Using Seachem Prime and Tap Water

[akyrissler]

Ok so after using bottled spring water with my betta, I have decided to switch to tap water and Seachem Prime water conditioner. My questions is this: why would my treated water be really high in ammonia reading? I wanted to test the water with my Master kit before using it on my fish and I am so glad I did!! I used 2 drops for my 1 gallon tank. Can this reading actually be right? Do I need to do something else. I don't want to hurt my fish just by switching to tap water!! I would rather keep paying for the spring water! It just takes forever to get the water temp. the same when using the spring water. PLEASE HELP!!!!

[aemaki09]

First off:: how high was the reading

2nd:: you can dose prime safely up to 5x what the recommendation is and it has the ability to detoxify ammonia for 48-72 hours. Which would be about as often as you need to do a water change on 1 gallon

[akyrissler]

The reading was 2.0...I used a pipette dropper as the 250ml did not have a dropper cap. I did not know I needed a dropper cap when I bought this bottle. I am currently doing 100% water changes daily on my fish bc he is sick with fin rot. So I was just having to wait so long for his water to get back to the same temp when using the bottled spring water. But now I am so worried about switching to tap water!! Ugh....I don't know what to do!!!!

[akyrissler]

I went back and added another drop of Prime to retest to see if that made any difference and it did not. The reading is still the same at 2.0 ppm. Should the reading show 0??

[aemaki09]

Next time you go to PetsmArt take a sample of your tap water for them to test. That will give you clearer answers. Or call your water company and see what amount of ammonia they are putting in the water.
They really shouldn't be that high

[akyrissler]

Thanks...I have kept adding more of the Prime to the water to just test it. I actually got up to 10 drops of Prime and the reading is still saying close to 1.0 ppm. Can I use filtered tap water? Would that make any difference at all?

[beacon]

Originally Posted by aemaki09

Next time you go to PetsmArt take a sample of your tap water for them to test. That will give you clearer answers. Or call your water company and see what amount of ammonia they are putting in the water.
They really shouldn't be that high

I am just going thru this now. I had my fish on spring water (very expensive) and they were fine with it. I am moving them to tap plus Prime and so far it is going well. What I found is that my water quickly breaks down to ammonia due to the way the municipality treats it. However I was also told that sometimes Prime plus tap will test positive for ammonia, but it's really ammonium, which is not as harmful. What I am doing is basically observing the fish. If any sign of trouble I will put them back on spring water.

I would not use warm tap water. The water in your water heater is not as clean as the cold water in the tap. I use the cold tap water and warm it a little in a pot. I have a digital thermometer for this purpose. It goes very fast. Then it if is too hot I add some cold tap water til I get it where I want it.

Hope it works out for you and me too!!!!

[beacon]

Wanted to add: I am first running the tap water thru a brita filter. I don't know if it's better or worse, but so far, so good.

[Hallyx]

Prime converts ammonia to harmless ammonium. But your API (?) test kit reads that ammonium just the same. If you dose Prime at 2 drops/gal, rest assured that your ammonia has been converted for around 2 days depending on your pH.

There are other water conditioners which totally remove ammonia---Ammo Lock is one. I hope other members will post some suggestions.

Petsmart may or may not use a liquid test. My local Petco uses inaccurate strips.

Does your tapwater really contain 2.0ppm ammonia? Is that even legal?

[jeaninel]

Did you test your tap water to see if you have any ammonia in your tap water? If you're doing daily 100 percent changes you shouldn't have any ammonia reading I would think.
Edit: I meant to say, test your tap water without any Prime added to it.
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