Adding Ammonia To Established Tank

[TammyLiz]

I realize the topic name sounds strange, but I am being forced to either do just that, or find an alternate water supply other than my tap. The water treatment procedure here, which involves adding ammonia to the chlorinated water to reduce cancer-causing agents, causes ammonia to build up in the water as it sits in the pipes. Maybe its because the chloramines are breaking down and releasing the ammonia, but that's just speculation. Anyhow, I'm somewhere in the middle of the pipeline as far as water distribution goes, so the water isn't exactly stright from the treatment plant. It usually has ammonia by the time it gets to my house, unless they've recently done a flush of the system, which happens once or twice a year. I had them come and test it, since my test kit was saying 1ppm out of the tap, but their digital equipment read .28ppm. I have lost a little bit of my trust in Aquarium Pharmaceuticals ammonia test kit, which I thought was fairly accurate. I guess its consistent, but not accurate.

Does anyone else have this issue and what do you do? I have gone back and forth between buying water ($$$!), using the tap treated with ammo lock (which doesn't actually remove the ammonia, it converts it to ammonium), and just procrastinating on water changes. Today I am doing a water change and will be using tap with ammo lock. My heart just screams NO when I need to do a larger water change, or when I use the tap for my bettas that live in uncycled environments so the ammonia stays in rather than being swept away in the nitrogen cycle.

I have been told that it is OK, but I need to know why it is ok in order to really believe it. Can anyone explain it to me?

Tammy

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Switch to using Amquel- it will detox the ammonia an also dechlor the water- both for chlorine and chloramines. However, using it will render common ammonia test kits useless (read the label on the bottle for details).

Note detoxing does not prevent the bacteria from eating the ammonia, its just makes it non toxic to fish etc.