The Trigger

Wow awesome link man. Thanks alot. So what I'm thinking now is that they must be adding extra chloramines to the water because of this drought situation. So I've been slightly diluting my tap with distilled water for months. My question is should I just use more prime? I fill a five gallon bucket and than add about 5ml of prime and stir it up. That's my method and I've been doing it forever. So how am I still getting spikes? Shouldn't the prime be neutralizing the chloromines?

Tex Gal

I've had this happen a few times in TX. I've had fish die in less than 5 minutes of a water change that were completely well before. I've thought about getting one of the BIG tank purifier filters that you run your water through. (I think ADG sells them.) Most of the time I'm fine. I have used extra prime and mixed with R/O water. The problem is that you never know WHEN the city does this. I'm at the end of a water line so I get more water crud build up than probably normal. We have an R/O for cooking and drinking.

The Trigger

EXACTLY! If they are going to overdose the crap out of our water with chloramines than they should let everyone know. And I live on the top of a hill above the schyukill river which is down the street. Our area is alot of limestone and my water out of the tap has a GH of 20. So now you see why I have been diluting my water with distilled right? So my tank is only a 29 gallon and I only do 5 gal changes a week. I estimate the water in my tank to be about 23-25 gallons of actual water with the gravel and plants. So I was thinking I could do my water changes every week with half distilled and half spring water until these levels go down in my tap. Only 5 gallons total. Do you think this will be fine for now?

gr33nthumb

Not a problem man, I actually learned some things myself! So instead of adding crazy filter systems, RO, D/I, etc etc why not simply dose more prime and let the bucket sit for a little longer than usual? Give the prime a little longer to break everything down and I would think you would be ok. I dose like this every time, just because it would be a major inconvenience to stay up to date with the city water contents. Another option for you that I was thinking of would be something along the lines of Ammo-lock or Purigen. I have used both and they work great. Only drawback to this situation is they may not work fast enough. Just throwing out some far cheaper options!

The Trigger

Never tried Ammo lock but It was suggested to me to never use it? If you've had succes with it than i wonder why i was told that. Is there any problems associated with it? What i do already use is purigen and it works great. It keeps my nitrates from climbing due to organics in the water. It helps me easily control the level of KNO3 I dose so i don't have to worry about them skyrocketing. Anyway I just did a PWC today with half distilled and half spring water. Everything is fine. So now what I'm going to do is fill the bucket with pure tap and put a crapload of prime in it and let it sit for two days than test the levels. if I'm not mistaken it wares off in 48hrs or is of 24?

gr33nthumb

I did use ammo lock for my fry tanks for awhile, i then found purigen and havent looked back! Did not notice anything odd with ammo lock, then again I didn't use it in a planted tank. You will more than likely get false readings if you dose prime then let sit as prime "locks" ammonia/nitrite/nitrate making it inert for fish but you will still see it in your tests. If you aren't opposed to the idea, dose and let sit as you suggested, then test with some cheap feeder fish after you let it sit. Some people arent into that though!

The Trigger

Hmmmmm. I just can't understand why than is the prime not working? Because as soon as I put that water treated with prime in my tank the problems begin. 2 hours later my fish are all gasping. Am I not using enough? Or is something happening when the treated tap water hits my tank water? Is this locking effect broken or is for some reason the chlorine ammonia bond broken and I'm left with pure ammonia? My pH when the co2 is running is about 6.2-6.3 if that counts for anything. Is this locked ammonia just more than my bio filter can handle?

Tex Gal

There can be lots of reasons. You may need to use more Prime. There may be other chemicals in your water besides ammonia that Prime doesn't address. Prime will take care of ammonia. If it's just ammonia it's a matter of using enough prime. Have you tested your water out of the faucet? If you do you can see how much ammonia is in there and treat it accordingly. The bottle tells you how much ammonia the Prime treats at the recommended dosage.

The Trigger

Yes. The ammonia reading straight out of the tap is about 1ppm. I never checked before and I've always used the same amount of prime. So clearly the level of ammonia in the tap water has increased over the last week to the point where my usual dose of prime is no longer enough. Or worse, whatever is in the water now, is no longer allowing the prime to work as effectively as it should, if it all. If that's even possible.

gr33nthumb

I would try Tex Gal's idea of adding more Prime, makes sense you may just need to use more. The bad part about that is you cant effectively test it with a kit, you would have to go off fish response. I have been thinking about this and I really dont think your problem is ammonia. The 1ppm out of your tap along with a sizeable dose in each of your buckets should certainly do the trick. Also, NH3-N or ammonia-nitrogen, is less toxic at lower ph levels where it is un-ionized NH3. As ph climbs its toxicity increases as it is now in an ionized form, NH4+. To add to that, temperature climbs also make ammonia more toxic. That being said, you may want to turn your attention to Heavy Metals in your water. I was curious about this in my water about a year ago and had someone from the water company come out and test my water. What followed was mind boggling! The levels of heavy metals from my sink, where I temp match the water, meaning some comes from the water heater, where at levels that no practical dose of prime would neutralize. Now the water from the outside garden hose faucet showed very manageable levels of heavy metals. Suffice it to say I now use the garden hose! Yes, there is a decent temp change and I have never noticed ill effects on the fish. I believe the temp change is FAR less taxing for them than massive amounts of Heavy Metals that I cannot fully neutralize. Thanks for reading, My rant is now over!