Bad Tap Water...

[samiam9818]

Hi,

I usually buy gallon jugs of water to do water changes with because my tap water has high levels of ammonia.

But now I'm upgrading to a 40 gallon tank and purchasing gallons of water is going to be waaaayyyy too expensive.

Does anyone know how I can improve the quality of my tap water/remove the ammonia from it?

Thanks!

 

[kirztie14]

There are special chemicals you can get from aquarium shops that can improve your water.
Go to your local aquarium shop and have a look what you can find. Even have a chat to one of the workers.

 

[Pabs311]

like kirztie said, there are chemicals available on the market. there's a ton a producers. there usually labeled as "water conditioners" some are only for removing clorine and heavy metals, but some also have additives that help remove ammonia from tap water. if you can't find something along those lines, a water filter that uses carbon (such as brita) may do the same, not sure though, some research may be needed to confirm that.

*if u have city water, u will need some form of conditioner anyway, as most cities add chlorine to purify the water.test ur water or call ur local water authority to determine if chlorine is present.

 

[buckiejim2]

Yes its too expensive to buy water. Are you positive the water has ammonia? Are you using the correct test kit? You could be confusing it for high nitrates which on its own is not too much of a worry to us fishkeepers. If you have too much ammonia in your tapwater you should contact your water board and ask why. There should not be too much amnmonia in our tapwater - the only time theres ammonia in higher levels is when it is combined with chlorine to give chloramine which is why we need to use a conditioner to get rid of the chloramine. The residual ammonia is then disposed of by our filters. Check the test kit and see if indeed is a kit for ammonia and not nitrite or nitrate. A reading less than 100ppm for nitrate is not too bad for fish.
BJ

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree with the point in the previous post that you need to put numbers to this and the numbers need to come from a good liquid-reagent-based test kit. Tests from Salifert, API or Nutrafin should all be ok for getting these numbers.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[-SPB-]

Prime is a good water conditioner that is recommended by a lot of people. With 5ml, you can treat 200l of water.

This is from the bottle:

Removes Chlorine, Chloramine, Ammonia. Detoxifies Nitrite and Nitrate.

Here's a load of it on ebay:

http/shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_nkwZseach...fromZR40QQ_mdoZ

$39.99 for 2 litres is so cheap, compared to how much it costs here in the UK.