Seachem Prime Dosing Calculator

Many tasks in the aquarium hobby become . . . quite repetitive.  I wonder how many water changes I’ve performed on our two tanks over the past decade. Bunches!

One repetitive task I’ve discovered is looking up how much Seachem Prime water conditioner I need to use.  I always want this website to be helpful for others so here is a quick and handy calculator to help you determine the quantity of Seachem Prime needed for your tank or water change.

Seachem Prime Dosing for a nano aquarium

For additional information on what Seachem Prime does and how to use it, visit my review page.

Instructions on How to Use the Seachem Prime Dosing Calculator:

It’s pretty simple – start by choosing your unit of measure (US Gallons, Liters, or US Quarts).  Next, enter the volume of water you are conditioning.

The output is in mL or drops.  I have an article on why drops are a good unit of measure for nano tanks.

disposable plastic pipette used for dosing small quantities in a nano aquarium

If drops work well as your unit of measure, these disposable pipettes work great.  Just draw up the fluid, dose the desired number of drops, and return the excess back to the bottle.  These pipettes also have markings to the nearest 1/2 mL and a capacity of up to 3 mL.

If you need something bigger, these syringes work well for up to 10 mL and have resolution (markings) to the nearest 1/10 mL.  If you need more than 10 mL, you can of course dispense multiple syringe fulls.

Caveats to Using the Seachem Prime Dosing Calculator:

I’d like to emphasize that the dosing ratio is provided by Seachem on their instructions.  The current instructions for Seachem Prime are found here and are as follows:

“Use 1 capful (5 mL) for each 200 L (50 US gallons) of new water. For smaller volumes, please note each cap thread is approximately 1 mL. May be added to aquarium directly, but better if added to new water first. If adding directly to aquarium, base dose on aquarium volume. Sulfur odor is normal. For exceptionally high chloramine concentrations, a double dose may be used safely. To detoxify nitrite in an emergency, up to 5 times normal dose may be used. If temperature is > 30 °C (86 °F) and chlorine or ammonia levels are low, use a half dose.”

I’ve added the bold bit above for emphasis.  Make sure to pay attention to the difference between conditioning water separately from your tank and conditioning the entire tank.

The ratio listed above (5 mL of Seachem Prime for each 200L of Water) is what I have built into the above calculator.  I’m using the pharmaceutical standard of 20 drops in 1 mL.

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