Ammonia In My Tap Water

[busterbrit]

I'm currently doing a fishless cycle and decided to test my tap water.

There is .5 ppm of Amonia in my water!!! is that bad? What should I do?

Here are the other readings from my tap water. Please let me know your thoughts.


.5 Amonia
250 KH (this was on a strip so not that accurate. I need to get an API test kit to match my others)
150 GH
PH 7.9 (I'm concerned about this as well but I will post another thread for this).

 

[howard_hopkinson]

Sounds like your water company adds Chloramine to your water supply.

Take a look at this thread HERE.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree. Its just not really a problem. That's a good thread that's linked. Be sure to read through it all the way to the end.

In the fishless cycle you're doing, you're adding lots more ammonia anyway and as long as you stay aware that .5 is coming, things will make sense.
In a Fish-In cycle its a tiny bit more concern but that's not your problem.
After you get fish it won't be much of a concern because by then your biofilter will make quick work of the ammonia coming in via the tap. The one thing that will be different for you will be that it will be good to establish a mental habit of translating your water additions to being smaller. So if someone recommends that you do a 50% water change you should say to yourself, "Ah, I'm going to make that two 25% water changes with some hours inbetween!" Each time you change in a smaller amount of water the ammonia will be diluted more and will be gone sooner. Another good thing for you will be to make sure you use a high quality conditioner like Prime or perhaps Amquel+ if you are in the US. Prime is really concentrated, so it will last a long time but its also considered to be quite reliable in its ability to convert ammonia to ammonium, rendering it harmless to fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[busterbrit]

good info. Thanks!!!

Now I'm just grossed out that I'm drinking ammonia!!!!

 

[waterdrop]

good info. Thanks!!!

Now I'm just grossed out that I'm drinking ammonia!!!!

Its a half a "Part Per Million!!!"... no way you could begin to sense it! You'd probably be more grossed out thinking about the 10,000 bacteria you inhale in with each breath, or (from a recent newspaper article) the 10 million bacteria in a typical glass of tap water (hey, no wonder we can seed our fishless cycles without MM!) Supposedly, a household thing that might end up being a bit more of a concern are the millions of bacteria you can inhale from the first steam of your morning shower. A lot of species build up in showerheads (the bacteria like plastic more than metal (Hey, we could have told them that too!)).. so its good to let some of that water warm-up time be going through the showerhead as opposed to just the bathtub faucet! aww, its just life!