# Ammonia in rainwater



## specks (Dec 25, 2010)

Hey guys.

I am switching to rainwater for my tanks because the city water is now unsuitable for aquarium use. The pH and hardness is unbelievable.

It frequently rains in my area during this times of the year. I tested the water I collected with the ff results:

pH - 7.2
ammonia - 0.25ppm
nitrates - 0 ppm
nitrites - 0 ppm

I don't have access to that Prime or similar products and shipping to my place is way too expensive. I plan to do only 10-20% WC every two weeks.

Is there a way I can remove the ammonia without having to use prime? Or maybe I can just get away with it?


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## ccattie (Feb 6, 2008)

You could look into buying Seachem Safe which is the powdered version of Prime. A small bottle could last you YEARS.
-c


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## amberoze (May 22, 2012)

Duckweed in your collection containers. 

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## Dolfan (Apr 8, 2005)

There shouldn't be any ammonia in rain water, unless you have acid rain or something. Maybe your tests are off. Could be the container you have to collect the rain water is contaminated somehow. 

As for treating the water, maybe you could throw some plants in the containers that collect the water. Hornwort would be a good choice, as it would eat up the ammonia somewhat quick.


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## slavecorps (Jul 7, 2009)

I guess you could use a cycled filter in your collection bucket, or get a pump and some zeolite (should be sold next to the carbon in an aquarium store) to remove the ammonia.


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## lochaber (Jan 23, 2012)

How are you collecting the rainwater? If you are getting runoff from a roof or something, there could be small amounts of birdroppings, etc. getting washed in.

Try poking around on the web about rainwater collection - most of the people in the U.S. do so for self-sufficiency/ecological reasons, so try sites on alternative housing, homesteading, earthships, etc.

A lot of them have various methods of only collecting water after the roof/pipes have been flushed, so as to avoid contamination from bird droppings, leaves, bugs, windblown dust, etc. I can't remember much about them, but I think there were some fairly simple mechanical ones that could be built as a DIY project.


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## specks (Dec 25, 2010)

At this time of the year, bird droppings and other organics on the roof are minimal due to constant rains.

I will have to verify my test again. I'll try to add duckweed to the collected water.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Agricultural fertilizers?


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## specks (Dec 25, 2010)

what?


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## MChambers (May 26, 2009)

There is ammonia in rain water in the US, too, although I don't think it is enough to be a problem:

http://nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/data/amaps/nh4/nh4.ppt


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

OVT was asking if you are near enough to any agricultural (or industrial) activity that might be a source for the ammonia? 

Here, most agricultural fertilizers are nitrate, but there are some processes that use ammonia (or ammonium). I am not sure if these would show up in the rain water. The nitrates sure do show up in well water, though. A friend in an agricultural community near me has tested their well water at over 10 ppm nitrate. (I did the test).


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## WallaceGrover (Jan 15, 2011)

Diana said:


> OVT was asking if you are near enough to any agricultural (or industrial) activity that might be a source for the ammonia?
> 
> Here, most agricultural fertilizers are nitrate, but there are some processes that use ammonia (or ammonium). I am not sure if these would show up in the rain water. The nitrates sure do show up in well water, though. A friend in an agricultural community near me has tested their well water at over 10 ppm nitrate. (I did the test).


How would they show up if he's collecting runoff from roofs though? Are there any airborne ammonia compounds?


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Thank you, Diana, for expanding my cryptic question. Agriculture also covers livestock farms. Depending on weather patterns, the rain water can be comming from some distance away. Given that OP lives in Philippines, agriculture was the first thing that popped into my head.

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## Stinkmonky (Apr 16, 2012)

Could it be ammonia from decaying matter on the roof. Gutters per say. This is of course considering that his collection drum is connected to the gutter.


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## specks (Dec 25, 2010)

I'm living in the city far from agricultural lands. The most probable cause is organics on the roof. I tested the water several times and I compared it to my tank water and the results confirm that there is indeed ammonia in the rain.

I am going to culture duckweed to scrub the rainwater I collect. I will also use purified water if I dont have enough rainwater.


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## Anynz (Apr 25, 2020)

Hi yes I'm years late, but atm we are all in lock down due to covid 19, just wondering if maybe hopefully a couple of people could very carefully test some rain water for ammonia, please only post if u know ur rain is totally uncontaminated. Eg not collected from roof, collected in a perfectly clean glass jar etc, with absolutely no possible containanation,.
Like the OP, specks I also live in a very isolated area, but I live in New Zealand. 
I'm using the API freshwater master test kit, the results for ammonia in pure rainwater are between 0.25 to 0.50


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## Anynz (Apr 25, 2020)

Method I used could only be repeated by people living in a farming area,
Waited to weather forecast for rain. 
I got a glass 2 litre jug normally used for cold drinking water in fridge, I put this in a big pot, brought it to boiling to sterilise it,
Used sterilised tongs to remove from pot 
Let it go cold, by then it was perfectly dry. 
Rain arrived I took out jug in the paddock 
Left the jug on a fence post, so there was no trees anywhere near this fence line, no stock in this paddock. No possibility of water being splashed up and into jug. 
I retrieved it about 5 hrs later, checked for silly stuff like a mosquito or moth, butterfly etc, nothing at all, perfect sample, and still ammonia showing 
0.25 to 0.50 
I know my test kit appears to be reading normally, as my aquarium normally has reading of ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and little bit nitrate as expected...


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## Desert Pupfish (May 6, 2019)

Rainwater can contain nitrous oxides from air pollution--even if it's hundreds of miles away. I live in the desert near Joshua Tree Monument, and the NOX from air pollution acts as fertilizer in the nutrient poor desert soil--encouraging the growth of non-native grasses that compete with native plants and alter the ecosystem. It's about 120 miles from LA. Not sure if or how NOX compounds would read on an ammonia test, but that's one possible source.

If the ammonia concentrations are low, and you're doing small water changes in an established tank with lots of plants & beneficial bacteria, I'd imagine any ammonia would be quickly absorbed/neutralized and not affect most critters. But if you had shrimp or other especially sensitive critters perhaps it could.


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## Radx (Apr 27, 2020)

*Ammonia reading*



Anynz said:


> Hi yes I'm years late, but atm we are all in lock down due to covid 19, just wondering if maybe hopefully a couple of people could very carefully test some rain water for ammonia, please only post if u know ur rain is totally uncontaminated. Eg not collected from roof, collected in a perfectly clean glass jar etc, with absolutely no possible containanation,.
> Like the OP, specks I also live in a very isolated area, but I live in New Zealand.
> I'm using the API freshwater master test kit, the results for ammonia in pure rainwater are between 0.25 to 0.50


Hi,l had an old rain water tank and wanted to use it for my Aquarium but found it had a high ammonia reading so l thought it must be the old tank,l bought a new poly tank and got it all setup and guess what l have the same high ammonia reading.So after spending a couple of thousand and googling etc l finally found your post,l to live in an isolated area on the south coast of NSW Australia.There are farms about 50 kilometres away but when l googled it said you could get ammonia from acid rain,l tried your advice of just collecting it in a sterile jar and still get ammonia.


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