Tap Water Quality

[Christi_22]

Hi all

From a new newbie!!

I acquired a 75 L Hexagonal tank with under gravel filter just before Christmas (complete with fish, Large Pleco which I have since re-homed, poor thing had seriously outgrown the tank)!! Currently have 2 Dwarf Gourami's, 2 Gold Gourami's, 8 Cardinals, 5 Guppies and one lonesome Odessa Barb (I know he should have some Odessa companions not sure if i can add any more fish to the tank, he seems to be fine though). All the fish appear to be thriving, and happily take food from my fingers however after doing some serious reading up (I especially love this site), I have tested the water and find that nitrites are zero, ammonia 0.5 and nitrates 80. I used Cycle by Nutrafin in the last water change, as the ammonia levels in my tap water are really high (it is added by the water company, and when tested shows up in the danger zone). I also understand that nitrates need to be lower then my current reading, and generally this would be controlled by the regular water changes, but if my water supply contains high levels of ammonia, will it interfere with the balance in the tank??? Hope this makes sense, hope someone can help. Many thanks

 

[doresy]

Water company adding ammonia to water supply!!!!!

Can't be right, totally illegal

If you have ammonia in your drinking water then you need to get on to the water company as there is something seriously wrong there!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

afraid not, it's actually fairly common. in the UK the accepted tolerance is 0.5ppm

what levels are we talking about here, what is the tap water reading for ammonia, what is it for nitrate as well?

once the tank is cycled it's no problem, the filter will soak up the extra bit of ammonia, while you're cycling with fish it can be a bit tricky.

some people report good sucess using seachem prime as a dechlorinator as this normally sucks up a fair bit of extra ammonia in the tap water, also you could try using ammo-lock.

 

[doresy]

0.5 ammonia I would not consider high (I don't mean in our tanks) but OP suggested a much higher level and that the water co, was actually adding it

 

[Miss Wiggle]

if you were a fish you'd consider 0.5ppm ammonia in your water to be high

will see what the OP say's!

 

[Christi_22]

if you were a fish you'd consider 0.5ppm ammonia in your water to be high

will see what the OP say's!

Hi, thanks

Well I just took a reading (using Lifeguard testing strips), and the tap water appears to be reading 0.5 (I know the testing strips aren't always that accurate)!!

I have been on the Thames Water website, and they state that they add Ammonia for purification purposes, I couldn't get onto their annual water quality report though, will try later!! Must admit I was surprised, I have also read another thread on here since posting my question, regarding the same thing.

PS what is an OP?

 

[doresy]

if you were a fish you'd consider 0.5ppm ammonia in your water to be high

will see what the OP say's!

and that's why I put "I don't mean in our tanks"

 

[backtotropical]

PS what is an OP?

The OP is the 'Original Poster' (the person who started the topic).

 

[Christi_22]

PS what is an OP?

The OP is the 'Original Poster' (the person who started the topic).

I knew that !!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i would definately get a liquid test kit to confirm that result then as the test strips are useless, may be that you don't have any at all

 

[rdd1952]

Since there isn't realy anything you can do about mmonia in your tap water, I would agree with Miss Wiggle in that you need to use a dechlorinator like Prime that detoxifies ammonia (dechlorinates and de-toxifies all at one) or the Ammo-Lock that does the same (but you still need a dechlorinator). It will make the ammonia harmless until your system can process it.

 

[andywg]

Water company adding ammonia to water supply!!!!!

Can't be right, totally illegal

If you have ammonia in your drinking water then you need to get on to the water company as there is something seriously wrong there!

Or, alternatively, the water may have been treated with chloramine which will show up as having ammonia after dechlorination.

 

[Christi_22]

Water company adding ammonia to water supply!!!!!

Can't be right, totally illegal

If you have ammonia in your drinking water then you need to get on to the water company as there is something seriously wrong there!

Or, alternatively, the water may have been treated with chloramine which will show up as having ammonia after dechlorination.

 

[Christi_22]

Thanks guys, info much appreciated looks like I need to go shopping!!

 

[foley69]

i just recently got a bottle of seachem prime and this stuff is amazing it also breaks down nitrite which i had a spike of it was at 0.7 and after using this its now at 0 well worth the money