whoah.. ammonia in my tap water?

[calimako]

hi people,
I have been doing water changes using the water out of my tap for years now. i have a 40 gallon freshwater community tank.. recently, i decided to test the ammonia levels in my tap water. before i would get a 0ppm ammonia reading from my tap water. Surprisingly, when I did my last test, I got a .5ppm reading! I literally tried all water sources in all rooms and the reading is consistant from 2 different test kits. Only the drinking water coming from the purifier in the kitchen reads 0ppm.

so I did some research and heard that tap water treated with chloramine will have ammonia in it. If this is the case, do you think I am ok with continuing to do water changes with my tap water? I make sure I add Kordons amqel and novalek (spelling?) everytime i do a water change.

I was thinking about using the drinking water from the kitchen but it is located clear across the house and i would hate to lug buckets to the tank everytime i have to do awater change. and the ph from the drinking faucet is way off from my tank's parameters.

what about buying a PUR water filter for the faucet near my tank? would that help?
any other suggestions? any would be appreciated.. thanks

cali

 

[OrionGirl]

Check the type of test kit you have--some will give total ammonia/ammonium, while others give only ammonia. If you have to treat for chloramines, you need one of the latter to get an accurate reading.

 

[JSchmidt]

Amquel will take care of chloramines just fine. The test you want is the salicylate ammonia test (uses two reagents, not one). It will give you the amount of free or toxic ammonia when using stuff like Amquel.

Jim

 

[calimako]

let me get this right

so if i have no free or toxic ammonia, I am ok to use this water?
thanks

 

[victimizati0n]

it doesnt really matter.

your fish produce ammonia.

When you do a water change, the ammo will just get converted to nitrites, then nitrates.

 

[anonapersona]

it doesnt really matter.

your fish produce ammonia.

When you do a water change, the ammo will just get converted to nitrites, then nitrates.

True, but the ammonia spike from a large water change, if the water was not properly treated, would harm the fish. Smaller frequent changes would be handled by the biofilter, but all that is irrelevant if the proper water conditioner is used.