Really high ammonia in BaltCo tap water?

[1978Datsun]

I just moved to a new house a couple months ago and have several tanks up and running. The other day I went to test the water in my 10g planted nano tank with the API master test kit and found that somehow the ammonia was off the charts in my tank, but all the rest of my parameters are perfect. after doing a 50% water change there was no difference in ammonia so I tested the tap water and found that straight out of the tap it is ~2.0ppm. How are you guys in Baltimore County dealing with this and what steps should I be taking to correct this? Does Baltimore County use chloramine in the water?

The tank is thriving, plants are growing great and the fish are doing great in all of my tanks, I have not lost a single one since moving so I am really confused.

 

[FishEggs]

How old is your test solution? Not sure if they go bad like that but just a thought.

What water conditioner are you using?

If you have a lot of plants in the tank, especially stem plants, I'm surprised you're getting much of a reading at all since ammonia is plant food.

 

[1978Datsun]

How old is your test solution? Not sure if they go bad like that but just a thought.

What water conditioner are you using?

If you have a lot of plants in the tank, especially stem plants, I'm surprised you're getting much of a reading at all since ammonia is plant food.

Test solution is only a few months old and I use seachem prime. I was surprised too, the tank is pretty densely planted with rotala, sag, jungle val, a carpet of glosso and a couple other plants.

I tested the tap water again before work today and the test actually came back as 0 ppm that time so I am not sure what is going on at this point. I will test again when I get home but even if it is still at 0 ppm that is pretty unsettling it had such a spike straight from the tap.

 

[TysenP]

I've had similar issues in DC. Check your local annual water report to see if they use chloramines.

Chloramines are an alternative to chlorine. It has an ammonia molecule that will be released and temporarily bound by your dechlorinator, which *should* make it harmless to fish. Doing multiple water changes in quick succession could lead to a nitrite spike, especially in new tanks. When I was first cycling my aquarium, I saw nitrites and freaked out and did 50% water changes daily for 5 days, this led to crazy high nitrites and I had no clue why. Turns out my bacteria was processing some of the ammonium into nitrites, then I'd do a water change, adding more ammonium to the system, then it'd get converted to nitrites, then I'd do another water change, then there'd be more nitrites, and this compounded until I tested at the end of the week and saw a maximum reading on my API nitrate tube. I kept dosing prime daily, stopped water-changing, and after a week it all processed into nitrates, and all my fish lived.

If your local water uses chloramines, I recommend not doing more than 1 water change per week. This will give your bacteria time to process everything. Also keep a look out for your local water company's "Chlorine flush". For about a month each year, the water company will switch from chloramine to a super-high dose of chlorine, to kill any ammonia-eating algae in the pipes. The water will smell like bleach, and you'll need to use extra dechlorinator during each water change until they switch back.