Ammonia in tap water problem

[aquastink21]

Hey All!! I have a 10 gallon tank that I purchased for my sons birthday and we've had it for a total of 3 weeks as of today. We originally set it up and let it sit for 2 days and then put 3 small glowlight danios in it (We were told it would be ok from the Petco shop where we purchased the aquarium). The following week my wife purchased 3 glofish danios-- 2 of which died within the first 3 days. SO THATS WHEN I FOUND THIS SITE and i've been researching ever since then.
As of week 2 I purchased a API Freshwater master test kit and started tested my tank water right away. At first I was getting reading for ammonia of 1.0 - 0 nitrites and nitrates. So I started doing 30% water changes to lower the ammonia (or so i thought) AND conditioning the tap water with API Stress Coat Plus. I change the water every day after work around 3pm.
As of the last 3 days ammonia has been reading .50 or lower and a reading of less than .25 Nitrites 0 Nitrates
I ended up testing my tap water for the heck of it to find a baseline and my tap water is at 1.0 ppm --- Does any of this sound normal?

 

[Fishperson]

I don't think it is normal. My tap water has less than .25 ppm.

 

[Fresh2o]

1.0 ppm ammonia is not normal but not unheard of. I had the same in my tap water (northern VA) in 2012 and for some reason it went back to zero this winter/spring.

 

[aquastink21]

Thanks guys.... My other question is: Does this sound like the "cycle" is starting to work in my tank? Because If my tap is 1.0ppm and the next day i test the water it is .50ppm

 

[Jmunroe]

You may be starting to get some bacteria finally yes. If you do have ammonia in your tap water here's what you do once your tank is cycled... first make sure you are over filtering the tank with lots of biomedia in your filter(s) than get yourself some seachem prime or seachem safe which will neutralize ammonia for 48 hours ( i think they both do but make sure you get the one that does)making it not harmful for that time. Then when you do a water change add this to your tank, dosing for the full amount of tank volume, before you add your water back into the tank. This will make the ammonia not harmful for your fish and give the bacteria lots of time to eat the ammonia. The next day after a water change your ammonia will read 0. You may have to do more frequent water changes to keep your nitrates down because of the extra ammonia being added but fresh water is good for fish. While your cycling the tank you can use this to neutralize the ammonia in the tank as well for 48 hours with each dose.

 

[Mebbid]

This tends to be less of a problem when the cycle is closer to being finished. If you have a 1ppm ammonia level in your tap water and do a 25% water change with that water it will only put your tank at a .25 ppm ammonia level which is perfectly fine. The big part of the problem is you are still getting a lot of ammonia production and have no real way to dilute it.

You will know when your cycle has started when you start getting a nitrite / nitrate reading