Ammonia in my tap water

15 years ago

Hi,

I've learned so much from all of you! Now I have a problem with my small (250 gal) outdoor pond. I built it last August, put in 6, 2-inch goldfish, and they lived through to the Spring. I cleaned out the whole pond a few weeks ago and added new water with conditioner and slime coat, and a few days later all of the fish had died. When I tested the ammonia, it was very high. What happened? Is this a new cycle problem, and I should have been adding an ammonia blocker (I had cleaned the filters that one time with chlorinated water and then added bacteria)? Could it have been the new plants we added, from a local garden store -- the tank smelled horrible on the 100 degree day that we bought them. Could it have bben the excessive rain we had during the few days prior? And finally, we tested our tap water and found an ammonia level only slightly lower than the pond level (still in the danger zone). Is it possible to have high ammonia in tap water, and then need to use a product to remove it with every water change?

Please help! We are fishless and very unhappy!

Thanks!

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Comments (8)

johnkr
15 years ago
Many municipal water supplies are switching from chlorine to chloramine. Chloramine is a mixture of chlorine and ammonia. It actually works out better for the water supply as it takes much longer to dissipate and travels through greater distances of water pipes.

If a chlorine remover is used to treat pond water, it can remove the chlorine and leave behind the ammonia. A proper biofilter can supposidly handle the released ammonia.

I wonder if that is where the ammonia came from? You can call your local water company to find out if chloramine is added to your public water supply.
kevip711
15 years ago
Yes Yes Yes.. I busted my local water supply with my testing and they had high levels of ammonia and nitrite in my tap.. and it vaired week to week on the level.. my only recourse was to install a high capacity water filter on my outside hose and now add both a product for dechlor and ammonia removel when I do all my water exchanges now.. I use Amquel Plus and it seems to work ok.. you can call your water supply municipal all you want but it wont help it getting your problem resolved unless you have a faulty valve going to your house which is a possiblity.. but I tested my neighbors tap and it tested the same.. for all you who get good water from you tap consider your self lucky..
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pikecoe
15 years ago
Kevip, I sent you some emails, did you get any of them? If you didn't let me know here and I will give you the info on here. Glenda
kevip711
15 years ago
Glenda, nope didnt get them.. you can also send to janik7@yahoo.com sometimes I dont get emails to my excite account for unknown reasons..

I also need a skimmer guard.. I just lost one of my big platinum butterflys saturday as he she got stuck in the skimmer.. she was pregnant and ready so I am asumming she got rammed in somehow ;( was a pretty fish and not cheap so not happy.. I could barely get her out of the skimmer as she barely even fit into it.. I will look at my brand of skimmer this evening and search for one online but want to take care of this immediately as I have other females in the pond too; I only saw a couple online and would have to rig it somehow to fit, unless you know of a universal one?.. @#$%$#^#@$^#$^^*$*!!!!
fool4flowers
15 years ago
I just called a friend that works at our water dept to ask about this since I plan to have fish in my bigger pond and he said ours uses chlorine and that chloramine is a bye product of it so it is in the water. He is supposed to be bringing me something for it. I'll see if it works and let you all know. He uses this for his fish at home.
kevip711
15 years ago
I use Amquel Plus.. it converts ammonia and removes the others.. seems to do pretty well.. The home depot filter wasnt bad either but it was pricey and takes forever to refill the pond..
kevip711
15 years ago
Glenda, I updated my email for Garden Web, it was a old one still that is not in use.. can you email the info on the net.. I looked again yesterday and all I could find are those child nets and they are only 3 ft tall.. but they are up to 25 ft long.. I need about a 12x25 thanks, Kevin

Ammonia in my tap water

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johnkr

kevip711

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