Emergency: Ammonia forms in tap

[Fishperson]

I have had my tank set up in a relatively new house for 2 months now. It is a 5.5 gallon. I am not new to freshwater tanks at all, but this house is new to me and I hadn't tested the tap water prior to yesterday.

At the beginning of those 2 months the filter was seeded with filter media from a long established tank and had ammonia added to the tank regularly.

Yesterday, I came home from the pet store with 7 ember tetras. I did a laaarge (95%) water change to prepare for the fish. I was going to put the fish in when I tested the ammonia value in the tank. It came out to 2 ppm! Nitrite was 0 and nitrate was 10.

I then tested my tap water as well as bottled water, as a control. My tap tested around 1.5, and the bottled water, as expected, read 0. So I must assume that I have ammonia in my tap.

I've heard that ammonia comes in two forms, NH3, which is bad for fish, and NH4, which has little to no effect on them. My question is, which kind is in my tap water, and how will I be able to tell?

Note: the fish are NOT in the tank right now, they are in a largish bowl with the water from the pet store that they came from mixed 50/50 with distilled water. They are alive and well and the parameters there are fine (0/0/15). They will be in the tank as soon as the tank reads 0 ammonia.

 

[Brookster123]

How new is the house? Are you the first residents?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[libertybelle]

It's related to pH. The lower the pH, the more free H+ the more the equilibrium shifts towards the NH4 side. If you're using prime that will also shift it to the non toxic variant until your biological filter can take care of it.

I've had good luck with seachems ammonia alert product which only shows a positive for the toxic variant.

 

[Fishperson]

How new is the house? Are you the first residents?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Not very new, and no. We've lived here for nearly a year but it's been up for a while I'm sure. I've just never had a tank here before.

 

[Fishperson]

It's related to pH. The lower the pH, the more free H+ the more the equilibrium shifts towards the NH4 side. If you're using prime that will also shift it to the non toxic variant until your biological filter can take care of it.

I've had good luck with seachems ammonia alert product which only shows a positive for the toxic variant.

That's what I've heard. I just tested my tank pH and got 6.6 on the regular API ph test and somewhere near 8.3 on the high range. I think the 6.6 is more likely to be accurate, especially as the high range color was a deep violet, not exactly like anything on the color chart but most close to between 8.2 and 8.4.

I will try to run to the store to pick up ammonia alert and/or prime. (I've been using a different water conditioner up until now)

 

[libertybelle]

Well depending on which pH is correct could be more or less of a problem!

Prime is a lifesaver in situations like this. Because it keeps the ammonia in the non toxic form until your beneficial bacteria or plants can get at it. What have you been using. If your current dechlor says anything about detoxifying ammonia it is probably doing that already.

If you haven't tested the tap before it could be that your water system is doing a flush and what you're seeing is the ammonia from the breakdown of the extra chloramines. So wouldn't hurt to check every once in a while and see if it is constant or if it goes away.