Ammonia in Tap Water?

[sparklymoonshrimp]

Hello Everyone, 

Was testing my water parameters this evening and was unsure if I was detecting ammonia or not, so I decided to add the testing solutions to tap water to see how yellow it appeared, assuming it would be at 0ppm.

To my surprise, the bottle turned green. Thinking perhaps my test tube was dirty, I rinsed the one I had used to test my betta's tank (which had originally appeared yellow) and tested the tap again, getting the same results: 

http://imgur.com/a/PV7HrMl

Looks like it's around 0.5 - 1.0ppm?

Just wondering if this is normal, if anyone else's water also tested for ammonia? 

[gardenman]

My well water has insanely high ammonia levels out of the tap. I use old kitty litter plastic containers to store the tap water and the ammonia decreases in those and it becomes more usable. Those bottles have their own bacterial colonies going to use up the ammonia. After a few days in the bottles the water is reasonable.

[tonyjuliano]

It’s Chloramine.  
 

Many public utilities are changing over from chlorine to chloramine, due to it’s “staying power”.

Treat it just like you would chlorine in your tap water.

I’m fortunate, my public utility uses neither, as it gets its water from deep well aquifers.

Edited May 12, 2021 by tonyjuliano
Bad spelling, dammit!

[GardenStateGoldfish]

Its chloramine, make sure to always use water conditioner and double or triple dose after weather events

[sparklymoonshrimp]

Thank you for all of your responses!