# Ammonia in tap water



## lbj (Mar 11, 2011)

Hi forum, a quick question if you don't mind! Did a search but didn't find anything. Sorry if this has been asked before.

Is ammonia in water straight from the tap unusual? I just received my API test kit today and decided to test my tap water to get a baseline panel. Ammonia shows up as 1ppm (although I have to admit getting a decisive reading based on the color chart is tough). I did a check of my water coming off my refrigerator filter, it shows .25ppm, so there's definitely some ammonia in the tap that the filter is removing. From the tap, nitrites and nitrates show up as zero, pH is 8.0.

Some background info: I'm in the middle of preparing my first aquarium. Cycling fishless, using decomposing fish flakes for ammonia. It's been going for about a week, and parameters are currently identical to my tap water readings.

What do you guys think about 1ppm in the tap water? Makes me a bit worried about water changes actually _adding_ ammonia.


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## ladyonyx (Apr 20, 2009)

I would be a little worried about that too. 0.25 ppm is certainly better, but still a little tricky for cycling purposes. If you know someone else with a test kit, test out your water with theirs or bring it to a LFS for testing just to make sure it's not bad reagents in the one you bought. That should narrow it down. 

If your ammonia is actually reading that high from your tap water, there are a few solutions: (1) get a good water conditioner that removes all the bad stuff like this one: Aquarium Water Quality: AmQuel+ Instant Water Detoxifier
(2) Get a RO (reverse osmosis) unit. They are obviously the more expensive fix, but they keep you from always adding stuff to your water to get rid of them ammonia. Here are some to look at including a very reasonable $43 version that supposedly works pretty well: Water Purification: Aquarium Reverse Osmosis Systems
Maybe get water conditioner for a quick fix right now while fishless cycling (which I' very happy to hear you're doing as opposed to using fish), and invest in a RO unit. It's the best investment I ever made for my tanks, fresh, saltwater and brackish. 

Good luck with everything and please ask as many questions as you'd like! Tell us more about your tank and the fish you are looking to keep!


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

If your showing that much water in your tap, I would suggest calling your water company and find out if there is a problem somewhere.


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## lbj (Mar 11, 2011)

Thanks for the quick response! This is a 20 gallon long tank, and I'm thinking about 2 small fancy goldfish. I know they're going to get bigger and probably outgrow the tank, but hopefully things will be okay for a while. I'll have 300 gph filtration and I'm planning on weekly water-changes to keep the waste products at bay. I just put in some plastic plants today, but maybe I'll do live plants at some point. Also put in some starter bacteria since my cycle seems to be taking its time to start!

Bad reagent crossed my mind, but that's when I decided to test the fridge-filtered water. Since the ammonia reading was greatly reduced I figured the reagent was probably ok. I may still take a sample to the pet store and have them test it. If the ammonia is actually that high, I'll definitely use chemicals or filtered water like you suggested. Thanks for the links!


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## lbj (Mar 11, 2011)

susankat said:


> If your showing that much water in your tap, I would suggest calling your water company and find out if there is a problem somewhere.


I take it that most members here see 0ppm in their tap water? Is 1ppm ammonia a health risk for people or just for aquariums?


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## lbj (Mar 11, 2011)

I found my city's water quality report online. Interestingly nitrites and nitrates are listed as contaminants, both in fractions of ppm, but ammonia is not listed. Hm.


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

Having ammonia in your tap water indicates your water source is contaminated with agrcultural or sewage runoff of some kind. Don't drink it until you get this problem fixed. As far as your fish are concerned, make all future water changes with distilled or demineralized water.


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

this may help... http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/ammonia.pdf
It states that the amounts in your water (which seem to be high in some situations) is not an issue.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Did you ever test ammonia from your tap to see what it really is? I just saw you tested from your fridge filter, not sure why you would do that unless that is where you plan to fill your tank from.

