ammonia in tap water?

[JackEmerson]

Hi all,

I am still learning much about the hobby. I have a 55-gallon cichlid tank, which has been up for about a year. I recently made some changes to the decor, and afterwards checked ammonia and API was reading about .25 ppm. I assume I removed too many rocks and lost Beneficial bacteria. But then I ran an ammonia test on the tap water, and it was about .5. ppm.

Should I not worry about he .25 ppm and just assume that the BB will come back soon (I added some rocks back, to increase surface area)? Other than dosing with prime, is there anything else I should do with the tap water when I do water changes?

 

[LBDave]

I think it's doubtful that the decor caused this unless it was something like most of the decor/ gravel. I have cleaned sumps and then got a bacterial bloom (white cloudy water).
Duanes can chime in on your tap water quality. It may vary or have changed.
As far as elevated ammonia I would treat the case like a tank that is not completely cycled. Monitor the water/ ammonia, increase water changes and use Prime or Safe, maybe add bottled bacteria if you feel it's necessary or seed bacteria/ substrate from another tank.
As far as the ammonia in the tap water I assume Duanes will chime in.

duanes

 

[JackEmerson]

I think it's doubtful that the decor caused this unless it was something like most of the decor/ gravel.
duanes

Perhaps to my shame, I rarely checked ammonia in the past. Once the tank cycled, I mostly just checked nitrates and occasionally nitrites, which were always reasonable. My hunch is that I need more surface area for BB. So, I just added a spare HOB, which effectively doubles my filtration.

 

[duanes]

If your tap water is disinfected by your water provider with Chloramine, Chloramine is a compound made of between 4 -5 parts chlorine, with @ 1 part ammonia.
That combination, helps prevent trihalo-methanes from forming when combining with organic compunds in treated water (which are carcinogenic to humans) and allows the disinfection process to hold a residual much longer throughout the distribution system, than straight chlorine does.
That residual also prevents the formation of bacteria that cause Legionaires disease..
When straight tap water is tested, after being treated with Chloramine, it usually shows up with a trace amount of ammonia.
Chloramines can be removed with standard aquarium dechlorinators like Prime, Aquasafe, and others, but Chloramine does not off gas like simple chlorine does when allowed to sit, (Chloramine may last weeks and not off gas).
I had Chloramine in my water system in Wisconsin, and used sodium thiosulfate to dechlorinate, (it removed the chlorine part of the compound) but I always ran new water thru my sumps (as opposed to directly in the tank) , where the biomedia quickly neutralized the trace ammonia.

 

[LBDave]

I have a seneye device on mu tanks that measures ammonia. It once seemed that the ammonia went up after water changes and I thought maybe that it was because I put the new water in near the sump inlet. But it was just me worrying. The Prime, once dosed in the tanks works immediately on any fresh water introduced into the tank. My seneye devices still detect a little ammonia but I ignore it.
Whenever I test with the API kit it is zero. Most people don't test their water unless there is a problem, a change in something, or they are cycling a tank.

It's good that you are concerned and watching what's going on. Traits of a good fish keeper.

 

[kzimmerman]

I believe that any ammonia present is detoxified, and still shows up until the biological filter can deal with it.