Tap is .5 ppm ammonia, having trouble detoxifying.

[bazook]

I did a water change when I got home last night, tested the water and it read 1.5 ppm. I tested the 5g bucket of conditioned water (dosed for a 29g with seachem prime) and it read .5 ppm and water out of the tap read the same. Seachem FAQs said it was supposed to work instantly. Here I am 10 hours later and it still reads .5

I have a backup supply of RO water but I don't want to drastically change the ph and stress the fish, and I don't really know the pros and cons of RO water.

Ph 7.4
Ammonia 1-2 ppm
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 2-3 ppm

Stocked with 3 platys, 3 guppies, 3 black skirt tetras, one glo tetra, 8 neon tetras, 1 pleco.

 

[Ashenwelt]

So seachem prime works by binding ammonia. It however is still there and most tests per seachem still show it being there. It is however bound to something to make it safe.

If in doubt, treat the whole tank and you should be fine.

 

[bazook]

Ok I was hoping that it was picking up on the safer form of ammonia.

 

[nirbhao]

It's very likely you're picking up ammonia in the form of ammonium in chloramine. I don't know that there's a cost effective way to test the difference.

 

[bazook]

I bought some amquel ammonia remover which worked. Luckily I conditioned and aerated about 16 gallons off water, which now has about 10% RO water. I lifted up my pleco cave and out came a mess of waste, so I am performing an emergency wc and cleaning the filter. Hopefully this will reduce my ammonia counts.