitrites from your tank water, then we recommend taking a look at this article.

To remove nitrates from your aquarium, we suggest taking a look at this guide.

7. If you are using tap water when refilling your fish tank during the water change, then it may contain chlorine and/or chloramine. Both of these chemical compounds will end up killing the bacteria from Pristine as well as the beneficial bacteria colonies that are consuming the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in your aquarium.

In order to prevent this from happen, make sure you use a water conditioner, like Seachem Prime to remove chlorine and chloramine from the tap.

8. You should make sure that the Seachem Pristine bottle you are using did not exceed its expiration date, which is set 4 years to the day it was originally manufactured.

If the product has expired, then it is very likely that the bacteria living the bottle have perished, which makes the solution ineffective when it comes to cleaning your tank and keeping the water quality high.

9. There is also a chance that the Pristine bottle has been spoiled. For instance, if you leave the top of the bottle opened, then something may have gotten inside that may have caused the bacteria to die off.

If you believe that this is the case, then you may be better off getting a brand-new bottle of Seachem Pristine.