Ammonia In Tap Water

[mollylver]

I have had trouble keeping the ammonia down on a 40 gallon tank (.25 ppm ammonia and nitrite) for a while untill this morning I checked the tap water. It read somewhere between .5 and 1 ppm. This is somewhat a releif as now I know its not my fault that the tanks arnt stabalizing and I'm somewhat amazed to as the 10 gallon is reading 0 ppm after we recentally changed the water. How do I modify the tap water to be safe. Thanks.

 

[rdd1952]

What type test kit are using, strip or liquid? Strips are pretty inaccurate. If you are confident the test is correct, you should call your water company. That is too high for tap water. s for how the water is at 0 in your tank, the bacteria have formed to the point that they can process the ammonia from the tap so they bring it back down pretty quickly after you do a water change.

If you have ammonia and nitrite both in a tank, then you have a problem of some type. It isn't coming from your tap water. A cycled tank should never show a reading on either of them.

 

[andywg]

Don't forget that the end result of using sodium thiosulphate to neutralise the chlorine in chloramines will end up with ammonia in the tank. This amoutn should be dealt with swiftly by the filter bacteria, which would explain the events in the 10 gallon.

 

[*Fishkies*]

Well i'm not sure about modifying your tap water for you strictly but in your tank you could try using Ammo-Lock by API or Ammo-Chips by API. I'm currently trying these for my goldfish tank as I am having trouble with ammonia.