Easy Test for Chloramine in Tap Water

I was just experimenting today with an easy way for people to know if they have chloramine in their water. I thought that if I added Prime to my tap water (which does have chloramine) the API test kit would detect the released ammonia and prove that I have chloramine. The theory being that Prime will break chloramine into chlorine and ammonia; and if ammonia is detected, you have chloramine.

Well the test worked, so I thought, when the test kit registered .25PPM ammonia. However, when I tested my tap water without Prime, I realized I had .5PPMs of ammonia right out of the tap. I then did another test where I put a drop of Prime in the API test tube (way overkill in dosage), added tap water and the test kit didn't detect any ammonia.

So I learned three things today:
1 - I have ammonia in my tap water in addition to 15PPMs of Nitrate
2 - Prime converts ammonia to ammonium which the API test kit does not detect.
3 - I need to add more Prime to my tap water before using it. I already use a double dose in my holding tanks, but I may have to up that to a triple dose to convert all the released ammonia to ammonium before pumping it into my tanks.

What I need now is for some kind person on this forum who has chloramine and no ammonia in their tap water to finish this experiment. For the experiment, you should only use a single dose of Prime; that way you won't convert all the ammonia to ammonium and the API test kit will detect the presence of ammonia.

That's how I found out as well. I just wanted to prove it as the water company web site listed the many different sources of water in SE PA (Schuylkill river, Delaware river, wells, numerous creek, etc) with many different (separate?) subsystems; and yet they only had one test report that was dated 2005.

The history of our (yours as well) water company (Aqua America) also mentions all the smaller water companies they bought out over the past few years. I find it hard to believe that all the water subsystems have the same parameters; especially since they pump water from a coal mine into the Schuylkill (to supplement the water flow for the Limerick Nuclear Power Station) six months out of the year.

Nic,
Do you have ammonia and nitrates in your tap water?

I live in Plymouth Township where the Schuylkill river is the main source of water. Upstream, there are 12 waste treatment plants. Downstream, by the St. Joe's boathouse where my daughter rows for the crew team, I have yet to see a single "live" fish.

My ph is 8.0 out of the tap. We are definitely on different water grids.