seagullnz

Hi everyone - so I am in week 9 of cycling my 10G tank.
I have tested the water for ammonia and nitrites everyday since setting up the tank (with one zebra danio).

Each day there has been a positive test result for ammonia - it has never gone above .25

So today I decided to test the water straight out of the tap and it read 1.0!

Does this mean that my tank will never cycle properly, and when I do a partial water change each week (around 15% - 6 litres) am I just dumping in ammonia all the time?

Has anyone else ever dealt with ammonia in their town water supply?
What should I do?

Please help
I live in Alberta, Canada

SereneReyn

that's kinda gross... i think you can still cycle just fine. eventually you'll get nitrates, and the ammonia will go down (after going in the tank)... but are you using test strips, or liquid test kit? strips are reputed to be highly unreliable...

honestly this is a rare instance where i might be tempted to use carbon/charcoal/ammochip blend regularly (as well as a filter for my drinking water!!!)... it can help, if you change it religiously, despite the constant outcry here of it being bad. it CAN leech all the toxins back into the water if you don't change it as often as you should.

second opinion, anyone?

luna

hop2jr

I had the same problem but I had a filter on my main water line to the house all's I had to do was change the filter. bought to at Lowe's was around 50 bucks and the plumer was the same he was a friend. still after changing filter I still had a slight trace of amonia but my 29gal cycled in 10 weeks with no added biospher or cycle stuff. Don't worry it will cycle sooner or later.

Gunnie

It is not uncommon for folks to write in that they have ammonia in their water straight from the tap. Try using Amquel plus as your dechlorinator. It will neutralize the ammonia, but still make it accessible to the bacteria. Once your tank is cycled, continue to use the amquel plus so you don't stress your fish. There are also other brands of dechlor that deal with ammonia, but I'm not sure if they will do more than neutralize it (like Prime), and it might affect your cycle process.

Gargoyle

Ditto all that..