Tap water has ammonia

[Oreganoodle]

I just discovered today that my local tapwater has .25-.50 ppm of ammonia in it.  Other times I've tested it it was safe, but not today.   I tried this ammolock product from api to neutralize it - but it didn't work.  What are my options?

[Colu]

What I would do is put your water in a bin or bucket with a small filter and some seachems purigen and a heater to get the correct temperature for a couple of days before your water change purigen will help remove some of the ammonia and double dose prime with every water will help to detoxify any remaining ammonia for 48hr 

Edited February 20, 2022 by Colu

[Cinnebuns]

Neutralizing ammonia doesn't get rid of it. It just makes it safe for fish for a limited time. 

[Colu]

On 2/20/2022 at 1:34 AM, Cinnebuns said:

Neutralizing ammonia doesn't get rid of it. It just makes it safe for fish for a limited time. 

No it doesn't get rid of ammonia but it give your benefial bacterial enough time to start turning  the ammonia into nitrites and then nitrates that are less toxic to your fish and you can double dose prime every 24 hr that couple with purigen should get the ammonia down considerably doesn't totally solve the problem

[Cinnebuns]

Yes I agree. It just seemed OP thought it would get rid of it to me when he said it didn't work. 

[Axona]

My tap water reads 1 ppm ammonia. I just double the normal dose of Seachem Prime and that seems to stop any problems. The tank water will read the ammonia for about 48 hours and then will read zero ammonia. This does lead to more nitrates, but my nitrates are still around 20 ppm at all times, so it's fine.

[Oreganoodle]

On 2/19/2022 at 9:00 PM, Cinnebuns said:

es I agree. It just seemed OP thought it would get rid of it to me when he said it didn't work. 

I didn't think it would get rid of it entirely, I did understand it to be a temporary neutralizer - but even temporarily it didn't reduce the ammonia.

what are peoples thoughts on buying distilled water?

 

[Tom H]

On 2/19/2022 at 11:10 PM, Oreganoodle said:

I didn't think it would get rid of it entirely, I did understand it to be a temporary neutralizer - but even temporarily it didn't reduce the ammonia.

what are peoples thoughts on buying distilled water?

 

Expensive but if you need to temporarily then I would think it would be fine. You can also contact your local water purification plant to see if there is a reason and when it will be cycled out of the water

[CT_]

On 2/19/2022 at 10:10 PM, Oreganoodle said:

I didn't think it would get rid of it entirely, I did understand it to be a temporary neutralizer - but even temporarily it didn't reduce the ammonia.

what are peoples thoughts on buying distilled water?

 

Distilled or RO water is always an option, but you'll probably want to remineralize it.  If you go that route it'll probably be cheapest to buy your own reverse osmosis system.  The cheap ones, which work fine, are a couple hundred I think.  maybe less.

 

I think what others are saying is that even know prime et al. "neutralize" ammonia the assay has an even stronger affinity for the ammonia so it still shows up in tests.  TBH I'm skeptical any of these neutralizers work since no one can explain* how they work and the formulas are all "trade secret".  There is a LOT of anecdotal evidence that they do work though, and while "skeptics" usually discard that, its not nothing.

 

*explanations I've read to date have all included incorrect logic or chemistry.

[Oreganoodle]

On 2/20/2022 at 1:28 AM, CT_ said:

Distilled or RO water is always an option, but you'll probably want to remineralize it.

what exactly is meant by re-mineralize, is it just gh and kh - or more than that?

[CT_]

On 2/19/2022 at 10:35 PM, Oreganoodle said:

what exactly is meant by re-mineralize, is it just gh and kh - or more than that?

yeah.  most fish and plants like at least some gh and kh.  exactly how you get there is up to you.  my water is REALLY soft so I use crushed coral and seachem Equilibrium as needed.  shrimp people don't like equilibrium because it adds a lot of nutrients (mostly potassium) for plants that don't "count" as gh.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

A lot of tap water filters will not remove ammonia. This is a big topic in the reef community as they rely on RO/DI. Here’s a YT to check out: 

In the end your pH will determine what kind of system you’d require in particular it appears good prefilters, broken in carbon blocks and the right DI resin will be needed. 

[CT_]

Oof. I didn't know that.  That's crummy that you need ro+di. 

 

Worth also noting that 1ppm of ammonia may not be toxic unless your ph is high.  Smaller water changes is probably the cheapest option.

[Oreganoodle]

On 2/20/2022 at 2:35 AM, CT_ said:

crushed coral and seachem Equilibrium

so you keep crushed coral in the tank, and then add equilibrium as neccesary to supplement the crushed coral?

[darkG]

I imagine a cycled and / or planted tank wouldn't mind that at all?

[Oreganoodle]

On 2/20/2022 at 4:30 PM, darkG said:

I imagine a cycled and / or planted tank wouldn't mind that at all?

