NH3 in Tap Source - Help

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BHRay

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Nov 27, 2002
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girard, oh
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I just recently moved. Called the water company to see what they do about disinfection. I asked if they use chlorine or chloramine. The guy says that they use NH3 to produce chloromine. I'm not sure about the process. I am going down there this afternoon to get a copy of the water analysis. I checked the tap water - NH3 = 1.0 using Aquarium Pharmaceutical test kit. I made up a gallon of water and dosed with Kordon NovAqua, NH3 still 1.0 I checked the tank (I did a 10% change 2 days ago), NH3 = 0.0.

So evidently the tank can respond to the 0.1 NH3 (remember 10% water change). But I still feel that it can't be good for the fish. What can I do? Will AmQuel knock it out? NovAqua says that it is for chlorine, not chloromine - Kordon suggests AmQuel for chloromine. Would a carbon filter on the tap extract the NH3/Chloromine?
 
No, carbon won't pull the chloramine out. What you need is to use a product that breaks the chloramine bond AND binds the resulting ammonia into ammonium. Check your test kit--most likely, it detects ammonia and ammonium. NovAqua will not do anything about chlorine or chloramine, which is why you should use the Amquel.
 
Yep. Amquel will break the chloramine into chlorine and ammonia. It will then neutralize the chlorine and bind the ammonia into ammonium--which is bio-available but not toxic to fish.
 
As an alternative to Amquel, you can also try Prime. Its more concentrated, so a bottle of equal size to a regular dechlorinator bottle will last longer.. though it is more expensive. I've used Prime for a couple of years now, and I'm quite happy with it.

-Richer
 
My city water comes out of the tap with NH3=2.0 :rolleyes: 'cause it has chlorine AND chloramine added, plus agricultural run-off, so now it carries lead, too, but that's another problem.

I use Kordon's AmQuel+ and titrate the amount to get NH3=0.25 (sometimes it needs about a teaspoon per gallon or 10 times the standard dose). Kordon has great technical info available online, look here for more info. AmQuel+ is completely non-toxic, even in overdose, but the reactions use oxygen so Kordel recommends keeping your tank well-aerated (lots of surface movement).

Please note that water systems titrate their chemical additives to meet changing conditions, so if you are worried about your tap water you should test it frequently and adjust your conditioner amounts accordingly. Please don't rely on the reports your water company publishes once a year, as those are marketing materials and not scientific results.

My apologies to any honest water company chemists who may read this. :)
 
Amquel and Prime both work quite well on chloramines. I prefer Amquel because you can still test for ammonia, if needed, using a salicylate test kit. If you use Prime, it will bollix up even a salicylate kit. Your best recourse when using Prime is to get one of the in-tank ammonia-detecting shields (which, coincidentally are also made by Seachem, maker of Prime!).

HTH,
Jim
 
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