Ammonia

Teammuir1

Hey everyone .... I have had a big discussion with BYRON over the weekend on another thread
I was in a STOOPER.... I tested my 120 gallon tank which I conditioned the water and put the
established 75 gallion emporer 400 on .... well the water came out slightly darker than 1.0 ppm
of AMMONIA.. I was mad.. how can this be?????
well THANKS to BYRON.... he was online and we talked it through..... its my TAP WATER..
my TAP WATER has a HIGH concentrate of AMMONIA in it.. I was SHOCKED....
so for everyone out there TEST YOUR WATER.... cause if your doing partial water changes
and your TAP WATER has ammonia in it.... well your not doing your tank much good..
so I contacted the LFS and they said that was an Odly hidh ammonia levels ...
that I should contact the water company.. well I will at some point.. but my brother works
for a company called ECO LAB he maintains and installs dish machines and dispencors and filtration
systems..
I need to install one of his filtration systems on my sink.. My mom already has one on hers
and I tested her water comming from it and it has NO AMMONIA.. so problem will be solved.. soon ..
its a little pricy but it will be worth it in the long run.

I will tell you all that the PRODUCT JUNGLE ammonia eliminator DOES NOT WORK LMAO....

I was also told by the LOCAL FISH STORE.....
that the products do not TOTALLY ELLIMINATE the AMMONIA.....

dramaqueen

I have ammonia in my water, too. Mine tested at 1.0 the other day.

JohnnyD44

how do you manage to keep it under control drama?

MoneyMitch

most "ammonia removing" products dont remove anything instead they convert it to something else to make it non toxic to the fish but it will still test high. ammonia in your tap sux try going to a grocery store and buy those big purified water things and use them. that is all i can think of short term for you.

PS i work in a restaraunt and we use ecolab they are crazy exspensive for everything. 1 dish detergent block costs around 200$ you will be better off going to a lowes or homedepot and installing R/o yourself its really easy and requires just basic tools. Money

Teammuir1

LMAO.... omg you hit on exactly what I was goint to tell eveyeone...
I am lucky though in retrospect..... MY BROTHER WORKS and has WORKED for ECOLAB
for over 9 yrs now.... and HE is getting me a set up that I need...
your right if you the average concumer were to purchase this item it would cost you well
over $300.00
so thats what I am going to do ..
I have been talking Via E-mail to the ACE LABs. that put out the product
JUNGLE.. that I bought... the problem I see is as the enthusiast as we are and we want to
protect our fish we need a totally different test kit... so that it will seperate the results of
AMMONIA and AMMOINUM I think thats what he told me.. lol
any ways when I get this all sorted out and find out what test kit we need I will pass
that info on to you all.. and if someone already knows what I am looking for PLEASE point
me in the right direction so I can BUY that test kit as well....
ALL I know is I was not going to put my fish in that water as long as it shows high level of ammonia
Since then... I put all my fish in the 120 gallon tank last night.. and they are all still doing
well....
I will take pictures tonight and share with eveyone.
I am thankful that this forum is here for us .....
and to BYRON.. I appreciate the Messaging .... I am not sure
when I will have enough posts to use the CHAT ROOM but the CHAT ROOM really
would have speed up our conversation if would have been able to use it....
thanks again
Ron

MoneyMitch

i just went to google to try and find a ammonium test kit and didnt hit anything not sure if they make such a thing. since you moved your fish to a new tank i would just do like a 75% on the prior tank and then get a nylon sock stuff it with food and wait about a month. you wont need to do any water changes or add any chems just test like once every week. Money

Teammuir1

This is the link that the Jubgle Labs has given me.

http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...T_Ammonia.html

Teammuir1

Hello,
In chemistry terms, this product is working. Common test kits test NH3 (ammonia) and NH4+(ammonium). Ammonia eliminators convert ammonia to ammonium. Ammonia is toxic to fish while ammonium is not. You would need a specific test to differentiate the two. Here is a test kit that will work for reading actual levels of toxic free ammonia.
Seachem. MultiTest: Ammonia
Regards,
Jungle Labs

Byron

I can understand you wanting to install something to eliminate the ammonia in your tap water, but for some who may have ammonia in their tap water this is quite an expense. Especially since using a good conditioner like Prime will detoxify the ammonia during the partial water change. I am also wondering about the necessity of separating ammonia from ammonium in a test kit.

Nitrosomonas bacteria consumes both, ammonia and ammonium, converting either to nitrite, and nitrospira/nitrobacter use the nitrite and produce nitrate. In this case it makes no difference whether it is ammonia or ammonium, the nitrification cycle works the same.

In a planted aquarium, plants use ammonium if it is available, or ammonia which they internally convert to ammonium, so again it makes no real difference. And in acidic water the ammonia is mostly ammonium anyway.

Just some ramblings, since I am one who prefers not getting too comlicated with equipment and test kits when there seems to be no reason. Several members on this site has comented about having water with ammonia, and manage OK using Prime as a water conditioner.

Byron.