ammonia in tap water

[drm315]

Getting ready to start my fishless cycle today. This is also going to be a homeschool chemistry/science project I am doing with my 14 year old. We tested our tap water and found that it has .25-.50 ppm of ammonia. Is this normal? Why would there be ammonia in our tap water?

Also - since this looks like the case, when we add ammonia to the tank at set up do we just add that figure on to 4-5 ppm as our target ammonia level since we aren't starting at a 0 level of ammonia to begin with?

Also - we just tested the pH level and it is at least 7.6 (the highest color on the chart). Do we need to worry about this or try to bring this down?

Thanks in advance to all who respond!

 

[46GFreshwater]

What brand of testing kit do you have?
My tap water has a high pH too, it is 7.8 but the fish that I have (pleco, platy, gourami) are just fine. I have city water and imagine the LFS water is a similar pH.
I have heard of other people having low levels of ammonia in their tap water as well.

 

[drm315]

I have the API Freshwater Master Kit. Yes, I researched the ammonia in tap water question and found that it is pretty common. I will be getting dwarf puffers and they prefer a pH of around 6.5-7. I hope it's not a huge problem if my pH is higher than that.

 

[UntimelyLord]

I have .25 ammonia in my tap water, I triple dose with Prime to the tap water when I do water changes and within 24 hours it will read zero again. The beneficial bacteria will take care of it once you are cycled, and the Prime temporarily detoxifies it.
Have you tried testing the pH with the "high range" pH test? The highest the regular pH test reads is 7.6 so it may actually be higher. In most cases it is best to stick with the pH that you have instead of trying to change it, and the fish will be fine. There are certain fish that are more sensitive to pH though and I'm not experienced with dwarf puffers.