As some of you may have read my excessively long posts, I have had a terrible problem with ammonia with one tank reaching 8 ppm. Of course I neutralized it with prime and amguard - but ALL three of my tanks seem to have lost their cycling. Most likely due to the addition of too many fish at once (I buy online and shipping costs a fortune whether you buy 1 fish or 10 so you tend to over-buy and then become overstocked).
Back in April/May I tested our City's water and found all was well - nothing that could harm my fish. Then this summer (when my tanks lost their cycling) I tested the city water again and found levels of ammonia as high as 1.5 ppm. So even if I had zero ammonia, as soon as I did a water change I would have ammonia again - and with my tanks not cycling properly the ammonia levels grew and grew. The only solution (after trying many remedies) was to empty the tank completely, clean everything (leaving the filter with the bioorganisms alone but cleaning the filter casing itself and adding media that was intended to reduce ammonia. The total water change always brought the Ammonia levels down to about 1.0 (due to the city water having ammonia.)
I left voice mails and emails for the person responsible for our City's water report (This is in Topeka KS) - finally caught their attention when I cc'd their legal department. I wanted full disclosure of the ammonia issue. He then called me back immediately. He said that they use Ammonia to convert all the Chlorine they add into Chloramine which neutralizes the taste and smell of all the Chlorine they use (ie., think swimming pool water). They are required by law to do this. His concern was that they should be adding such exact levels of Ammonia that there should not be any left over - and as I told him - in the spring the water tested zero ammonia but now it runs .5 ppm to 1.5 ppm depending on the day. He promised he would have a talk with their City Plant Mgr responsible for determining the correct amount of chemicals to use but suggested that I should drink bottled water or use a filtered water that has a carbon filter and that I should routinely change out the carbon filters in my fish tanks (which I really don't think will help but I have been doing that) - of course I am using Prime and AmGuard and Stability daily to neutralize the ammonia as well as help add the biological's needed to get my tanks cyclin again. I'm concerned that neutralizing the ammonia is actually preventing my tanks from cycling but what am I supposed to do when the ammonia levels get up to 8 ppm routinely?
Anyway - I'll post what I hear back and encourage you all to test your tap water and see if there are ammonia, nitrites or nitrates in there. The City report states there are Nitrates in our water but I never see them in my testing.
Finally I want to discuss with him the ridiculously high PH levels (9 or more) we have in our water and get their explanation of why they don't try to lower that closer to 7. My guess it has to do with the hardness of the water (which really isn't that bad any more) but I'll be interested in his explanation,
So don't be afraid of contacting your City's water water manager if you have any issues with your water. While my fish have been staying alive (until I found two small ones dead yesterday) - one died right in front of me. Some of my other fish with big eyes have red where it should be white - so their eyes are clearly irritated most likely by the ridiculous and dangerous amount of chemicals I've been adding. And any clues as to why my tanks won't cycle would be welcome (I have zero nitrites and nitrates - only Ammonia).
I just purchased a jare of Zeolite Crystals - another ammonia reducer but I need to put 1 cup in a media bag and I don't think I have room to do that with all my other necessary media. So I'm not sure what to give up - the sponge, the carbon filter the City says is so essential , my floss or (big no) my Biomedia. I have Aqua50 filters - so I think I'm going to have to add another filter for the ammonia reducer media and the Zeolite crystals. What a drag!
Back in April/May I tested our City's water and found all was well - nothing that could harm my fish. Then this summer (when my tanks lost their cycling) I tested the city water again and found levels of ammonia as high as 1.5 ppm. So even if I had zero ammonia, as soon as I did a water change I would have ammonia again - and with my tanks not cycling properly the ammonia levels grew and grew. The only solution (after trying many remedies) was to empty the tank completely, clean everything (leaving the filter with the bioorganisms alone but cleaning the filter casing itself and adding media that was intended to reduce ammonia. The total water change always brought the Ammonia levels down to about 1.0 (due to the city water having ammonia.)
I left voice mails and emails for the person responsible for our City's water report (This is in Topeka KS) - finally caught their attention when I cc'd their legal department. I wanted full disclosure of the ammonia issue. He then called me back immediately. He said that they use Ammonia to convert all the Chlorine they add into Chloramine which neutralizes the taste and smell of all the Chlorine they use (ie., think swimming pool water). They are required by law to do this. His concern was that they should be adding such exact levels of Ammonia that there should not be any left over - and as I told him - in the spring the water tested zero ammonia but now it runs .5 ppm to 1.5 ppm depending on the day. He promised he would have a talk with their City Plant Mgr responsible for determining the correct amount of chemicals to use but suggested that I should drink bottled water or use a filtered water that has a carbon filter and that I should routinely change out the carbon filters in my fish tanks (which I really don't think will help but I have been doing that) - of course I am using Prime and AmGuard and Stability daily to neutralize the ammonia as well as help add the biological's needed to get my tanks cyclin again. I'm concerned that neutralizing the ammonia is actually preventing my tanks from cycling but what am I supposed to do when the ammonia levels get up to 8 ppm routinely?
Anyway - I'll post what I hear back and encourage you all to test your tap water and see if there are ammonia, nitrites or nitrates in there. The City report states there are Nitrates in our water but I never see them in my testing.
Finally I want to discuss with him the ridiculously high PH levels (9 or more) we have in our water and get their explanation of why they don't try to lower that closer to 7. My guess it has to do with the hardness of the water (which really isn't that bad any more) but I'll be interested in his explanation,
So don't be afraid of contacting your City's water water manager if you have any issues with your water. While my fish have been staying alive (until I found two small ones dead yesterday) - one died right in front of me. Some of my other fish with big eyes have red where it should be white - so their eyes are clearly irritated most likely by the ridiculous and dangerous amount of chemicals I've been adding. And any clues as to why my tanks won't cycle would be welcome (I have zero nitrites and nitrates - only Ammonia).
I just purchased a jare of Zeolite Crystals - another ammonia reducer but I need to put 1 cup in a media bag and I don't think I have room to do that with all my other necessary media. So I'm not sure what to give up - the sponge, the carbon filter the City says is so essential , my floss or (big no) my Biomedia. I have Aqua50 filters - so I think I'm going to have to add another filter for the ammonia reducer media and the Zeolite crystals. What a drag!