ammonia levels?

[lovemyguppies]

I've been having problems with my ammonia levels being high, and today i randomly decided to just test my tap water, and i found that straight from the tap is 2 ppm, and in my 2 10 gallons the ammonia is about 4ppm, same in my 55 gallon. I'm not to worried about the 55 gallon because we just set it up Monday and only have feeder goldfish in it to get it cycled. Both 10 gallons have been going for about 2 months though, and i do pwc every week. I don't know what to do about this, help please. Also opinions on using goldfish to cycle please.

 

[piao liang yu]

I've been having problems with my ammonia levels being high, and today i randomly decided to just test my tap water, and i found that straight from the tap is 2 ppm, and in my 2 10 gallons the ammonia is about 4ppm, same in my 55 gallon. I'm not to worried about the 55 gallon because we just set it up Monday and only have feeder goldfish in it to get it cycled. Both 10 gallons have been going for about 2 months though, and i do pwc every week. I don't know what to do about this, help please. Also opinions on using goldfish to cycle please.

You might be well served to invest in an RO system. I believe that will fix the ammonia problem. I am not 100% on that though.

As for cycling with goldfish. I have the inclination to not wish any living creature, no matter how insignificant, should endure ongoing prolonged suffering. I used tetra safestart to cycle my tank plus I tested daily and did very frequent pwc's (partial water changes).

You can continue cycling as you are doing and just do more frequent pwc's, but really a reading of 2 on your ammonia right out of the tap is already at a dangerous level. So if I were you I would look into whether an RO system would remedy the ammonia problem.

 

[lovemyguppies]

I bought ammo lock and have been using it, but i have no idea whether or not its actually working considering it says it doesn't remove ammonia just makes it non toxic

 

[piao liang yu]

I bought ammo lock and have been using it, but i have no idea whether or not its actually working considering it says it doesn't remove ammonia just makes it non toxic

Yeah, if it says it makes it non toxic it should help.

 

[Ladybug5399]

I have ammonia in my tap water and I use seachem prime for my water. Prime detoxifies ammonia so it's safe for your fish. It also helps detoxify nitrites and nitrates. It's concentrated so a little goes a long way. It's also safe to double the dose when needed.

 

[lovemyguppies]

I've also added api nitra-zorb to the filter in my 55g tonight. Should this help with the problem?

 

[aqua_chem]

Probably will help. It's not uncommon to have ammonia in your tap. Also, chloramines us to treat city water can be falsely detected by liquid tests as ammonia, so don't pay much heed to it. A healthy, established biofilter can chew through 1 ppm of ammonia pretty fast, and if you use a product like Seachem Prime that both detoxifies chlorines/chloramines and ammonia, then really you have very little to worry about.

 

[lovemyguppies]

A guy at the lfs suggested a Britta filter, any thoughts on this?

 

[lovemyguppies]

Well we got a pur filter and it reduced the ammonia to .5ppm

 

[Borderlesscott]

It could be NH4+ you are reading, a far less harmful form of ammonia, the API test cannot distinguish between NH3 ammonia and NH4 ammonium, try to get a Seachem Alert monitor for the tank, it only monitors NH3. Ammonium is more common in tap water in my area than ammonia.

 

[lovemyguppies]

I actually have one of those and it always reads less than .02 ppm. But one of the guys at the lfs said those things aren't accurate

 

[Borderlesscott]

If you hold it over a bottle of pure ammonia it will change colour in seconds, they work very well - I test mine every now and again on my smaller tanks with the ammonia method as they have a limited lifespan. My main tank is Seneye monitored, which can pick up levels down to 0.000 ppm.

 

[lovemyguppies]

Ok well if it actually works then my tanks are fine. Thank you

 

[aqua_chem]

The relative amounts of ammonia and ammonium only vary by location so much as the pH varies.