What would you do if your tap water had ammonia at 2ppm

[atitagain]

I set up a cichlid tank at my office over the weekend and when I got in on Monday I test the water, ammonia was 2ppm so I did a water change. Checked it again before I left and the same thing.

I thought it was weird because I used a cycled canister gravel and sponge and the move from the house was less than 30 minutes and everything stayed in tank water.

Went through most of the week doing water changes really confused until I test the tap. 2ppm right out of the tap. Fox River water is the source so I should have thought of this sooner since the river is a mess.

I really like the tank so I'm hoping someone can offer a fairly inexpensive solution.

Will aging with a heater burn off the the ammonia?

I need something that isn't going to be real time consuming since I am at work.

Something like a three stage filter all carbon????

[Skip]

Use prime to de toxic ammonia.. City water has ammonia added hence positive test out of tap

[atitagain]

Using prime Skip and try knocking it down throughout the day today. Now's the time to buy stock in seachem if that's the route I'm going to have to take at 2ppm.

Would dosing that heavy long term be good for the fish?

[Skip]

Then it is detoxed.. But will come up as a false positive on ammonia test

[flyman767]

What you are reading is chloramines. This is your what most water municipalities are using to replace straight chlorine. It is chlorine and ammonia combines to form chloramines. When you use a dechlorinator, it will convert the toxic ammonia to a non-toxic form...nothing to be alarmed over.

[atitagain]

Tested everything but the chloramines. It's a 56 gallon with some large rock, i have 46 gallons of water and used 3 capfuls of prime and still read 2ppm.

So are you telling me it's a false reading?

How do I know for sure since I'm getting that reading from the tap and the tank after Prime?

I guess it will keep me on the straight and narrow doing wc's since I never really know what the true ammonia level.

Does the test every true up after aging?

[Skip]

Grrrr...
The chloramines, after prime is used. Will still show up on ammonia test as 2ppm... But is NOT deadly to ur fish... Hence False "positive"
reading from testing kit

Aging removes chlorine but not ammonia..

[Sean Buehrle]

Tested everything but the chloramines. It's a 56 gallon with some large rock, i have 46 gallons of water and used 3 capfuls of prime and still read 2ppm.

So are you telling me it's a false reading?

How do I know for sure since I'm getting that reading from the tap and the tank after Prime?

I guess it will keep me on the straight and narrow doing wc's since I never really know what the true ammonia level.

Does the test every true up after aging?

Prime breaks the bond at the molecule level and then makes the ammonia non toxic. Thats the reading you are getting. Completely safe. Now if you let your biofilter run all day on that water youll get a lower result.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Melissa]

Prime is excellent when dealing with chloramines in your tap water. My tap water contains high amounts of chloramine and I have been using Prime and the powder form of prime, SAFE, for years. As long as the fishes are happy, I don't even test for ammonia anymore as with prime you will get a false reading... The dangerous kind of ammonia is "free ammonia"....
If you wish to test for free ammonia, there is a test kit that can differentiate between total ammonia and free ammonia...

http://www.amazon.com/Seachem-Multitest-Ammonia-Test-Kit/dp/B001EUI4VM

[atitagain]

Grrrr...
The chloramines, after prime is used. Will still show up on ammonia test as 2ppm... But is NOT deadly to ur fish... Hence False "positive"
reading from testing kit

Aging removes chlorine but not ammonia..

Didn't mean to make you growl Skip. I've read about it it just never experienced it. I test my water and it throws you off a little when you always have that result.

I appreciate everyone talking me off the ledge. Melissa thanks for the link, I can never have enough test kits.

[Skip]

atit.. i was babysitting last nite and trying to write from my phone.. LOL>>

i went thru the same thing when i first started up my tank last year.. .. so i asked the same thing.. :)

[seanyuki]

Just sharing...

Q: I am using Prime® to control ammonia but my test kit says it is not doing anything, in fact it looks like it added ammonia! What is going on?

A: A Nessler based kit will not read ammonia properly if you are using Prime®... it will look "off scale", sort of a muddy brown (incidentally a Nessler kit will not work with any other products similar to Prime®). A salicylate based kit can be used, but with caution. Under the conditions of a salicylate kit the ammonia-Prime complex will be broken down eventually giving a false reading of ammonia (same as with other products like Prime®), so the key with a salicylate kit is to take the reading right away. However, the best solution ;-) is to use our MultiTest: Ammonia™ kit... it uses a gas exchange sensor system which is not affected by the presence of Prime® or other similar products. It also has the added advantage that it can detect the more dangerous free ammonia and distinguish it from total ammonia (which is both the free and ionized forms of ammonia (the ionized form is not toxic)).

http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Prime.html

hth

[gerrard00]

Might as well go straight to Safe and save your wallet.

[Skip]

safe rocks.. esp when you have a lot of water to change :)

[atitagain]

So I'll bite what's the difference between Safe and Prime other than ones a liquid and the others a powder?

[jcardona1]

The only difference is one is powder and one is liquid. SAFE is a lot more efficient than Prime, as you can treat several thousand gallons more compared to a bottle of Prime. The only thing that SAFE doesn't do is the slime coat thing like Prime does. But that's more of a marketing gimmick IMO.

[Darrell Ward]

SeaChem's ammonia test kit is designed to be used with their products such as Prime. It will give a more accurate result with their products. Tests such as API ammonia test is useless when using heavily treated tap water that must be "Primed".

[Jhhnn]

So I'll bite what's the difference between Safe and Prime other than ones a liquid and the others a powder?

That's all there is to it.

DiscusMama has it right about the test kit/ prime mismatch. The seachem kit is the only way to go- others will drive you nuts with false high readings when using prime, safe or cloram-x in chloramine treated municipal water...

More and more water providers are switching from chlorine to chloramines to better meet EPA guidelines. If you're using prime or similar in the first place, you'll never know. If not, the switchover may have disastrous consequences- it's not like there's a lot of fanfare when it happens, as aquarists aren't really a priority for water providers....

[mmorris]

Call your water company and ask them why you have 2 ppm ammonia. It might take the guess-work out of it.

[Hsunami]

yea! tell'em they are endangering your fish and they need to stop it.

[atitagain]

Call your water company and ask them why you have 2 ppm ammonia. It might take the guess-work out of it.

That's the plan tomorrow. The water comes from the Fox River so I'm sure it's due to all the rain we've gotten in the Midwest. That and the fact that the Fox is not one of the cleanest rivers in Illinois would probably cover it. We fish it for smallmouth and a buddy once wet waded with a cut on his leg and it got pretty infected so I'm sure that have to beat that water up pretty bad to push it to peoples homes.