Ammonia in tap water???

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annielauri

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 20, 2007
Messages
55
Is this normal? Mine, straight from the tap, has a reading of between 1-2 ppm. That doesn't seem right to me.
 
Having measurable ammonia in tap water is not that uncommon.
A well cycled tank should make short work of any ammonia introduced w/ a water change though, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.
 
What kind of test kits are you using? Often the presence of chloramines can register as ammonia in test results.
 
Very true about chloramines...if you let your water sit overnight and then test it should give you a more accurate reading on the ammonia.
 
mine reads upwards of 6ppm out of the tap, but most of that is chloramine
 
Having Ammonia in the water isn't at all uncommon whether it's coming form chloramines or something else. Best thing to do is to use a quality dechlorinator that also detoxifies Ammonai, such as Prime. This will ensure that the Ammonia won't do any harm to the inhabitants of your tank before your biofilter has a chance to make short work of it.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the first part of the liquid test is chlorine which will bind with any free ammonia in the test vial creating chloramines. The second part is a reagent that reacts with chloramines to give color.

In order for you to have that much free ammonia your water company would be overfeeding ammonia at a really high rate. Ammonia binds with chlorine to make monochloramine, if you keep going with the ammonia levels you begin getting dichloramine but that is quite unstable and would not likely exist for the amount of time it tanks to get you your faucet. Also feeding ammonia can be a costly move and most water companies monitor it quite closely to make sure they are only feeding enough to bind with all of the chlorine plus a very little bit for insurance.
 
That depends on what type of kit you are using, whether it be a Nessler or Salicylate based kit.
 
SparKy697,

Groundwater contamination can also attribute to this high level. Normally its nitrAtes that are found in your tap from contamination but it can just as easily be ammonia as well. In any case, I'd wager its chloramines. Have you had any recent storms or reasons for the water company to overtreat (ie flooding, high winds)?
 
No storms, nothing. I live in Minnesota, so the ground is frozen now.

I am using dechlorinator, making sure the temps match the one in the tank etc.

I am very sad right now. Spike, my itty bitty swordtail passed away today while I was at work. I knowwwwwwwwwwww, it is my own fault for being dumb and not doing a fishless cycle. I have never had an aquarium before though. I have done 2 PWC today since I can't seem to get the ammonia levels down. It doesn't seem to do much good though, since my starting water has ammonia that is showing in the test. Can you use distilled water or spring water?

The test kit I am using is the API Freshwater master kit. Yes, I have put salt in the water too.
 
annielauri said:
No storms, nothing. I live in Minnesota, so the ground is frozen now.

I am using dechlorinator, making sure the temps match the one in the tank etc.

I am very sad right now. Spike, my itty bitty swordtail passed away today while I was at work. I knowwwwwwwwwwww, it is my own fault for being dumb and not doing a fishless cycle. I have never had an aquarium before though. I have done 2 PWC today since I can't seem to get the ammonia levels down. It doesn't seem to do much good though, since my starting water has ammonia that is showing in the test. Can you use distilled water or spring water?

The test kit I am using is the API Freshwater master kit. Yes, I have put salt in the water too.

Stick to spring water if you want to substitute some of your tap. Remember, whatever your tap water's ammonia levels is, no matter how many PWC's you do, you can never get BELOW that number (until your cycle is really going). So keep up the PWC's and use the dechlor and hopefully you will suffer no more losses.
 
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