Ammonia in tap water

[Dan]

I've been having trouble with a tank having an ammonia spike, and I just tested my tap water and it's coming in at about 1ppm ammonia. I'd check your tap water before doing water changes. I'm going to pick up one or two of those 5 gal water bottlew from the grocery store to do water changes this week.

[HayleYoyo]

The ammonia in tap water is from the Chloramine. It's completely normal. It's also fine to add into a tank that is cycled.

If you do a 25% wc, the tank will have .25ppm ammonia, which you BB will handle within a few minutes to an hour.

If that sounds bad remember the following:

1. Prime detoxifies ammonia for upto 48h. So if you're treating your water, it isn't even harmful.

2. Even though we strive for 0 ammonia, there is always going to be periods where there is some. If you don't believe me, test your water within 5 minutes of feeding your fish.

[Jody]

Yeah, Ottawa water will fluctuate throughout the year.
There always tends to be a bit of ammonia 0.25-1.0 typically, but that is typically taken care of by your water conditioner and bacteria pretty quickly, as HayleYoyo mentioned.

To me, the bigger issue I see with tap water, is when there is a big pH jump, which isn't unusual at the change of the seasons. Normally, it isn't a problem, unless you are either not doing regular changes, or are doing a large change. We often get a bunch of people into the store where they did a water change and a bunch of stuff died, all within a week or two, then nothing for 5 or 6 months until the next change..

Jody