Using Ammonia in Tap Water to Cycle a New Tank?

[asweeterplace]

So I found out that my tap water now suddenly contains ammonia after one my endler guppies died when I did my weekly water change (I'm assuming the water is now being treated with chloramine as opposed to chlorine?). I dosed with Seachem Prime and waited 24 hours before testing again and saw the ammonia drop back to 0ppm thankfully.

I have a separate, empty Fluval Spec (19 litres / 5 gallons) that I'm hoping to house a betta in but haven't had any luck cycling the tank. I tried Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride but the ammonia just wouldn't drop and there were no sign of nitrites even after a few weeks. I'm not fond of the fish food method either as that's what I used to cycle my current tank but it left a bunch of debris in the substrate.

I was just wondering whether it's possible to cycle a new tank using the ammonia in my tap water? If I treated the water with a water conditioner that only removes chlorine / chloramines but still leaves the ammonia (e.g. Fluval Water Conditioner), would this be an effective ammonia source to start a cycle?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Aiken Drum]

How concentrated is the ammonia? You really want to be 1ppm minimum to cycle to stock fish without then worrying about ammonia spikes. I think this would certainly be above safe levels for drinking water (0.35ppm in most european countries, 0.5ppm in USA).

I suppose if you live somewhere that tap water isnt considered drinking water or somewhere that isnt too bothered about keeping to safe levels that ammonia levels could be sufficient to do a fishless cycle.

 

[asweeterplace]

Thanks for the response! So I just re-tested my tap water and now all of a sudden it has 0ppm ammonia? Is it normal for the concentration of ammonia in tap water to fluctuate like this? I could've sworn it was around 0.5ppm the last time I tested it (about a week ago), so it probably wouldn't have been potent enough to start a cycle anyway, but it's still strange how it just dropped suddenly.

I was also wondering whether I could put fish food in a separate container filled with water and leave it to rot to produce ammonia that way? Then I could just use a syringe to extract some of the ammonia from the container to start a cycle in the Fluval Spec and won't have to worry about debris from the fish food rotting directly in the fish tank. Is this a viable method?

Thanks again!