# Seachem Prime vs Seachem Safe....



## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Safe is the dry version of Prime. They are the same thing. Safe is just highly concentrated because it's a powder.

If you're not going through 50-100 gallons of water a week, Safe may not be for you. If you're just mixing up 5-10gal and aren't comfortable with the risks of overdosing, stick with Prime.

I'd stick with Prime, as it's still really cheap. It's easier to use if you're just filling up a 5gal bucket every week.


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## Soup12 (Nov 10, 2012)

I will use prime for my small tanks for the convenience, my larger tanks will use safe :0

or

can i premix seachem safe, how long will this be good for?


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Safe isn't really something you can mix with water treat with later. 

You could, say, fill up a bucket with water, treat it with Safe and then keep a power head in the bucket for circulation. That'd be fine until you used it.


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

I've been using the same 500ml bottle of Prime for at least a year now. It's still 3/4+ full.


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## Sake (Mar 30, 2012)

> can i premix seachem safe, how long will this be good for?


As Somewhat said it's not a good idea. On the seachem website


> Q: Can I mix Seachem Safe with water and store the solution to use later on. So instead of using the dry powder, I can use it pre-dissolved.
> 
> A: Safe does not have the stabilizers, like Prime, to keep it stable in liquid form. We do not recommend mixing it and storing it for future use.


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## waterxnge (Aug 20, 2005)

Sorry to bump such an old thread but I hope someone can shed some light onto the notion that Seachem Safe is not stable in liquid form. What I don't understand is aren't we using it in liquid form in a fish tank? In X number of days or weeks or months in a fish tank, does the chlorine/choramine suddenly become a problem again? If not, doesn't this imply that it's OK to pre-mix Safe and keep it in a different container of water as Safe doesn't know if it's in a tank or a pre-mixed solution to be used later? I know I must be missing some simple/reasonable explanation so I'm looking forward to hearing thoughts on this.


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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

Seachem safe is powder and doesnt have stabilizers in it like prime has. Once mixed with water, it runs its course removing chlorine,ammonia etc...then loses it's usefulness. I guess you can compare it to chelaters that keep our ferts in the water colum longer. 

chlorine can only be added to your tank. So everytime tap water chlorine is added, other wise it cant from anywhere else. I hope this helped


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## Grobbins48 (Oct 16, 2017)

I have been using Safe for the better part of a year now. It is a great value vs. prime for doing frequent and large water changes. You need to use quite a small amount do get it to work properly. For me I just dry dose it by shaking what feels like the right amount into the tank moments before the fresh water pours in. Not sure if this is the best way to go, but it has been working for me. I change about 30ish gallons each water change. Directions give 1/4 tsp for every 300 gallons, so by my math here are some other doses for common measuring spoon sizes: 

150 gallons = 1/8

75 gallons = 1/16

37.5 gallons = 1/32

18.75 gallons = 1/64

So if I take the spoons out 1/32 would probably be optimal for me. Pretty easy- guess I should just stick with using the spoons to make the Safe last even longer!


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## Cichlid-140 (Sep 28, 2018)

I do weekly 50% 77.5 gal water changes for my tank and use Safe for them. I also keep a bottle of Prime for my QT and other uses where the smaller volume is prohibitive to using Safe. For the water changes I use 0.5g of Safe. That's about as small a quantity I would feel comfortable weighing out with my scale. I check calibration on my scale regularly and verify accuracy with cal weights down to 1g. 

My tap is low in KH. As time passes that KH is depleted and the pH goes down. I have seen where using other products during a large percentage water change has led to a release of Ammonia from Ammonium too rapidly to be contained by the bio-filter due to an upward pH shift. I lost stock as a consequence. It's important not to discount the value of the ability of Safe and Prime to sequester Ammonia in a non-toxic condition. Either product will give about a two day window for your bio-filter to catch up with such changes. I find insurance is cheap compared to the alternative.


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## waterxnge (Aug 20, 2005)

KZB said:


> Seachem safe is powder and doesnt have stabilizers in it like prime has. Once mixed with water, it runs its course removing chlorine,ammonia etc...then loses it's usefulness. I guess you can compare it to chelaters that keep our ferts in the water colum longer.
> 
> chlorine can only be added to your tank. So everytime tap water chlorine is added, other wise it cant from anywhere else. I hope this helped


Thanks for the reply. I don't mean to belabor the point but let me these follow-up questions which may help to get to the answer. I'd love to hear anyone's answers to these.

Say I treat 100 gallons of water with Safe. So once all of the chlorine, ammonia, etc. are removed with Safe, that water is now ready to be used for a water change. What in regards to "stability" causes that water to not be recommended for use in a water change say 4 months later if I don't use that treated water immediately in a fish tank? And if there's an answer to this question, why is that answer not a problem for the treated water in an aquarium (as opposed the same treated water sitting in a different storage container to be used later)?

The real question is why can't water by pre-mixed with Safe to be used later? Hopefully the above questions will give you an idea why I don't understand the "not stable in water long term" explanation. Thanks again.

Edit: I just read Cichlid-140's responds more closely and see the notion of the bio-filter in an aquarium being the difference. That can make sense, thanks.


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## Cichlid-140 (Sep 28, 2018)

jke000 said:


> Thanks for the reply. I don't mean to belabor the point but let me these follow-up questions which may help to get to the answer. I'd love to hear anyone's answers to these.
> 
> Say I treat 100 gallons of water with Safe. So once all of the chlorine, ammonia, etc. are removed with Safe, that water is now ready to be used for a water change. What in regards to "stability" causes that water to not be recommended for use in a water change say 4 months later if I don't use that treated water immediately in a fish tank? And if there's an answer to this question, why is that answer not a problem for the treated water in an aquarium (as opposed the same treated water sitting in a different storage container to be used later)?
> 
> ...


With Safe/Prime Ammonia is not removed, it is sequestered (as Ammonium I believe). It's still in the tank. It will still register on most if not all Ammonia tests. The caveat is that the sequestration is temporary. It only lasts about two days and then the Ammonium reverts back to Ammonia and you're back to square one. During that time, however, it is still available to the bio-filter for conversion to Nitrite/Nitrate.


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