A question about ammonia in tap water

[sabina]

Hi! I'm a newbie doing a fishless cycle at the moment, but I have a question about the 0.25 to 0.50 ppm of ammonia that's in my tap water. (The amount of ammonia from the tap varies a little each time I test it.) Since starting the fishless cycle I've used Stress Coat to dechlorinate the water, but when the cycle's complete and I actually get some fish, I was going to use Seachem's Prime instead. I bought a bottle of it recently and today I tested a gallon of tap water that I dechlorinated first with Prime and using my API liquid ammonia test kit, it gave a reading of 0.25 ppm. If Prime removes ammonia as it says it does on the bottle, then why does the dechlorinated water still have ammonia in it afterwards? Shouldn't it be zero? Is there something else I'll have to add to the tank during each WC to eliminate the ammonia from the tap? Thanks for the help!

 

[rallykid]

From what I have read (and trust me I am by no means an expert) but ammonia reducers actually neutralize the ammonia but do not remove it from the tank.

I know that doesn't sound like it makes sense but I have found this information through several sources. It actually neutralizes the ammonia and makes the tiny ammonia particles clump together (think clumping kitty litter) which are then in turn removed by your filtration. If you are testing still water there is no filtration going on so you will still get a positive or "false positive" reading for ammonia.

 

[sabina]

Thanks rallykid! Your explanation makes sense to me and I actually forgot to think about the filtration part of the process when I was thinking about all of this today, thanks. BTW, welcome to the forum.

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

The ammonia will be "locked up" or changed into a different state. Many test kits will still read this as ammonia. The bio filter can still use this and will reduce it.

 

[sabina]

Thanks SpeedEuphoria, that's one less thing for me to wonder about!

 

[mgamer20o0]

These products do not remove ammonia they change the ammonia from highly toxic NH3 to less toxic Ammonium (NH4)

its why prime and api kits often show false positives.

 

[sabina]

Thanks mgamer20o0. I'm learning something new all the time.

 

[OldMan]

I also have ammonia in my tap water. In my case it reads about 1 ppm. What I do is change 10 to 20% at a time. That way my tank water never goes above about 0.20 ppm and because the ammonium is neutralized, the fish never really suffer from it. If I test 2 or 3 hours after a water change, I find my filter has removed it all.