Amonia after water change?

[stingray4540]

I just did a before and after test on my water. ( before and after a water change) Every thing stayed the same accept for the amonia. Heres my results:
Before After
Amonia 0 .25
Nitrite 0 0
Nitrate 20 20
PH 7.4 7.4-.6
KH between 120 & 250 same
Alkalinity 80 same
It was almost a 20% water change wich I do twice a week. Any Idea why I would get amonia. I use aquasafe water conditioner from tetraaqua.

 

[tbone-ike]

Check out these threads:

here

and

here

If your water source has chloramine and your water conditioner removes chlorine (only) the result of the chlorine being removed from the chloramine will be amonia. Some conditioners, like Prime by SeaChem also neutralize the ammonia. That poses some issues with amonia testing however...you'll read about it in the links above. Not sure how your water conditioner works.

 

[Sully]

here is a quick description of how it works--from the people that make it (or at least a common comment on sites that sell it):

"by breaking down the bond between chlorine and ammonia while reducing both fish-toxic chlorine and ammonia components."

not sure what "reducing" means. Could be ammonia to ammonium but it is hardd to tell. What is obvious is that you will continue to get some ammonia result on test immediately after water change. It could be a false positive created by the ammonium--or it could actually be a bit of ammonia.

I would also test 1 hour after water change, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, 12 hours and 24 hours. Or some combination of those hours to see what is happening to the ammonia. A healthy bio filter ought to eliminate it fairly quickly. Making the nominal presence immediately after water change a moot point.

 

[liv2padl]

i suspect that you're using one of the 'conditioners' that converts ammonia (toxic to fish) to ammonium (non-toxic to fish). many test kits will still show a positive ammonia even though there isn't any (it has been conveted to ammonium). i've forgotten which test kits these are but in any event, i'm sure you're safe despite the positive number you're getting for NH3.

 

[Pretender]

Aquasafe does "eliminate" the ammonia from breaking down the chloramine. What that mechanism is, I don't know.

 

[liv2padl]

no, it doesn't ELIMINATE ammonia ... and regardless, NH3 does not "break down" chloramine. chloramine is in fact chlorine bound to ammonia. water conditioners which take care of chloramine, do so by breaking the bond between chlorine and ammonia, and in turn detoxifying chlorine through the use of sodium thiosulfate. the released ammonia is taken care of (or should be) by your biofilter.