We were always told to maintain our tank at 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. But how you guys maintain 0 ammonia when the source we get water from is already 0.5ppm. Do you guys use those ammonia down products? And is it effective?
If your tank is cycled, the beneficial bacteria will convert ammonia very quickly into nitrates so the effects will be minimal.
Usage of de-chlorinators like Seachem Prime also help, it binds ammonia into non-toxic form for 24-48 hours, which allows more than enough time for the tank's beneficial bacteria to process it.
I have been cycling my tank for quite some time. And my current nitrite is stablise at 0. But ammonia is at 0.5 for a period. So i tested my tap and realise my source is 0.5 as well. Then how can i know my tank is cycled?
Your tank can be considered cycled if you do water changes and the ammonia still stays at 0 (abit of residual ammonia may still be there from the change water but it should be too low to be detectible)... because even if the tap water has 0.5 ammonia, if you did a 20% water change, the ammonia would be diluted with the rest of the tank water anyways and the tank's resulting water would only be 0.1 ammonia (20% of 0.5), which wouldn't be detectible and easily processed by the established beneficial bacteria.
If your tank is currently still showing 0.5 ammonia, then it just means the tank still hasn't fully completed cycling yet.
Note that when you de-chlorinate tap water with water conditioners that get rid of both chlorine and chloramine, part of the by-product of chloramine conversion is ammonia, it is usually rendered non-toxic by the water conditioner for a period of time (like with Seachem Prime), but when you test the de-chlorinated tap water, it may still detect the ammonia (even though it has already been bound into non-toxic form).
Now i havr a clearer picture. Thank you for the information.
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