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] I am NOT pleased. ]

I have had mysterious fish losses off and on since I moved back home from the Ottawa area, and just recently noticed that the pattern of losses seems to happen more frequently right after water changes. I have been examining my own practices with a fine-toothed comb over this for months, but finally decided to contact the local water treatment authority and find out if there are any contaminants in my tap water that might be the culprit.

I spoke to a woman in reception but she had no clue what I was talking about, so she transferred my call to the head chemist to get some answers. It was very cool, the guy was very happy to answer my questions and pleased that I was interested in water chemistry. Anyway, I told him I was interested in any chemical or metallic pollutants in the water that might affect sensitive fish. It turns out that the source of our tap water (the Grand River) is actually contaminated with ammonia, and the water comes out of the tap at about 0.3 mg/L. Of course, 0.3 mg/L isn't enough to warrant concern for safe human consumption, but could be catastrophic for sensitive species of fish. :#(

I had tested the water for everything else, pH (about 7.2), nitrate (ND), nitrite (also ND), but never thought to test my tap water for ammonia because it is very very rarely present in drinking water. I am really thankful that the chemist at the water treatment plant was so helpful, he gave me a website where all of his test results are published and told me to give him a call anytime I have any questions he might be able to help me with. He also mentioned that they do tours of the plant regularly, and to contact him if I'm interested because he would give me some extra behind-the-scenes access and information.

So anyway, I am a bit upset that I had been unknowingly dumping ammonia into my tanks when I thought I was doing my fish a favour performing large water changes very frequently and keeping the water quality pristine. When the deaths first started I actually increased the frequency of water changes not knowing that I was dumping more ammonia into my tanks. :#( I wish I had contacted the water treatment plant a lot sooner. I have lost quite a few fish because of this, all sensitive species like panda corydoras, and one of my betta coccina, a very small female betta, and one cardinal tetra and am even wondering if my blue rams' lives may have been shortened by the stress they must have been through because of the ammonia in my tap water. I also have excessive algal growth on one of my tanks, which could also be explained by the ammonia reading.

I am now trying to find the best way of removing the ammonia in my tap water before it is added to the tanks. As far as I am concerned, I have 3 options:

1. Purchase an RO/DI unit (about $200) plus replacement filters they are quite expensive here, so this won't happen for a while but it may be something I want to save up for. Eventually it would be nice to switch to 100% reconstituted RO/DI water on my sensitive species tanks, but again it will take me a while to save the money to buy a filtration system.

2. Purchase a DI tap water filter (about $30-50) plus replacement filters.

3. Use an ammonia removal/binding product such as amquel, ammolock or prime on my tap water before it is added to the tank (about $20)....

Has anyone got any suggestions or experiences with any of these options? I would like to know if anyone has tested the tap water DI filters sold at pet shops for ammonia removal, or if you have used water treatment additives that claim to neutralize ammonia and have been successful with them. If so, which additive do you use/recommend?

Thanks for the input. This is pretty upsetting but at least I know what the issue is now and can work to correct it.

That is very upsetting. I'm glad you got some straight answers on it. We don't have ammonia here, but I've used Prime a lot. If I were you I'd try the Prime option first. A little goes a long way and it is probably the most economical of the options. According to the Prime website http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Prime.html, the normal dose (5 mL/50 gallons) will neutralize 0.6 mg/L of ammonia, well above what you're facing.

Last edited by DoctorJ at 08-Apr-2005 12:07

YUCK Tryst I'd be upset too....and no that's not something that they report Wonder if it's bad enough for fuzzy pet consumption....

How much water do you change @a time

If it's only a few gallons what about those 1 gallon pickle or pretzle jars have some hornwort in it to consume the ammonia then use that for the water changes?

^_^

[hr width='40%']"Put your soul in the water,
And join me for a swim tonight"

id say..start with the Prime 1st....the cheapest option uve got.

Over the weekend, I lost one of my female bettas and nearly lost a second one. The one that died was quite small -- fine Saturday, but dead Sunday morning. The other one was older, larger and acting very wierd. She had streaks on her fins like someone had taken a sharp blade and scraped the color off. I had tried MelaFix and PrimaFix, but no improvement to be seen -- in fact, the condition got worse, so decided a water test was in order.
My PH was 6.0 and my ammonia was 0.50. No telling how much clorine was in there too.
I normally use bottled water, but due to a family illness and worries about $$$, I had bought a water filter from a local pet store. The above water readings that I tested was from the water filter, but it was the same readings straight from the tap.
Presently, my water company is flushing out the lines, but failed to let anyone in my area know about it. The pet store water filter (made for aquariums) did not filter out the ammonia. I had to make a rush to the store for more bottled water, and was able to save the remander of my bettas. Fortunately, the fish in my tanks were not seriously effected.
I am sorry about your loss. I quess I will have to start testing the water before I start using it filtered anymore or just stick to bottled water.

Last edited by Two Tanks at 11-Apr-2005 22:27

That is so screwed up... :#(

Hope you find a way to conteract this problem.. You cant even do safe water changes anymore

good luck!