tap water contains 1ppm ammonia....

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her quote "our water will kill your fish."

Is it just me..... or is this as funny as it is odd?

Don't know why,but it made me laugh lol.
 
i am using a salicylate test.


yeah, i was like HUH? are you kidding me? if it will kill my fish, what is it doing to my toads/frogs/cats/ME?
 
Well, I doubt your municiple supply has ammonia. It is far more common for chloramines to be added to the water as an anitmicrobial. The salicyclate test meausres the ammount of ammonia by how much chloramine it can be converted into. Hence, chloramine turns the ammonia test positive too. The good side of this, is that after adding a dechlorinator, you tank has all the ammonia it needs to do a fishless cycle. The bad side is that your tap water represents an ammonia burden on your tank when you do water changes. After you have a biofilter established, the bacteria will rapidly clear the ammonia, and you can use tap water, but only if you use a dechlorinator first. Chloramine is more toxic to fish than ammonia, always treat your tap water. I beleive the ideal effective level for chloramine antimicrobial effect is around 2.5 to 3 ppm, and levels up to that are approved for municipal supplies. However, over the last year or so most people have found between 0.5 and 1 ppm. Why does your water company do this to you? Chloramine is more stable than hypochlorite (chlorine) and works better, at least as far as the water company is concerned.

I have a web page with some info on water tests if you care to take a look:

http://home.comcast.net/~tomstank/tomstank_files/page0018.htm
 
Thank you Tom.


So, then you are staying perhaps my ammonia problem is not as bad as it looks?

I still have no nitrites or nitrates. Just reading ammonia.
 
Its manageable. Thiosulfate Dechlor at the minimum, one that "binds" the left over ammonia if you want. For fishless cycle, just get a thiosulfate dechlor to leave ammonia behind. Water change with thiosulfate to raise your ammonia back up when if falls to half your baseline reading. When it goes to zero each day, and no nitrite, add fish.
 
Actually, it's probably not as uncommon as you would think to have ammonia in the tap water. In the most recent water report that I received, they actually ADD ammonia to our water. Here's the quote "The Department also adds a trace amount of ammonia to complete the disinfection process." Well this "trace amount" measures out at 1.25ppm. Glad I tested the water before the first water change when we first moved here. I spent the next day hunting down a new water conditioner that detoxifies Ammonia. Ended up with AmQuel since I wasn't able to locate any Prime. Will be switching to Prime once the bottle runs out.
 
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