Im needing some help. I just got a new tank and I'm living in an apartment for the first time. I checked my tank and had a random ammonia spike that I didn't understand. Nitrites and nitrates were high too so I did a 60 percent change yesterday and another 40-50 today because it wasn't better. The nitrites and nitrates went down but my ammonia levels were worse. I decided to test the water I was using to fill the tank and the ammonia is through the roof. I assume this means I'll have to buy water. Would purified or spring water be better? Photo of straight tap water.
Posted by Forsaken-Play-4849
5 Comments
Mine, too. The city uses it to clean the water.
check ur local fish store, mine sells water for 30¢ a gallon and is ready to go straight into the tank. i assume most LFS do smth similar
Bring that directly to the apt manager and to the city with your findings. There should not be that high of ammonia in city water.
Give us more information. Yeah, that’s a bit troublesome for ammonia out of the tap, but 1-2 ppm ammonia ADDED to the tank is not the same kind of problem as your cycle falling behind on 1-2 ppm ammonia. As long as you are removing at least 5-10 ppm nitrate per water change, you will keep up with this particular input (ppm is a measure of mass, so each 1 ppm of ammonia consumes ~6 ppm KH to create 3.6 ppm nitrate in a neutral/alkaline tank). I don’t know what your pH is, but on the neutral or acidic side of things, most or all of this ammonia will immediately turn to much safer ammonium on contact with water that has free hydrogen ions.
Mine looks like that and I just use it. My tap water pH is only 7.9-8 though. If it was higher it might be a problem.