Ammonia And Amquel Question

[ER2011]

I have cycled my 55G freshwater tank over the last few weeks using pure ammonia that I got from a hardware store.

The ammonia in the tank is reading zero, same with the nitrites, but it's time for a water change to knock down the nitrate.

My question is this. My tap water measures about .75-1.00PPM for Ammonia.
So, if I use a product like Amquel, this detoxifies the ammonia essentially making it 0PPM correct?

But since it's only detoxifying it, it'll still read 1.00PPM but it'll be completely safe?
Am I understanding that right?

I just dont want to dump 25G or whatever of ammonia water in...
Sucks that my tap is so high

 

[blert]

It will detoxify it for about 24 hours. By then your BB needs to have dealt with it. And you want your test to still show it. Just because it had been detoxified for a short while doesn't mean you don't need to know that it is still there.

Do you have access to a well?

 

[boadams87]

I have cycled my 55G freshwater tank over the last few weeks using pure ammonia that I got from a hardware store.

The ammonia in the tank is reading zero, same with the nitrites, but it's time for a water change to knock down the nitrate.

My question is this. My tap water measures about .75-1.00PPM for Ammonia.
So, if I use a product like Amquel, this detoxifies the ammonia essentially making it 0PPM correct?

But since it's only detoxifying it, it'll still read 1.00PPM but it'll be completely safe?
Am I understanding that right?

I just dont want to dump 25G or whatever of ammonia water in...
Sucks that my tap is so high

Its no biggie that u have ammonia in ur tap, ur bb should take care of that easily.

 

[ER2011]

No well access.
I assumed that the good bacteria and bio filter could handle the tap water, but like I said it feels weird knowing you're putting ammonia water into it once cycled

I guess I'll add the Amquel just to be safe
Then test it from there

 

[boadams87]

But if u don't have fish ur just wasting the amquel.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Ammonia in tap water is fine. What you need to do (after you have fish) is smaller water changes instead of one large one every week. The BB should be able to convert it before the amquel wears off.

What you can do now is a large water change to bring the nitrate down then IMO wait until the ammonia in the tap water has been processed before you add you fish.