Ammonia levels in my tap water...

Ack! You just missed it. There was a huge discussion about chloramines, ammonia, neutralizing chlorine with chloramines present, and so on just a couple of weeks ago. The title of the thread was "Here's one for the chemists" or something like that. Several of the senior members, and a lot of the just plain smart/technically savvy ones weighed in with some good stuff. I'd suggest you go find that thread using the search utility.

In the meantime...

I didn't quite understand what you used to start your fishless cycle.

I screwed up at the beginning and didn't read the instructions for my ammonia test kit so I ended up putting too much in when I started my fishless cycle.

Click to expand...

Could you please clarify?

Most likely, you're water utility treats with chloramine, a more stable form of chlorine (because it's coupled with ammonia). When you use a plain dechlorinator on water with chloramine, the chlorine is neutralized and the bound ammonia is freed.

In my chloraminated water, I get readings of about 1 ppm ammonia, rarely more. In a cycled tank, that may not be a problem, because a partial water change will only add a fractional part of that 1 ppm concentration of ammonia to the tank (e.g., a 25% partial change will bring the tank concentration of ammonia to .25 ppm after the change). The more conservative fish keepers don't like to expose their fish to even that amount of ammonia. They use a conditioner that not only neutralizes the chlorine but also detoxifies the ammonia. Amquel and Prime are two products that do so; both leave the detoxed ammonia available to be taken up by the biofilter.

The ammonia in chloraminated water is particularly a problem when cycling, because you want to lower ammonia thru water changes, but the water itself will introduce some ammonia the tank. Amquel can be especially helpful in those situations.

Note that Amquel and Prime will yield inaccurate results with standard ammonia tests. Get a salicylate-based test and you'll be fine.

HTH,
JIm

Here's another weird little pitfall :huh:

I had to look pretty hard to find pure ammonia. Even the stuff sold as "Clear Ammonia" in the grocery store had detergent/surfactants in it, despite the fact that it wasn't labeled as such. How do I know? Simple experiment: I put a quarter cup in a pail and ran water in it. Presto, suds :sick: Not good for bacteria (or other living creatures).

Labeling laws in Canada might make that a non-problem for you, but just in case...