Ammonia in tap water?

[mhutch]

I have a new 3ft tank that is at the end of its cycling and I have started to stock it. The nitrites are 0, the nitrates are 20-30 but the ammonia is high (1.0-2.0). I have been doing water changes daily for the past week (10-15% daily), added ammonia remover, but no real change in the level of ammonia. So I check my tap water and it appears to contain a small amount of ammonia. Now before you say bad things.. I rinsed my vials to avoid contamination and drew it straight out of the tap.

In the pic below from l to r.. tank water before - tap water 1 - tap water 2 - tank water after.

Has anyone else had this problem? fwiw I live Clementi and West Coast.

I also went and did another test. The results are about the same 0.25-.5 tap, 1.0 tank, and if I use the ammonia remover then it shows 0.

[sheng]

For your reference :

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...read.php/65724

[mhutch]

that was easy.. let this be a lesson that search is our friend thanks.

[mhutch]

After reading up on this it really does get a bit complicated and it is too bad that all this information isn't so simple to obtain (or maybe it is and I just haven't looked the right place). I never would have thought that a dechlorinator/chloraminator (word) would leave behind ammonia. Never. So while looking at dechlorinators it is important to check whether yours does. I was using Ocean Free and just ran a test and it does not appear to break down the residual ammonia (I tested it) nor does it claim to on the bottle. Looks like a trip to lfs for some Seachem prime any excuse is a good one imo!