Ammonia showing up or not?

[Finthusiast]

When I am doing tests in both my aquariums and my tap water it appears to be reading ammonia (no more than 0.25ppm) unless it is just my eyes not matching colors correctly.
I dont know if Im being too paranoid about ammonia or if this is a safe level to be at. I tested my tap water after letting it sit for 24 hours (my water change water) to see if ammonia showed as 0 but it actually looks like the same color as my tanks ammonia level. So my question is does tap water have a slight bit of ammonia in it or is there no chance and its my eyes reading the wrong results?

 

[Finthusiast]

Heres pictures of the colors all three are same color to me two are from my two tanks and one is water change water

 

[Rocksor]

You have chloramines in your tap water, hence the ammonia reading. The API test will shown total ammonia, which includes both toxic ammonia + non-toxic ammonium. It's best to use Seachem Ammonia Alert or their ammonia test to show you which is toxic ammonia.

 

[Finthusiast]

Chloramines in water even after 24 hours?

 

[Rocksor]

Chloramines in water even after 24 hours?

Chlorine dissipates in 24 hours or so, chloramines not so much, depending on the volume of water and concentration, chloraminesncan last for weeks in water.

 

[Finthusiast]

Ohh wow so is sitting out for 24 hours not recommended water to use or what other options are there I need to find a way to start doing large water changes on my 75 gallon AND soon lol

 

[Rocksor]

Ohh wow so is sitting out for 24 hours not recommended water to use or what other options are there I need to find a way to start doing large water changes on my 75 gallon AND soon lol

24 hours of water sitting out won't do much with chloramine treated water except for stabilizing the true PH out of tap.

 

[Finthusiast]

What canI do to make my water more “pure” for water changes? I have been doing this and its been working but if I can improve on the water quality I would like to learn how lol

 

[Rocksor]

What canI do to make my water more “pure” for water changes? I have been doing this and its been working but if I can improve on the water quality I would like to learn how lol

Just add water conditioner like Prime, and that's it. As long as you are doing water changes to keep it close to the same parameters as your tap water, then there's not much more to do.

 

[duanes]

Chloramines are a very stable compound, they don't gas out like chlorine does They are normally 4-5 parts chlorine combined with 1 part ammonia).
It's why water providers use them, to keep water disinfected and safe to drink all the way to the ends of the distribution system, and where water can sometimes sit in pipe dead ends.
Letting Chloraminated water sit, waiting for it to gas off, is an exercise in futility.
At the water plant where I worked as chemist we did an experiment letting Chloraminated (not chlorinated) water sit, and even after 2 weeks, it still showed a trace.
In my tanks directly after water changes I always showed a trace, and yes each type shows up, ammonia and ammonium show up in certain type tests, it takes a minute or so for the filter to cycle all the tanks water thru the biomedia where "bacteria eat it up".