I came across Seachem Safe by accident when a few of my LFS ran out of Seachem Prime. I couldn’t believe it! And it was water change day soon.
Then one of the LFS helper told me why don’t I use Safe. They’re basically the same stuff. I was like @.@ And it cost way cheaper than Prime gallon for gallon treatment.
Same but Slightly Different
The difference are basically:
- Seachem Safe is in powder form while Prime is Liquid
- Prime is stabilised in a bottle ready to use
Well, everyone will come to the idea that why don’t I premixed Safe in a suspend liquid and store it for future use. Why bother with Prime? The answer is you can’t. Prime has addictive added to make the solution stable for a long shelf life. While Safe after mixing with water has a limited storage life and you need to use it immediately.
And the biggest headache when using Safe is that Safe is meant to be used with really large tanks. The dosage is ridiculously small – 1/4 teaspoon for 300 gallons. Yes. not 30 gallon but 300 gallons with that small amount.
A bottle of Seachem Safe is enough to treat 60,000 US gallons! Or 240,000 L! Holly cow! ?
And that’s the only source of reference. If you want to dose it for 10 gallon tank or even a 20 gallon tank, you need to go into math whiz mode. Every water change day was a nightmare. I cannot find out how much to dose for my 75g, 24g, and 11g. So I dose based on estimation… …
Then I purchase a Norpro Mini Stainless Steel Mearuring Spoons set! (Amazon SG SGD13 free shipping | Amazon US USD6.90)
If you can wait you can also consider AliExpress (SGD3.00 free shipping to Singapore, or USD2.50 shipped to worldwide)
What a god send!! It measures powder and liquid in teaspoon unit! HA!
The largest spoon is a TAD which is exactly 1/4 of a teaspoon! Then it has other smaller spoons, Dash (1/8), Pinch (1/16), Smidgen (1/32), Drop (1/64).
Normal Dosage Table
The below dosage is for removing chlorine and chloramine.
| TAD | 1/4 Teaspoon | 300 gallon |
| Dash | 1/8 Teaspoon | 150 gallon |
| Pinch | 1/16 Teaspoon | 75 gallon |
| Smidgen | 1/32 Teaspoon | 37.5 gallon |
| Drop | 1/64 Teaspoon | 18.75 gallon |
So the smallest possible application is 17 gallon?
No not really.
During my water change day, I would mix a TAD with 30 ml of water. That will equate to 30ml for 300 gallon. So if you extract 1ml, that is enough for 10 gallon.
Same for using a PINCH. Use a PINCH to mix with 75ml of water. That will equate to 75ml for 75 gallon. Therefore, 1ml for 1 gallon. 10ml for 10 gallon.
| Seachem Safe Amount | Mixture Amount | Treatment Volume |
| a TAD mixed with | 30 ml of water | 1 ml for 10 gallon |
| a DASH mixed with | 30 ml of water | 1 ml for 5 gallon |
| a PINCH mixed with | 75 ml of water | 1ml for 1 gallon |
| a SMIDGEN mixed with | 30 ml of water | 1 ml for 1.25 gallon |
| a DROP mixed with | 10 ml of water | 1 ml for 1.9 gallon |
Ammonia Removal
| TAD | 1/4 Teaspoon | 75 gallon |
| Dash | 1/8 Teaspoon | 37.5 gallon |
| Pinch | 1/16 Teaspoon | 18.75 gallon |
| Smidgen | 1/32 Teaspoon | 9.38 gallon |
| Drop | 1/64 Teaspoon | 4.69 gallon |
Detoxify Nitrite and Nitrate
You can actually detoxify nitrite and nitrate in an emergency by dosing 4 times the normal dose!
