Dealing with tap ammonia

[FordForever]

I know I brought this up in a few of my other threads but I decided to try to obtain an official answer. My tap water contains 1ppm of ammonia. Other than switching water sources, I would like to find a solution. I do use water conditioner and it seems to help.My tank does test a little lower then my tap water after using the conditioner.

I was thinking smaller more frequent water changes because the tanks do seem to eat it up...

Maybe some kind of additive?

Would aging the water 'dull' the ammonia?

Any ideas?

This filled up right at my tap.

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[MrDrums]

How are your fish doing? Are they healthy, and if so, how long have you had them in there? If your tank is fully cycled and your fish are healthy, colorful, growing, etc., then I don't think I'd worry about it at all. Others may have different opinions.

[FordForever]

One of my new zebras died and a second one is showing symptoms of death. The new gold gourami is fine and was acclimated at the same time.

[Holyvision]

Perhaps if you put it into a bucket, and add a biological additive, it will consume the ammonia.

I don't know though, sorry ><

[MrDrums]

try stress coat / stress zyme or other similar products with your water changes.

[fins_n_fur]

If you use a quality water conditioner like Prime, it will neutralize ammonia, chorline, and chloramine.

[cocoa_pleco]

get a cheap HOB filter and stuff it with ammo-guard, which absorbs ammonia. put the water you need in a bucket the night before, then flip on the filter. in the morning, no more ammonia

[FordForever]

I use prime but my tank still tests for amm. I like coco_pleco's idea. I am going to look into this amoguard stuff.

[cocoa_pleco]

I use prime but my tank still tests for amm. I like coco_pleco's idea. I am going to look into this amoguard stuff.

you still get readings because water conditioner converts ammonia to ammonium, NH4. you still get ammonia readings but its less harmful to fish

hagen makes ammoguard

[TRDNiteLife]

I have ammonia from my tap. For water changes I just treat with Prime before putting it into the tank. I never have a reading of ammonia once it's in the tank.

[Sasquatch]

Have you tried just letting your water sit for a day or so before testing? Ammonia is volatile and should evaporate out of the water on it's own, it just takes some time. If not, then Cocoas idea is a good one.

[kaybee]

I use prime but my tank still tests for amm...

If your water is treated with chloramine your test kit may be detecting the ammonia molecule (chloramine is chlorine bonded with ammonia). Some test kits will register this as 'ammonia', basically a 'false-reading'. 12hrs or less after a water change the ammonia level in your tank should return to undetectable levels.

Contacting your water company to confirm if there is actually unbonded or free ammonia in the water. If that is the case you may need to increase the quantity of Prime to completely detox it. The recommended dosage of Prime for water treatment (1ml per 10gal of water) detox's 0.6ppm of Prime. You may have to triple or quadruple the amount of Prime to treat your ammonia levels (again, if this is chloramine, up-ing the Prime won't be necessary). Prime can be dosed 5x's the recommended dosage. Even in when detox'd, you may still register ammonia as cocoa_pleco explained.

Have you tried just letting your water sit for a day or so before testing? Ammonia is volatile and should evaporate out of the water on it's own, it just takes some time.

Is this accurate? I think if this were the case uncycled tanks wouldn't have ammonia problems if it just evaporated. I think ammonia remains in the water until removed or converted.

[Lady Hobbs]

I agree. Chlorine in the water will disappear when the water ages but I don't think ammonia will. As you say, if your tank was full of ammonia it would just deplete without you doing necessary water changes.

If it makes you feel better, you could add ammonia removers when doing your water changes.

[Sasquatch]

Ammonia is volatile, that's why it stinks so much when you open the bottle. It's not as volatile as chlorine or nitrogen though ... I don't know how long it would take to get rid of it all, but if it's only a day or two, letting a bucket of water sit is the easiest solution.

[Mvjnz]

How about a big tub where you store water for a day before doing water changes? Put a filter in there and once it cycles it will process the ammonia. You'd only need a cheap internal one as there will be no waste clogging it up. Only prob is then you get nitrate in the water instead. Less toxic but the whole poing of water changes is to get rid of it...

[Bodhi]

Kaybee just chatted up the correct, and got her digits too.

There are two major causes of positive ammonia readings from your tap. If Kaybee's right and you've got chloramine in your tap, none of these measures people are recommending will remove it. You must use a chloramine remover. It will continue to garner a positive reading with the ammonia scale once it's neutralized, because the amminia is converted to a less toxic compound.

If you actually do have ammonia in your tap, it is cause for alarm. You need to call your water company to confirm their use of chloramine anyway, so if you get a "no" on that from them, you need to tell them about the ammonia. It's a sign of a serious problem in their treatment plant, or somewhere in the line. Ordinarily this is caused by untreated sewage or agricultural runoff getting in to your water.

If you have a well, any ammonia reading is a sign that your well is going septic. Either a septic tank or a nearby farm is polluting your water. The ways of treating this issue is far outside the scope of a fishkeeping forum, so you will need to contact a professional.

Hope this helps.

[FordForever]

Thank you for the help everyone. My tap water does indeed come from an untreated well. The well is 25 years old and we live in a low lying area that usually has standing water. I do not drink the water.

I have figured out that instead of doing one large water change a week a few much smaller WC's will add less amm. to the fish tank and it can handle that in just a few hours.

[Alfcea]

Ammonia is volatile, that's why it stinks so much when you open the bottle. It's not as volatile as chlorine or nitrogen though ... I don't know how long it would take to get rid of it all, but if it's only a day or two, letting a bucket of water sit is the easiest solution.

Yes, ammonia (NH3) is in fact very volatile, but ammonium is not. At "normal" tank pH values, most of the nitrogenated waste exists as ammonium ion (NH4+) and not free ammonia. Therefore, it is not as volatile as it might appear at first sight...

Now, if all the nitrogenated waste existed as ammonia, it could be possible to evaporate it off to very minor concentrations, but to do this you would have to stirr the surface very vigorously for a while... (same as with CO2). Just letting the bucket sit would not get rid of all of it...

I hope that helps...

[nwnittany]

Yet another approach could be to put some zeolite in a stocking and circulate (maybe an airstone ?) the tap water in a bucket until it shows an acceptable ammonia reading. This is just a variation on cocoa's suggestion.....

I think you'll need something specific for ammonia removal in your HOB or the stocking, though.....regular biological filtration would require a steady supply of ammonia to flourish, so you'd need to be regularly adding new ammonia to the system....

I have to admit, that's a buttload of ammonia in your tap water....

[FordForever]

My well is located near a horse pasture I am sure that is affecting it somehow...