Amonnia Question
- Thread starter Alshain
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Fishyfanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
It means that your local water source uses chloramines instead of chlorine. Use a dechlor that removed chloramines, such as Prime.
Fishyfanatic said:
Ok, well thats cheaper than what LFS said I had to do lol. They wanted to sell me a $12 tab that would remove the ammonia and that was not including the dechlor agents. Right now I have a bottle of TetraAqua AquaSafe. It says it removes chloramine, once I use this up then I will try prime, but I've already bought this.
Fishyfanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
To be sure you have two options:
1) Fill a glass of water. Put in dechlor and mix around. Let it sit and come back and test for Ammonia. If it is present after dechlorinating, then you just have ammonia naturally in your tap. This is not a big deal as an already cycled tank will use the ammonia anyway. If your ammonia was somewhere around, lets say, 5 ppm, then we'd have problems.
2) Contact your local water company and ask if they use chloramines or chlorine to treat the water.
1) Fill a glass of water. Put in dechlor and mix around. Let it sit and come back and test for Ammonia. If it is present after dechlorinating, then you just have ammonia naturally in your tap. This is not a big deal as an already cycled tank will use the ammonia anyway. If your ammonia was somewhere around, lets say, 5 ppm, then we'd have problems.
2) Contact your local water company and ask if they use chloramines or chlorine to treat the water.
TomK2
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well, what I know about test kits and water tests can be found at:
http://home.comcast.net/~tomstank/tomstank_files/page0018.htm
Basically, chloramine (or monochloramine, to be more exact) is a chlorine molecule bound to an ammonia molecule. This has bacteriocidal properties and is more stable, longer lasting, and more effective than chlorine in the water. It is approved for use up to about 3 ppm, I think, but most aquarists find it at 0.25 to 1 ppm, sometimes a little higher.
The ammonia test in the AP kit is a two bottle salicylate test. The first bottle adds chlorine and pH adjusters, so that if there is ammonia in the sample it will be converted to chloramine. Then an indicator is added with the second bottle, and the ammonia amount is measured by the amount of chloramine it was converted into. Thus, it stands to reason that if you have chloramine in the water, it too will turn the test color. This has been verified by several different AA posters who have chloramines in thier tap water.
Now, what to do about the chloramine for a water change? Aeration will not remove chloramine, like it would chlorine. Thus, as a minimum, a dechlorinator must be used. All dechlorinators will break the chlorine - ammonia bond, leaving ammonia behind and letting chlorine diffuse out of the tank. Examples of a simple dechlorinator is Thiosulfate.
The other water treatments contain slightly more complicated molecules that can also "bind" the ammonia that is left behind. Using such conditioners, the ammonia left behind may or may not show up on a salicylate ammonia test. If the conditioner still lets the ammonia be detected, that does not mean it didn't work. If the conditioner caused the ammonia to not be detected, that doesn't mean the ammonia was "removed" from your tank (your test just doesn't turn color anymore with the conditioner interfering with it). All ammonia binder treatments cause a false high ammonia test with the one step Nessler based reagents.
So, what should you do for a water change? Use a dechlor at minimum, a dechlor with ammonia binder if you want. The chlorine diffuses out, the ammonia left behind is dispatched by your biologic filter rather rapidly (once the biofilter is mature) wether you "bound" it or not.
http://home.comcast.net/~tomstank/tomstank_files/page0018.htm
Basically, chloramine (or monochloramine, to be more exact) is a chlorine molecule bound to an ammonia molecule. This has bacteriocidal properties and is more stable, longer lasting, and more effective than chlorine in the water. It is approved for use up to about 3 ppm, I think, but most aquarists find it at 0.25 to 1 ppm, sometimes a little higher.
The ammonia test in the AP kit is a two bottle salicylate test. The first bottle adds chlorine and pH adjusters, so that if there is ammonia in the sample it will be converted to chloramine. Then an indicator is added with the second bottle, and the ammonia amount is measured by the amount of chloramine it was converted into. Thus, it stands to reason that if you have chloramine in the water, it too will turn the test color. This has been verified by several different AA posters who have chloramines in thier tap water.
Now, what to do about the chloramine for a water change? Aeration will not remove chloramine, like it would chlorine. Thus, as a minimum, a dechlorinator must be used. All dechlorinators will break the chlorine - ammonia bond, leaving ammonia behind and letting chlorine diffuse out of the tank. Examples of a simple dechlorinator is Thiosulfate.
The other water treatments contain slightly more complicated molecules that can also "bind" the ammonia that is left behind. Using such conditioners, the ammonia left behind may or may not show up on a salicylate ammonia test. If the conditioner still lets the ammonia be detected, that does not mean it didn't work. If the conditioner caused the ammonia to not be detected, that doesn't mean the ammonia was "removed" from your tank (your test just doesn't turn color anymore with the conditioner interfering with it). All ammonia binder treatments cause a false high ammonia test with the one step Nessler based reagents.
So, what should you do for a water change? Use a dechlor at minimum, a dechlor with ammonia binder if you want. The chlorine diffuses out, the ammonia left behind is dispatched by your biologic filter rather rapidly (once the biofilter is mature) wether you "bound" it or not.
