[dustin554]

I'm having a heck of time trying to figure out what to do to lower my ammonia. My water out of the sink is high, went across the street to get a sample and that is high also. The picture shows out of sink, across the street, and my aquarium water. My nitrite is like 0 and my nitrate is about 5ppm. Since the ammonia out of the sink is high doing a water change isn't going to help. Does anyone else have high ammonia in the city water causing this? Trying to figure out what to do. My tank was cycled then I added 10 fish, so I tested and found high ammonia. I did a water change a week after getting them and it was still high so I tested the city water and its the same. What do you guys recommend?

 

[DJRansome]

Call your water authority. You should not have ammonia in your tap water. Don't drink it. Meanwhile...bottled water.

 

[Cosi]

Likely your utility is using chloramine which is essentially a combination of chlorine and ammonia. A lot of hobby-grade ammonia tests will give a false positive for ammonia when there is chloramine. Although the color/concentration you are seeing seems awfully high.

 

[Deeda]

Is your test kit new or one you have been using for awhile?

I also agree the test results seem extremely high right out of the tap. Is it possible there has been a water line break in your area lately? Definitely contact your water supplier or check their website if available.

 

[DJRansome]

For Cosi...I think that ammonia reading is very high...the usual ammonia reading due to chloramine is 0.25 and a pale yellow green.

 

[Cosi]

DJ sounds about right to me

 

[Cosi]

API uses the salicylate method. Iron causes interference even at low concentrations. Any chance your water has high iron?

High concentrations of calcium, nitrate, nitrite, magnesium, phosphate, and sulfate can also interfere with this method.

 

[dustin554]

I'm going to get a whole home system already lost one fish of my 10 cichlid's. It sucks having junk water its a constant battle.

 

[nathanieltyler90]

Yeah I think that'd be best. These levels are scary and I wouldn't want to be drinking this water either.

 

[dadofbill2004]

API uses the salicylate method. Iron causes interference even at low concentrations. Any chance your water has high iron?

High concentrations of calcium, nitrate, nitrite, magnesium, phosphate, and sulfate can also interfere with this method.

Same here, high Iron in copper rich sediment.