If you had a planted tank I would say that this wouldn't be such a big issue, but having goldies kind of ex's that idea. I would seriously re-consider that idea also. Goldies will push the limits of your bio-filter to begin with and having ammonia from the getgo is just exasorbating the problem. I don't care how much water you're filtering. Plus, why buy a fish that you'll have to transport out due to size later.

If you go the RO path, the safest level is 50/50 unless you're adding things back in to up your kh. 100% RO water is not safe against ph fluctuations due to how soft it is.


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## lbj (Mar 11, 2011)

phys:

Very helpful link, thank you. I will have to read through it more carefully, but the conclusion is hopeful:

_Ammonia is not of direct importance for health in the concentrations to be expected in
drinking-water. A health-based guideline has therefore not been derived._


jrman:

Sorry if I didn't make it clear in my original post. I tested water straight from the tap to have 1ppm ammonia. I then tested refrigerator-filtered water (partly out of curiousity and partly to to see if my reagent was working properly) to have .25ppm.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

No, you were clear. I just missed it.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

Some tap water uses a liquid chloramine instead of the gas chlorine to treat the water.

Choramine breaks down to chlorine and ammonia once the water leaves the plumbing.

what I do with my tanks is run them with plants for the first week. That removes any ammonia. Then just add top off water and not do "normal" water changes. In that way any ammonia in the replacement water is kept at bay by the plants. (plants actually prefer to get their nitrogen from ammonia over nitrates)

my .02


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## lbj (Mar 11, 2011)

No worries jrman, I write very poorly and often cannot make a very clear point.

In case it benefits anyone else, I did more research. Some water companies may intentionally add ammonia to their water, along with chlorine, to make chloramines. While chlorine evaporates, chloramines do not and this is why they are used, as a non-dissipating disinfectant. I may be detecting ammonia from chloramine usage.

Edit: Oops, beaslbob beat me to it. Thanks for your input!


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## lbj (Mar 11, 2011)

I've just confirmed that my city uses chloramine and not chlorine in its water. I'd say the mystery is solved, thanks to everyone who responded! I'm using a chlorine/chloramine water conditioner at the moment. I may use some sort of ammonia neutralizer when I do water changes, or I may not worry about it and just let the bacteria do its job. Someday when I'm brave enough to try live plants I will do as beaslbob suggested and go cycle-less.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

lbj said:


> I've just confirmed that my city uses chloramine and not chlorine in its water. I'd say the mystery is solved, thanks to everyone who responded! I'm using a chlorine/chloramine water conditioner at the moment. I may use some sort of ammonia neutralizer when I do water changes, or I may not worry about it and just let the bacteria do its job. Someday when I'm brave enough to try live plants I will do as beaslbob suggested and go cycle-less.


WARNING

WARNING

WARNING

and a general 

DANGER WILL ROBINSON.

*r2

The chloramaine/chlorine chemicals lock up oxygen so over use can suffocate the fish.

Also ammonia locks (contained in chlorimine chemicals as well) locks up the ammonia but most ammonia test kits (like the api test kit) still test positive for ammonia. Because the kits measure all the ammonia not just the dangerous free ammonia.

the danger is that you test ammonia and even though all the ammonia is locked you still test positive. so you add more checmicals and so on.

Eventually you can kill the fish from the chemicals when all the ammonia was originally safe to start with.

There is a seachem (i think?) multitest kit that measures both forms of ammonia and I think the in tank ammonia dots also just measure the free type was well. With the multitest you can determine of all the ammonia is locked up and therefore no additional chemicals are needed. but the test itself is a pain compared to the api liquid test kits.

But then what I do is just use plants, age the water initially, and just top off with no water changes. So I don't have to worry about ammonia.


my .02


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

just for your fish's health, 1ppm is fine for humans, but can still cause probs with fish. so be sure to use some water tap treatment on the water before you add it to your tank.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

If you do regular water changes, I'm pretty sure the nitrifying bacteria concentrations in the tank will take care of the excess ammonia so long as you keep the PWC's on a schedule. Also, unless your fish show signs of stress like flashing or irritated (red) gills, I think you'll be fine with just using the regular recommended dosage of tap water conditioner


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