Ammonia in my tap water

O

Ourfirsttank

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Nov 1, 2007
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Calgary, Canada
I have been having a heck of a time keeping my daughter's tank stable. We have a 10g unplanted tank. We have 3 guppies and one large platy. We also have about 18 guppy fry between 2 and 6 weeks old. My nitrates are 0 but my nitrites are always .25 and ammonia about .25 or lower but never 0. I tested my tap water and it seems that is my problem. I use cycle, waste control and aqua plus water conditioner but the ammonia just won't drop to 0. Under normal circumstances I d o a 25-50% water change each week depending on how dirty the gravel is. The tank was cycled over a month ago but now we are dealing with this. Is it a mini cycle? or is it the tap water? My son's 2.6g has only 1 guppy in it and his nitrates and nitrites are 0 but the ammonia is also .25. Should I do anything beyond more frequent water changes?

Any help is appreciated. The other option suggested was buying RO water but I don't think that is feasable right now.
 
sounds like chloramine
 
I am using the API liquid tests. The ammonia in the tap is .25 as well. The Aqua Plus is supposed to get rid of Chloramine but maybe I haven't been putting enough in with each water change.
 
the chloramine is ammonia bonded with chlorine ..it is more stable than chlorine alone .
when you nuetralize chloramine you break the ammonia and chlorine bond..the chlorine is then allowed to be removed from the water..the ammonia left behind is then bound with another H to turn NH3 in to NH4 ..ammonium...which is less toxic to the fish.

api test kits test for total ammonia(ammoina+ammonium) so you can see a 'false' positive..technically it is not a false positive but a false reading of NH3..
 
Use Prime..it will bind the ammonia to the non-toxic form, but still leave it available for the bacteria.
 
My tap water is .25 ammonia.After a water change even 50% the ammonia will read zero always immediately.Your tank may need to mature.When cleaning the filter use only tank water.
 
Thanks for your help. I will pick up some Prime tonight.
 
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