Ammonia

[MeAirlinePilot]

Hello all...I have a question that I have never run across before and I'd like to see what everyone thought. Many of you know that I work at PetsMart and people bring in their aquarium water to have it tested. Many people bring in water from a newly set up tank that has NO fish in it. When I test it, it has ammonia at levels of about 4.0ppm. Yes 4.0, not 0.4. I'm like, "that's weird." I thought you only get ammonia from having fish in an aquarium. So the next day, someone else brings in water to get tested, and their water tested 3.5ppm for ammonia. They said their tank had been setup for about two hours and brought in some water to make sure their pH was okay. I'm thinking somethings wrong here, water from the tap shouldn't have ammonia in it because ammonia is deadly. So I ask a co-worker of mine what's up with everyone's water having ammonia in it, especially when it's a brand new tank with 0 fish in it. He told me, "all tap water has ammonia in it. The water company puts in small amounts of ammonia to help keep the water clean." I'm like, what in the world?! I've never heard of this before. So the following day I bring in my test kit from home which works perfectly and I tested the store's water straight from the tap. What do you know, there is 3.2 ppm of ammonia STRAIGHT from the tap! Is this normal?! I'm freaking out because I have NEVER seen this before. My tap water at home doesn't have ammonia in it. By the way, the guy that I work with has been working at PetsMart for 15 years and said it's perfectly normal for tap water to have ammonia in it. Is this true? Shouldn't ammonia at that level be making us sick? Thanks so much! ~Bryson~

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Thats very strange. If it makes fish sick it can't be good for us?

I await answers too. :)

[JSchmidt]

Tap water treated with chloramine will have ammonia in it (the ammonia bonds with chlorine, making the chlorine more stable). I've usually only heard of tap water with chloramines testing in the 1.0 ppm range for ammonia, though....

Jim

[blitzen25bm]

yea, there will be some ammonia. try using a new test kit.

[Slappy*McFish]

Read all about it.

http://www.epa.gov/region9/water/chloramine.html

http://www.awwarf.org/newsAndEvents/publications/ResearchApps/chloram.aspx

http://pubgis.co.pinellas.fl.us/pcuweb_live/ChloraminesQA02.cfm

good ol' Google:cool:

[anonapersona]

If these people have chloramine treated water, they need to be sold the correct conditioners. Some break the chloramine bond and bind the ammonia, others simply free the ammonia.

Most ammonia test kits will show bound and unbound ammonia as a single number -- not too useful as only unbound ammonia is dangerous.

Find a Salycilate based test -- not too many out there, perhaps Tetra, got to read the fine print to know, I think Seachem will read unbound ammonia.

[RTR]

To comply with current regulations, many water utilities are using chloramine, more will do so in the future. So we might as well get used to it.

Reading the fine print on the "conditioner" bottle is critical, as has already been pointed out. Just breaking the chlorine-ammonia bond and neutralizing the chlorine is not enough. The conditioner needs to bind the ammonia as well. Seachem is the only test I know which allows you the differentiate bound and unbound ammonia. Do not buy any ammonia test using Nessler's reagent unless you have untreated well water - it is dark ages stuff and not adequate for modern water supplies. The trick is to find out which is being used, Nessler's or Salycilate. The latter is normally a multi-component test kit, not single-step.

The high ammonia readings given do seem a bit high to me as well. I have not read any that high from my local water.