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.
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.