Ammonia in tap water?

[kellya]

We have just tested our (tap) water using two different ammonia kits (Hagen and API). Apparently there is approx .5 of ammonia in our water? Is that even possible? We are on city water but typically drink r/o bottled water. We do have a water softener but it has been turned off for the past few days.

My husband right now is testing our r/o water to see what are results are going to be with it. Are we not doomed though if our tap water has ammonia in it to start??

Kelly

[lilly]

I have it too, you are not doomed. You just will have a bit of ammonia when you do water changes. I was told to do 25% water changes. I have done up to 50% and the fish have been fine.

Kind of a nasty shock isn't it? My water also has nitrate.

[Blueiz]

Once your biofilter is established there shouldnt be a problem with ammonia being in your tap. I would highly suggest using a water conditioner such as prime that detoxifies ammonia therefore you wont have to worry about having a short ammonia spike in your tank when you do a water change even tho it is cycled. That is a rather high reading tho. Keep a check on it every few days, it may fluctuate.

Are you going to be doing a fishless cycle? Or do you already have the fish?

Blue

[webcricket]

It's more common than you might think for ammonia to be found in tap water. It's presence in unregulated by the EPA.

I find this website frightening, a city in Idaho has 14ppm in their "drinking" water:
http://www.ewg.org/tapwater/contaminants/contaminant.php?contamcode=1003

[kellya]

This is really bothering me...not just from an aquarium perspective but from a health perspective as well - I mean ammonia in water can't be a good thing. I do have bottled water as well - should I use that. I know it isn't recommened but neither is ammonia in tap water I'd imagine.

How am I ever going to get our ammonia down to zero if it's already present in the tap water? Is it even possible to have a cycled tank when this is what I am dealing with? We also have a higher PH (7.6-7.8) which my husband read somewhere increases ammonia toxicity?

Right now we have AquaPlus as our water conditioner since that it what came with our kit/is available at our LFS. I'm not sure if Prime is available in Canada but if it is I can maybe pick some up this weekend if it is better than AquaPlus. We were planning on travelling to a Big Al's on the weekend anyway.

Gosh this is frustrating.

Kelly

[livingword26]

I have a fairly cheap water filter that takes all the ammonia, chlorine and other stuff out of the water. It is only designed for drinking water so it is not very fast, but I have a 15 gallon tank, and it works fine for me. Here is a link:

http://www.aquasana.com/catalog.cfm

[Rallysman]

just a slightly related article you might consider:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine

[Hereford]

Rallysman: Just a slightly related article you might consider:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine
An excellent writeup. Thanks!

Another common additive in municipal water is calcium or sodium hydroxide. (For corrosion control.) I found that this gives my raw tap water a pH of almost nine. Sitting outside in a pail for a day or so brings it close to seven.