When your tap water has 1 ppm ammonia…

[Pepere]

Performing water changes to remove ammonia becomes an issue.

My dwarf Gourami was placed in a hospital tank in my cellar due to signs of illness, abdominal bloating not swimming having difficulty with keeping horizontal, rapid gill movement.  The hospital tank had a cycled filter, but the maracyn and aquarium salt knocked it out.

 

being the sole fish in a ten gallon tank and not feeding him for a few days meant ammonia did not reach 1 ppm until 6 days later.

yes, I could have bought bottled water to do a water change, but I have an unused quarantine tank upstairs which is cycled.

I siphoned water out of the hospital tank and dumped it and took water from the quarantine tank to refill.

 

Once the meds are out of the tank and salt levels are down some I have a cycled filter to add to it.

Tap water went into the unused quarantine tank and I refilled that with tap water.  Now the beneficial bacteria in the quarantine tank get a meal.

I do hope the city flushes the mains this week to get the ammonia taken care of.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Pepere

[Nyssa]

That's so frustrating, I'm sorry you're dealing with all of this. I know water treatment plants will add ammonia as a process of turning chlorine into chloramine, but I guess the ammonia still lingers.

There was a time several months ago where my pH from the tap raised from 7 to 8.4, and I didn't notice until I did a water change and my fish were acting different. Apparently it had something to do with the change of the seasons (winter into spring) and the next day it was back to normal... but it would really be nice to get at least a notice when they do these things! Scary stuff honestly.

[Pepere]

I have been in communication with the district over this.  As you mentioned they add ammonia to the water to bind with the chlorine to make chloramines. When chlorine levels drop in the mains the Ammonia has nothing to bind to.  They conduct scheduled hydrant flushing to ensure adequate residual chlorine levels in mains.

Apparently in summer months as the ground warms chlorine levels can drop in mains.

The director stated he would move my location up the list for a flushing, but it hasnt occurred yet.

In the cycled tanks it is no big problem. 30% water change yields maybe .3 ppm which the biofilter converts by evening, no harm, no foul…
 

I have taken to testing my tap water before doing water changes.

 

I thought this info might be useful to others new to the hobby.

[Colu]

What you can do is  get a bin or plastic tote fill it with water a couple days before a water changes and add a filter with seachem matrix to help remove the ammonia 

[Jess]

On 9/19/2022 at 6:37 AM, Pepere said:

I have been in communication with the district over this.  As you mentioned they add ammonia to the water to bind with the chlorine to make chloramines. When chlorine levels drop in the mains the Ammonia has nothing to bind to.  They conduct scheduled hydrant flushing to ensure adequate residual chlorine levels in mains.

Apparently in summer months as the ground warms chlorine levels can drop in mains.

Wow, thanks for sharing this.  Interesting!  On my larger tanks I try to keep water changes to 20% max, but in my 7.5-gallon I regularly change 40-50% of the water.  Sometimes more if I do multiple water changes (while gravel vacuuming).  This is good to keep in mind!  

[eatyourpeas]

I have gotten into he habit of testing the tap water for the same reason. Sometimes, when the mains get flushed, I end up with coffee right out of the tap. It takes a few days for things to stabilize.

I have a container with ammonia consumers that I keep, in case I need a water change and bottled water is not an option. It mainly consists of hornwort and duckweed.