tapwater ammonia/advice

[hootiefish]

Say your tapwater is 1.0 coming out of the tap (api liquid test kit) and you have an uncycled aquarium w/2 danios. How often would you do water changes? The water in the tank never goes under 1.0, even w/a 70% change. However, on our cycled aquariums, it reads 0.
(I have learned that chloromine in city water may cause a false positive in an ammonia reading, so hopefully we don't *really* have that much ammonia in our water.)
So I'm wondering if maybe I should just change it out when it reads over 1.0, since that's what it is straight out of the tap? I have been doing 30-50%'s every other day since Christmas. It finally dawned on me recently to check the tap water, that's when I discovered that it reads 1.0 straight out of the tap. I just started using Prime water conditioner, so far no difference. Also I have 2 plants, I don't know if that would matter but thought I'd mention it. Any opionions?--Does anyone else have ammonia in their taps?

 

[Coler]

yeouch...1 ppm out of the tap is awful; I wouldn't be drinking it if so....anyway, here's what you use http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Prime.html

oops...you're using it; the Prime detoxifies the ammonia but it will still show up on your test; its bound to a non-toxic form but available for your bacteria to work on...so in your tank your base reading is going to be 1 ppm for ammonia, and any increase on that is what you need to watch for when cycled.

I would dose Prime as per bottle, and do a change whenever you see any move over 1 - because the kit won't measure 1.25ppm, or even 1.5 ppm and you don't want it to get all the way up to 2 ppm in the tank.

Then when the nitrites show up, whenever it hits .25 ppm - I wouldn't use the Prime to detox nitrite if at all possible; requires a x5 dose and is for emergencies only.

The plants will really help when the tank is cycled; consuming nitrates.

then, when you are stable on 1 ppm (for your tank) ammonia, and 0 nitrites, and showing some nitrates, add stock very slowly...actually, with the plants, you may not see nitrates, with just the 2 danios in there...if your stable on ammonia and nitrite for 2 weeks or so you're probably ok...but this is what test kits are for, so add slowly and use 'em regularly.

 

[OldMan47]

If you are reading a good 0 on your established tanks, Use some of the filter media from your established tank to speed up the process on your new one. Put the old filter media in the filter for the new tank and get this nitrogen cycle behind you.
I also have about a 1.0 reading on my tap water. What I did when trying to get a new tank cycled was to do my partial water changes using water from my established tanks. Like you said, the water in those tanks was at 0 and soon after a water change, they read 0 again because the bacteria in the established tanks were taking care of the ammonia in the tap water. Because I used filter media from my cycled tank, I only had to deal with it for a week, but this approach did work well.

 

[hootiefish]

Thanks so much for your both replies! I will try putting some water in from an established tank. And filter media. I thought perhaps the rocks that I put in there were enough but maybe not. I wonder sometimes if it is cycled since the readings have been steady for so long, w/0 nitrates and 0 nitrites. But then the fact that the ammonia is showing would mean that it is not. I think I left the new tank sitting empty too long before getting new fish, and the old bacteria from my 10 gal that I had moved in there died.

OldMan47, do you use your water as drinking water? We have a filter on the tap, but it still measured at .50 w/the filter when tested. I'm hoping its just a false positive due to chloromines like I read, though now I'm seriously thinking bottled is the way to go.

 

[Rbishop]

Use Prime and you will be okay. With regular water changes and an established bacteria colony, your tank shoulr read zero on ammonia in 24-48 hrs....

 

[jm1212]

you should contact your water treatment plant about the issue too, not only because of your fish tank but because that much ammoina is not good for you at all.

 

[Rbishop]

you should contact your water treatment plant about the issue too, not only because of your fish tank but because that much ammoina is not good for you at all.

That level of ammonia is way below most all max levels allowed in the States.

 

[wataugachicken]

I have learned that chloromine in city water may cause a false positive in an ammonia reading, so hopefully we don't *really* have that much ammonia in our water.

I'm hoping its just a false positive due to chloromines like I read, though now I'm seriously thinking bottled is the way to go.

Chloramine is a combination of chlorine and ammonia (NH2Cl) and is just as dangerous to fish as those chemicals are separately. In a way it is more dangerous than chlorine because over time chlorine will gas off (evaporate) from the water - chloramine will not. Like others have said - use Prime to treat your water when doing water changes, and you may have to get into some math when deciding if your cycle is finished or not.