I have seen these claims before and found them interesting. I can’t refute or prove them because I haven’t taken a chemistry class in 25 years, but the part that always makes me wonder is - if it is the snake oil it is claimed to be, that would mean they are making huge amounts of money on a product that can be proven to be fraudulently marketed with at home testing. Where are the lawsuits and charges? This isn’t a gray area where the claim is “proven to make fish feel super happy” or something unprovable. This is a specific claim that you say is specifically refutable. So either they are making a claim based on some criteria we are not testing, or no one cares to do anything about outright fraud…the latter would seem odd.We also failed to detect Prime reducing free ammonia concentration with Seachem colorimetric films in their ammonia test kit and the ammonia alert badge. Seachem says these products detect free ammonia and can be used to observe Prime working. The conclusion is the same using Seneye or Seachem colorimetric films: Prime does not neutralize, combine with or detoxify ammonia in saltwater. And I will go out on a limb and say the similar claim about reducing nitrite and nitrate concentration is nonsense.
At this point a reaction mechanism that explains why Prime does not work in saltwater would be more useful.
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Not picking a fight, it’s just always baffled me that this comes up so frequently on aquarium forums - incidentally I have seen the exact same claims on freshwater forums - but has never gone anywhere.