# Ammonia and Nitrate but no Nitrite...?



## m.c.sparkie (Apr 8, 2021)

I've got a doozy of an issue... 
I test my aquarium water daily and recently I have been seeing ammonia at between 0-0.25 ppm, 0 ppm Nitrite, and about 10-20 ppm Nitrate. (I test the water daily and do a 30-50% water change daily depending on what kind of levels I am reading from my water tests.
Additional Info: my tank is a 5 gal heated to a steady 80 degrees with a filter and the water has a pH of around 6.8 

How is this possible?
I read online that my tap water possibly has these levels of Nitrate so I tested my plain tap water and nothing... 0 ppm nitrates.
Am I doing something wrong?
I would love any insight or previous experience that you may have!
Thanks


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## Mother Of Fish (Feb 11, 2021)

How many fish do you have in the tank?


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## m.c.sparkie (Apr 8, 2021)

Mother Of Fish said:


> How many fish do you have in the tank?


Just one male betta


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## Mother Of Fish (Feb 11, 2021)

The nitrate should be under 15ppm and ammonia 0. I don't know what is causing it to raise unless the daily water changes are messing with the cycle. You'll have to wait for someone more knowledgeable to reply. Maybe @RussellTheShihTzu ?


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## Asbofish (Sep 25, 2020)

Tap water can sometimes have Ammonium in it which is a less harnful(if I recall) form of ammonia but will still cause an ammonia reading. Have you tested the fresh tap water for the ammonia?


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## m.c.sparkie (Apr 8, 2021)

Asbofish said:


> Tap water can sometimes have Ammonium in it which is a less harnful(if I recall) form of ammonia but will still cause an ammonia reading. Have you tested the fresh tap water for the ammonia?


I haven't tested for ammonia, but I will when I get home later this evening!


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## BettaloverSara (Oct 15, 2020)

That would be my suggestion too. Ammonium is harmless but will still give a reading of ammonia. You can get some ammo alert stickers that can differentiate between the two and tell you when you have harmful ammonia in your tank.


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## m.c.sparkie (Apr 8, 2021)

So I tested my tap water and my tank water. This is what I found and now I am at a loss for what to do... for both me and my fish apparently... also a note, I do a 30% water change almost daily, use Seachem Prime, and do a change as soon as I see ammonia in the water tests so little Waititi is not swimming around in this. 

Any suggestions on how to proceed?


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## Nova betta (Dec 5, 2014)

A lot of water companies use chloramine which leaves ammoniam in the water as a side effect.

It’s not the end of the world. A cheap and easy solution is to just use seachem prime as your Water conditioner. It detoxifies ammonia for 24 hours so it won’t harm your fish.

If your tank is cycled than it should be able to turn the ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate so it really isn’t a big problem. Your tank cycle should adjust and handle the ammonia. In the meantime keep using prime so your fish aren’t harmed.


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## m.c.sparkie (Apr 8, 2021)

Nova betta said:


> A lot of water companies use chloramine which leaves ammoniam in the water as a side effect.
> 
> It’s not the end of the world. A cheap and easy solution is to just use seachem prime as your Water conditioner. It detoxifies ammonia for 24 hours so it won’t harm your fish.
> 
> If your tank is cycled than it should be able to turn the ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate so it really isn’t a big problem. Your tank cycle should adjust and handle the ammonia. In the meantime keep using prime so your fish aren’t harmed.


Thank you!


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## m.c.sparkie (Apr 8, 2021)

I also just used this calculator I found on an old post 
Any insight on if the science here is accurate?
It suggests the amount of ammonia (NH3) is 0.001 ppm


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## Asbofish (Sep 25, 2020)

m.c.sparkie said:


> So I tested my tap water and my tank water. This is what I found and now I am at a loss for what to do... for both me and my fish apparently... also a note, I do a 30% water change almost daily, use Seachem Prime, and do a change as soon as I see ammonia in the water tests so little Waititi is not swimming around in this.
> 
> Any suggestions on how to proceed?
> View attachment 1029355


Late reply (had to go to hospital) I see you got to the bottome of it. The good news is if you're using prime it will detoxify the ammonia, and at least you know your tank cycle is working because the ammonium/ammonia reading from the tank is actually less than the tap meaning the cycle is converting it along the chain.


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