Ammonia Out Of The Tap?

[Hollyweb]

I've been trying to get a small 3 gallon tank cycled for about 3 weeks now. I had a betta in it but I hadn't received my water test kit in yet so I didn't know what the levels were at in the tank. The betta didn't do very well and ended up dying. When I tested the water, the ammonia was between 2 and 4 ppm. I did a water 50% change and let it cycle without a fish in it, but I kept an anubias nana plant in it. After I did the water change I tested the water again and the ammonia was still pretty high so I let it continue to cycle.
 
It's been about a week since all that and today I decided to go ahead and test it, and the ammonia was reading about 0.25 to 0.50 ppm. I did another water change and tested again and it was at 0.25. I decided to test just my tap water with the dechlorinator in it, and it reads 0.25 straight out of the tap.
 
Is that normal for tap water? It doesn't seem like it should be normal to have ammonia in the tap water. I'm worried about putting any fish in there because my last betta that was in there got ammonia poisoning and died.

 

[Mamashack]

If you are using the API test kit it often shows 0·25ppm when it's ok To be sure your tank is on the way to being cycled you'll need to test for nitrItes too If you test positive for nitrAtes too then you know that the cycle is well on the way Make sure that both ammonia and nitrItes are clearing in 24hrs You will need to add ammonia to test but make sure you use aquarium quality ammonia not a household cleaner It might serve you well to check the pinned article on cycling Good luck!

 

[Hollyweb]

I am using the API test kit. I tested for nitrite and nitrate. Nitrite is at 0ppm and nitrate is between 10 and 20 ppm

 

[daizeUK]

Dechlorinator can also cause a small ammonia reading in your tap water, if you have chloramines in your water supply they get converted to ammonia when you dechlorinate and this might be where the 0.25ppm reading was coming from.
 
Nitrates is not a good way to tell if your cycle is progressing as your tap water can also contain nitrates.
 
Why did you do a water change?  Since there are no fish in the tank you don't need to do water changes as this will only slow the cycle down.  You need to add 3ppm ammonia to the tank now - I'm not too familiar with US sources but I believe the Ace Hardware stuff is suitable for cycling.  You can use the calculator and put in 3ppm to calculate how much ammonia you will need for your tank size.  This works out as about 0.3ml using the Ace Hardware ammonia.
 
If your ammonia is being cycled then I would expect to see a nitrite reading so it is somewhat worrying that your nitrite is zero.