The tank is only about a week into having fish in it, but I cycled before introduction and the tank can process 2 ppm of ammonia in 24 hours,  I did a gravel clean/water change and then the fish were acting funny, so I retested and that is when I found the ammonia.  The tank itself was at .25ppm at that point.  The tank did take care of it pretty quickly - but the fish were definitely glass surfing and swimming funny. They seem to be ok today.

[darkG]

Unless tap water ammonia levels go up more, partial water changes should be cool, right?

If you need large water changes or if (tap) levels go up, one option is to leave tap water in a tub with some floating or emersed plants a while. If that is convenient in your situation. 

(I really don't speak from experience, trying to make sense of it anyway. I also don't know much about chlorine and chloramine complications) 

 

[Jennifer V]

My tap water reads at .5 ppm ammonia straight from the tap but I've never worried about it because I use Fritz Complete to treat the water and my ammonia levels in the tanks always read at 0 after water changes. Am I misunderstanding something? Should I be more concerned? 

[CT_]

I think with some prime or complete 0.5ppm ammonia isn't much to worry about in a fully cycled tank.  unless the ph is also like 8.5 and you do an 80% water change.  but everyone has their own risk tolerance.

[KittenFishMom]

I put some fry in my betta tank and noticed it getting cloudy. I figured I must have over fed the fry and did a water change, even though the test strips did not indicate it was needed. Now the tank is cloudier. 

I was washing my 2 new tanks in the bath tub and noticed that just an inch of water was cloudy.  We changed the house filter, now all the stuff that settled in the pipes when the filter was restricting the flow is stirred up and the water is gray.

I tested the betta tank, which had some where under 0.5 ppm ammonia and no nitrates or nitrites. Strange. So I tested the well water. BINGO! The well water has ammonia at 0.5 ppm.  We have a UV filter as well as a mechanical filter, so we are not getting live bacteria. We don't drink the tap water, but the fish do.

Now I have 2 new 15 gallon tanks, and won't be able to fill them with my well water. And I am starting my 55 build, so that will need to wait until the well gets better to be filled.

With the lake rising and the rain we had, our well has gotten messed up. Not sure how long it will last. I wasn't keeping fish last year.  I am wondering if bottled spring water might be a better option than distilled water. 

We could bring chlorinated water from home and treat it. I have never thought about chlorine. I will have to call the treatment plant tomorrow to see if they use chloramine.  Then find out how to treat the water.

I'm so glad there is a meatloaf in the oven to cheer us up. It has been a rather discouraging evening. 

 

 

[Wrencher_Scott]

 

On 2/19/2022 at 5:19 PM, Oreganoodle said:

I just discovered today that my local tapwater has .25-.50 ppm of ammonia in it.  Other times I've tested it it was safe, but not today.   I tried this ammolock product from api to neutralize it - but it didn't work.  What are my options?

Ya, that ammo loc stuff is BS.

I would not worry one little bit about that ammonia, your filter will take care of it real quick (you need lots of biofiltration, everyone does). .5 ppm is not very toxic.

The last thing I would do is start buying RO water, going down that rabbit hole is silly to me. 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Wrencher_Scott

[Torrey]

On 2/24/2022 at 6:39 PM, KittenFishMom said:

I put some fry in my betta tank and noticed it getting cloudy. I figured I must have over fed the fry and did a water change, even though the test strips did not indicate it was needed. Now the tank is cloudier. 

I was washing my 2 new tanks in the bath tub and noticed that just an inch of water was cloudy.  We changed the house filter, now all the stuff that settled in the pipes when the filter was restricting the flow is stirred up and the water is gray.

I tested the betta tank, which had some where under 0.5 ppm ammonia and no nitrates or nitrites. Strange. So I tested the well water. BINGO! The well water has ammonia at 0.5 ppm.  We have a UV filter as well as a mechanical filter, so we are not getting live bacteria. We don't drink the tap water, but the fish do.

Now I have 2 new 15 gallon tanks, and won't be able to fill them with my well water. And I am starting my 55 build, so that will need to wait until the well gets better to be filled.

With the lake rising and the rain we had, our well has gotten messed up. Not sure how long it will last. I wasn't keeping fish last year.  I am wondering if bottled spring water might be a better option than distilled water. 

We could bring chlorinated water from home and treat it. I have never thought about chlorine. I will have to call the treatment plant tomorrow to see if they use chloramine.  Then find out how to treat the water.

I'm so glad there is a meatloaf in the oven to cheer us up. It has been a rather discouraging evening. 

 

 

There are a few options for having well water tested. I used to live in WA, and would send the well water once a year for full testing (was ~$45), and then if there was flooding and I noticed a difference in the water I would get it tested.

Prime (and the dry powder, Safe) by SeaChem do work. Some people have said they will still get a 0.25 ppm of ammonia with Prime, that has not been my experience as long as I add the proper dose for the ammonia that showed up in the water.

If you check out my Walstad, you can see my results with the ZeroWater filter. I wish they had a larger dispenser, I'm really happy with the water quality for the purpose of top offs. I have a Pür already on the kitchen sink.