Ammonia detected in my tap water

[Podzy]

I am located in Toronto , ON, Canada.

Was curious to see what my water Params straight out of the tap were

Ammonia 0.25 PPM
pH 7.6

I didn't have any idea Ammonia would be present in the water , is this normal procedure for treating water ?
I had a look at my cities test results Last years are not available yet so I went with 2013's .

and it say nothing about ammonia.

Any thoughts into this ??

 

[Podzy]

How am I supposed to keep discus when Im starting out with 0.25 PPM ammonia ?

 

[predatorkeeper87]

Cycle the tank, use Prime as a buffer for when you do WC's, and I don't see any problems unless the ammonia holds at .25 even in your tank/.

 

[Podzy]

Cycle the tank, use Prime as a buffer for when you do WC's, and I don't see any problems unless the ammonia holds at .25 even in your tank/.

when I initially did the testing in the aquarium i was getting readings of 0 PPM ammonia . My water conditioner does not mention anything about removing the ammonia , only Chlorine and chloramine.

 

[predatorkeeper87]

Prime neutralizes ammonia into a less detrimental form and, in a pinch, can be used to detoxify your tank if you get an ammonia spike. So if you have a good BB colony built up and use prime during a water change you shouldn't have any issue with your fish being exposed.

 

[Podzy]

Prime neutralizes ammonia into a less detrimental form and, in a pinch, can be used to detoxify your tank if you get an ammonia spike. So if you have a good BB colony built up and use prime during a water change you shouldn't have any issue with your fish being exposed.

Well that is good to know and a relief , thank you !

 

[predatorkeeper87]

Well that is good to know and a relief , thank you !

any time, I've used it for ammo spikes in my smaller tanks I overstocked to fast back in the day. You will still register ammonia on your tests but the prime will bind to it and neutralize it until your BB can convert it to nitrite.

 

[duanes]

Chloramine when applied as a disinfectant to make water potable is "usually" made up of approx 5 parts chlorine combined with 1 part ammonia.
Most water suppliers on the north American great lakes use between 1 - 2 ppm chlorine, and are required to have a residual of a trace at the farthest reaches of the distribution system.
If you have a properly operating biological filter, the trace of ammonia will be easily handled.
My water supplier uses chloramine, and I do 20-30% water changes every other day (every day in summer) using only calcium thiosulfate to eliminate the chloram ine residual.