Ammonia in tap water

[greensunfish]

My tap water has 4ppm ammonia in it, so every time I do a change I'm putting toxic water into my tanks.

Question: Is it safe to wait for the biofilter to convert the ammonia, or do I have to remove it before I put it in the tank.

[jwddboy]

wow ive never heard of that before! I'd say talk you your water company see what they say. But as a rule Id personally say not to add it if you possibly can... You could use spring/rain/bottled water??

[reichebrown]

city water even well water should not have any amonia in it. i would bring it up at a town hall meeting.

[webcricket]

You likely have chloramine in your tap water (a mixture of chlorine and ammonia) - many tests will show positive for ammonia if chloramine is present in the water. You should be using a water conditioner that specifially neutralizes chloramine before you add the tap water to your tank.

Alternatively, it could in fact be straight up ammonia. The EPA has not established a maximum legal limit in tapwater for the containment of ammonia.

EPA Article Here (http://www.ewg.org/tapwater/contaminants/contaminant.php?contamcode=1003)

[greensunfish]

I've tested the water before using Prime and after and there was not much of a change in the readings.

By the way, I use an AP test kit.

[webcricket]

Prime and most other conditioners would convert the ammonia (NH3) into much less toxic ammonium (NH4) which will then be used up by nitrifying bacteria. The AP freshwater ammonia test kit will give you a false ammonia positive if there is ammonium present as it reads for both NH3/NH4. You'll need to get a test specific for NH3 only to see if it is truly ammonia left in the water.