Water testing problem

[Paranoid]

Hi All,
De-lurking to get some help with a problem that is driving me nuts.

I have a ten gallon and a one and a half gallon aquarium that have been up and running for about two months. Both were cycled with fish (I now know that was a bad thing to do and will do fishless from now on). Everything went as expected during the cycle for nitrites and nitrates. Both tanks are now at 0 PPM for nitrites and are kept at less than 20 PPM nitrates through water changes. Here is the problem…tests for ammonia (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals NH3/NH4 test kit) still show 1PPM in both tanks. After pulling my hair out for a while I came to the conclusion that my test kit was old and giving false results and confirmed this by testing my tap water (city water source inside the house and a well is used for all outdoor taps) and got the same result. I think problem solved!! Run to tell the wife our fish are safe….she is not buying it though and suggests testing the well water to confirm. I am sure you can see this coming…. She is obviously the smart one in the family and the test confirms it….. 0 PPM. So I am back to square one and don’t have a clue what is in my tap water that isn’t being removed by my dechlorinator (Aquasafe) or the bacteria in my (now I’m not so sure) cycled tanks and more important is it hurting my fish.

Any suggestions for solving this are greatly appreciated, Wayne


PS: I don’t like the idea of switching to well water. One of the previous owners took the inside off the well for reasons unknown to me, but as I live in farm country I assume it was due to some type of contamination. If they didn't want to drink it, i won't trust my fish to live in it.

 

[OrionGirl]

You need to determine if your tap water has chlorine or chloramines. Some test kits will give false readings if you have chloramine, depending on the treatment method used.

 

[Paranoid]

Thanks Oriongirl,
The water conditioner I use says on the bottle that it removes both chlorine and chloramine. Assuming it isn't actually removing the chloramine, and the chloramine is causing the false reading for ammonia, the question becomes is the chloramine hurting the fish?
I am hoping to get a bigger tank for Xmas and don't want to set it up with the tap water until I am sure it is safe..... I am new at this and have made alot of newbie mistakes leading to the loss of a few fish that I was really attached to. Since then I have spent a great deal of time reading a bunch of fish forums (this is my FAV) and learned tons. This water testing issue is the last hurdle I have to feeling that I can keep happy healthy fish.

Thanks, Wayne

 

[Paranoid]

Found the answer....hopefully

It seems that this is not a new subject... this thread seems to hold my answer.
Link to thread here.

I will go out and get some Prime to treat during water changes and see if it cures my false test results.

Thank you Oriongirl for pointing me in the right direction.

Wayne