ammonia troubles from tap

mister ben

mister ben

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Jan 22, 2005
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alright, I'm a little stumped here.

I've been setting up a small Lake Tang. tank (it is fully cycled) and after doing a small water change I noticed trace amounts of ammonia in my water via liquid tests. So, I did another water change, this time around 40% and tested again. This time the ammonia was around .25 ppm. I decided the ammonia must be coming from my tap water so I tested it to find that sure enough, my tap is over 1 ppm (ammonia).

So, I filled a bucket and added a double dose of Prime and left it with a bubbler going for a few hours. Then I tested it to make sure I was using the correct amount (I use a double dose already because my water is loaded with chloramines). Ammonia went down to .5 ppm, but was certainly not eliminated. So, I added another double dose and tested again. Still about .5 ppm, maybe a little lower. I should also add that to make sure I was testing accurately, I tested another tank and got a reading of 0 ppm (ammonia)

Now I haven't been sleeping well lately and perhaps I am just missing the obvious (wouldn't be the first time). But what the heck am I supposed to do to alleviate my fish without suitable replacement water? I added some Prime directly to the tank per the directions to help with the toxins, but I need a solution.

Thanks in advance, sorry for the novel.
 
cant help you answer . but tested my tap when i read your post and i also have about .50 amonia in my tap water so i guess ill just watch this thread and see what the answer is as well

onepawnup
 
It's not ammonia that you are reading with your test kit. It's chloramine. Chloramine is created by binding ammonia with chlorine and many municipalities are moving towards the use of it over chlorine.

Most test kits cannot distinguish between chloramine and ammonia, which is why you are picking up ammonia with the test.

It's very important that you use a water conditioner, like Prime or Amquel+, that will deal with chloramines properly. Aging the water will hot help, they will not disapate over time like chlorine will and are deadly to fish.

When you treat your water, the chloramine is "unbound" and the ammonia is bound into a harmless ionized form that is harmless to the fish, but still can be used by the beneficial bacteria. This is why you still get an ammonia reading after treating the water with conditioners.

Roan
 
So my best bet is to continue treating my water with Prime as I have been and ignore the ammonia readings? I can do that, but I only have one question; Why have I never noticed this before?
 
Most water treatment facilities usually use chlorine rather than chloramine. But, they can and do occasionally switch without notice to their customers. Your water utility has probably switched. They will probably switch back to chlorine eventually.

Edit: And, to be clear, treatment of chlorine with Prime will NOT register ammonia, while treatment of chloramine will... hence, when the utility switches to chloramine, you get the "false positive" readings of ammonia due to the chemical reaction far better described by Roan above. :)
 
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SnowHeart said:
Most water treatment facilities usually use chlorine rather than chloramine. But, they can and do occasionally switch without notice to their customers. Your water utility has probably switched. They will probably switch back to chlorine eventually.
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This is incorrect. Most water treatment facilities are now using chloramine, not chlorine, and many others are switching permanently. It is thought that chloramine is more effective at rendering the water safe.

Roan
 
mister ben said:
So my best bet is to continue treating my water with Prime as I have been and ignore the ammonia readings? I can do that, but I only have one question; Why have I never noticed this before?
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Yes, you can ignore the readings or buy a test kit that does not use the Nessler test. SeaChem MultiTest Ammonia Free & Total tests for both free ammonia and total ammonia.

Your water company probably just switched over to chloramine, which is what more and more companies are doing, as -- from what I've read -- the combination of ammonia and chlorine is stronger and more "stable" than chlorine alone.

Roan
 
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