Ammonia in tap water- is it just chloramine?

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hurgerburger

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I recently tested my 5 gal for Ammonia, and it came up as ~.15. when I tested the tap water it was 1ppm for ammonia. I know that my town uses chloramine in the water- is my test kit reading the chloramine as Ammonia, or is there extra ammonia in the water? How should I go about doing water changes if there is extra Ammonia in the water? My tank is HEAVILY planted and has one betta fish, it should be totally cycled at this point. it has been running for 3 months. I have seachem prime as a water conditioner, should that be enough to neutralize all the chloramines and ammonia so that the bacteria and plants have time to eat it all up? or should I do something else? I'm going to need a pretty easy fix, since I'm going to be giving this tank back to my high school once Covid is over, and I don't want to overwhelm my choir teacher.
 
Are you using the API liquid test kit?...if so, then yes, the chloramine is registering as ammonia...the Prime will take care of it...don't test your water for 24 hours after doing a WC, even though the chloramine has been rendered inert, it will still register as ammonia with the API test kit.
 
Test your tap water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. If there's ammonia in the tap water, it is from the water company adding too much when they make chloramine.

If there is no ammonia in the tap water, then you have a problem with the filter or there is a dead fish or uneaten food in the tank.
 

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