will a PUR or similar water filter remove ammonia from tap ?

I have a serious problem with ammonia in my tap water. It is causing me a lot of trouble in my tanks, making it difficult to get them stable. Tap tests between 2 and 3 PPM ammonia. Will a water filtration device like a PUR remove ammonia? If so, can I hook my python to one?

[Blazeherd2306]

Seachem Prime is supposed to bind ammonia (which will not harm fish) until the biological filter can remove it.

[coldmachineUK]

Ouch, that's really unlucky with your tap water. I know there is a product called AmmoLock out there which allegedly removes ammonia from tap and tank water but I've never used it so don't know if it's something that might work.

Do you use an external canister filter? What filtration do you currently use? If you can somehow build up a sizeable amount of nitrosomonas bacteria, it will at least help...

[joannde]

AmmoLock isn't the best product to use. It actually makes the ammonia unavailable to your biological filter, starving it.

Prime is the right product to use - it binds the ammonia so that it is no longer harmful but still makes the ammonia available to the biofilter.

even using prime only gets me down to .5ppm.

[rkilling1]

Originally Posted by FishyPeanut

even using prime only gets me down to .5ppm.

most test kits give you total NH3. if you are using prime or have a low PH then most, if not all, of the NH3 is in the form of NH4. which is harmless to fish.

[no_fin_nipping]

Is this city water? Is this well water? This level of ammonia is unacceptable for you, not just your fish.

city water. i already called the water dept.

[Ky'smommy]

if the city wont fix it. i think there some company that actually put purifing systems in ur house. its expensive at first. but i dont think theres nothing to pay for after. instead of pay 20-30 dollars a month every month.. or how ever u use it. usually they only last for a month just for normal use tho and not intended for doing that many water changes so something more serious maybe needed

[krap101]

i think brita filters out ammonia, and isnt brita and pur the same company?

[malkore]

Originally Posted by rkilling1

most test kits give you total NH3. if you are using prime or have a low PH then most, if not all, of the NH3 is in the form of NH4. which is harmless to fish.

a salicylate ammonia test kit will only read the bad ammonia. most people have the nessler test kit, which reads ammonium as ammonia, giving you a false positive reading.

i use a salicylate test and still get positive ammonia readings.

[Purrbox]

Perhaps you need to add more Prime. It says in the instructions that you need to use more when detoxifying higher levels of Ammonia.

[rkilling1]

fyi from www.seachem.com,

Q: I am using Primeâ„¢ to control ammonia but my test kit says it is not doing anything, in fact it looks like it added ammonia! What is going on?
A: A Nessler based kit will not read ammonia properly if you are using Primeâ„¢... it will look "off scale", sort of a muddy brown (incidentally a Nessler kit will not work with any other products similar to Primeâ„¢). A salicylate based kit can be used, but with caution. Under the conditions of a salicylate kit the ammonia-Prime complex will be broken down eventually giving a false reading of ammonia (same as with other products like Primeâ„¢), so the key with a salicylate kit is to take the reading right away. However, the best solution is to use our MultiTest: Ammoniaâ„¢ kit... it uses a gas exchange sensor system which is not affected by the presence of Primeâ„¢ or other similar products. It also has the added advantage that it can detect the more dangerous free ammonia and distinguish it from total ammonia (which is both the free and ionized forms of ammonia (the ionized form is not toxic)).

EDIT: i see joannde already posted this in another thread. nvm

[jsoong]

My KitchenAid fridge water filter claims to remove ammonia/chloramines, plus a host of other stuff. However, this filter is like $40 a shot & lasts only so long .... so really only good for drinking water .... doing large water changes with something like that will cost $$$


BTW - I am reading your many threads about your bad water ... my bottom line opinion is to just use prime for your water and don't worry about ammonia of .25 ... your biologic filter should take care of that.

One other thought ... your water has up to 12 ppm of chloramines, which will give you 12 of bound ammonia (assuiming you add enough Prime). I am not sure if that high a level of bound ammonia will interfer with even the Salicylate test. Most people talking about Salicylate tests & bound ammonia are talking of 1-2, not 12! If the above quote is true, <that the salicylate test will eventually break down bound ammonia and read it as positive> then the higher the bound ammonia level to start, the less time you have to read the ammonia before it turns false positive.