Ammonia In Tap Water

[chipster55]

Hi all. I have 2 tanks..55 and 75 gallon. Yesterday I did a 20% water change in my 75 gallon tank. Prior to the change my readings were ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-5. After the water change (and 4 dead fish) my ammonia had jumped to .50. I have used this water source (city water) without any problems in the past. After the water change I checked the water right out of the tap and it had an ammonia reading of .75. Is this normal and if so should I put a zeolite package in my filter? I have a canister filter so there is room. I did another water change today with bottled water (three 5 gal containers) and I hopr to save my red tail shark. He was floating upside down for a while but he has recovered and seems to be holding his own..Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bignose]

Test again tomorrow or a few days later. If your tank is cycled, it should be able to process that ammonia. In this case small, but frequent water changes, that way the ammonia in the tank does not register 0.5 ppm anymore. (like a 5% change should be 0.05*0.75 = 0.0375 ppm which the filter should process quickly). 4 or 5 5% changes would be equivalent to a once weekly 20% change.

Or maybe acquiring an ammonia-neutralizing water conditioner to fix the issue immediately. AmQuel+ or something like that. The issue is that some of these ammonia neutralizing water conditioners will interfere with some tests, so you may not know what is going on.

All that said, the main reason I suggested you check your tap water again tomorrow or a few days from now is that you should not be drinking ammonia in virtually any concentration. You have to find out if this is just a little bump in the road (maybe the water company messed up mixing their chlorine and ammonia to make chloramine, for example. Also, if it just rained hard the wash from farms can sometimes get in the water), or a long-term problem. There are serious health issues that occur if you are using ammonia tainted water to drink and cook with. So, check again soon and if it has not cleared up, I would definitely call or visit the water company.

 

[Bullrock74]

All that said, the main reason I suggested you check your tap water again tomorrow or a few days from now is that you should not be drinking ammonia in virtually any concentration.

In my experience, if your tap water is treated with chloramines, then you will be able to measure a certain amount of ammonia in it. Mine has 0.5 ppm ammonia. My water passes all applicable standard tests...at least according to the semi-annual mailing the water company sends us.

 

[Bignose]

If run properly, the water company should be putting an excess of chlorine in the water, so that every ammonia molecule will join with a chlorine molecule to form chloramine. The excess is so that only chlorine is remaining, which we all know diffuses out of the water pretty quickly. Also, chloramine, while far more stable, is a worse disinfectant, which may allow for some growth of the nasties. So, having an excess of chlorine uses the more effective disinfectant while also keeping the more stable chloramine around.

A document from the World Health Organization (http/www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/en/ammonia.pdf) says that the average person cannot smell ammonia in their water until 1.5 ppm, and cannot taste ammonia in their water until 35 ppm. The document also says that unless you intake more ammonia than your body can detoxify naturally, humans should be fine. Doses of about 100mg/kg of body weight is cited as approximately that toxic threshold.

That said, it also cites study in rats exposed to low levels of ammonia for long-term, and found significant decreases in bone mass, calcium content and blood pH, lower body masses and fat accumulation. These are all things I would not want to happen to me.

So again, I would definately inquire because there should not be ammonia in the drinking water.

 

[Jeff000]

Sorry to hear about the fish

I had a similar thing happen, but my fish didnt die, but they did look not good and a couple were on their side and stuff. Tested my tap water and got .8ppm amoinia.
Went and bought water from the store and did a change and everything was good.
Tested the next day with 1ppm results, phoned the water company and they did tests all around the area. Ended up putting up a do not drink warning in the area for almost a week, they gave free cases of bottled water to everyone effected. Ended up ripping up almost 2 blocks of road to replace some pipes. And after that everything was good I never did find out exactly what caused it, but they fixed it. and fast too.


Best of luck to you though
We only drink bottled water now.

 

[chipster55]

Sorry to hear about the fish

I had a similar thing happen, but my fish didnt die, but they did look not good and a couple were on their side and stuff. Tested my tap water and got .8ppm amoinia.
Went and bought water from the store and did a change and everything was good.
Tested the next day with 1ppm results, phoned the water company and they did tests all around the area. Ended up putting up a do not drink warning in the area for almost a week, they gave free cases of bottled water to everyone effected. Ended up ripping up almost 2 blocks of road to replace some pipes. And after that everything was good I never did find out exactly what caused it, but they fixed it. and fast too.


Best of luck to you though
We only drink bottled water now.

I am very impressed with the knowledge level of this forums members. Thanks for all the answers. I did call the water company and inquired about the ammonia level and was told "yea there's some in there". Great customer service huh?? I now have a call into our health dept. I know one thing though...This water company will not give out bottled water...They just issue a boil order. My tank is back to normal other than being a little cloudy. It was crystal clear before water change. I also put new charcoal in filter. Whats the take on using zeolite. Does anyone use it all the time or just when there are ammonia issues.

 

[annka5]

Could you get a water storage container and an internal filter? Then you could use it to run the tap water through zeolite before using it for a water change.
I would be wary of using zeolite in the main tank as it would surely just mean your filter bacteria would "starve" and therefore uncycle your tank.

 

[chipster55]

Could you get a water storage container and an internal filter? Then you could use it to run the tap water through zeolite before using it for a water change.
I would be wary of using zeolite in the main tank as it would surely just mean your filter bacteria would "starve" and therefore uncycle your tank.

Thanks for advice on zeolite...I think I will use bottled water during water changes...