Tap water contains amonia

[terathan33]

did my regular water changes today. THe tank has been up for about 2 months, cycled. I Do weekly water changes 1/4-1/3 of water per change and an hour later i notice my three pictus catfish are dead. I Check the amonia levels and its at around 1ppm, now I dont over feed and my tank has been running smoothly so problems. I decided to test my tap water, my tap water amonia is about the same 1.5 ppm. The amonia in my tap never tested positive what should I do? I cant do water changes because my tap water just killed my fish.

Why would I get amonia at 1.5 ppm from my tap all of a sudden?

 

[Guest]

i have the same problem. I switched water conditioner to Prime and it fixed my problem for the most part. Although many people advise against it, i also use a small amount of ammonia chips in my filter.

 

[joannde]

I'd advise against the ammo chips also - they suck up ammonia making it unavailable to good bacteria, which can subsequently starve and die - which could result in needing to recycle the tank.

Prime will detox the chloridamides in your tap water (I believe its the chloridamides that give you a positive ammonia reading). If you've not been using a water conditioner that removes chloridamides you MUST do so - chloridamides (unlike chlorine) do not vapor off.

Prime is the best conditioner to use in my opinion. It looks more expensive per ounce but since you use 10ml per 50 gallons of water (most others are 5 ml per 10 gallons) it saves money in the long run.