Ammonia In Tapwater / Crucial To Use Water Conditioner

An incident this morning served as a useful reminder of the level of ammonia in (my) tapwater. The behaviour of my elderly fish prompted me to do a mid-week water quality check. Just to be certain, I also measured tap water levels. My reaction when I saw this (see attached photo - sorry, won't attach) was
.

Thankfully, a repeat test confirmed that the tank water was the safe level, whereas it was the tap water that was at the 0.2-0.4 level.

Years ago, advice used to be that water could stand for 24+ hours to gas off the chlorine, an alternative to using water conditioner. However, a couple of years ago, I decided to test out this theory, and the level in the tap water didn't drop much or at all even after sitting for several days. I know from the water supplier that my water has chloramine in it, as do most nowadays. Thankfully, my water conditioner addresses this ammonia level immediately.

Might it be because whatever detoxifies ammonia is abrasive (or at least has some negative effect on fish) and therefore the slime coat promoter is remedial for that (prevents adverse effects)?

The detoxification of the ammonia is simply the conversion of ammonia (NH3) to ammonium (NH4-).

Hi @Hampalong

I think this may tally with the pH that @fcmf is currently seeing from her tap water. In another thread, @fcmf said that her water pH is "almost 8, according to the water company!" BTW, you have a typo above. NH4- should be NH4+. I'm not trying to be pedantic as I always appreciate it when others point out my mistakes.

JPC

Investigation underway... will report back.

And to be even more pedantic, I would write it as NH₄⁺ 

And to be even more pedantic, I would write it as NH₄⁺ 

Hi @Sue

I would have also used the superscript but I am unsure as to how to do it here on ThinkFish. Perhaps you'd explain how it's done?

JPC

I would have also used the superscript but I am unsure as to how to do it here on ThinkFish. Perhaps you'd explain how it's done?

JPC

I use a Windows laptop, and I realise that other devices may not show the same.

In the reply page, above the smileys are two rows of buttons, including bold, italics, quote, table etc. On the bottom row of these are two little squares, one with sup in and one with sub in.
Type NH4+, highlight the 4 and click the sub(script) box. Then highlight the + and click the sup(erscript) box.