Cat pee smell

[Stigigemla]

It came after the move so I could bet a dime on that it has something with the move to do. I wouldn´t bet more because maybe the smell was there before and nobody noticed it.
Anyway - what happened in the move? Did you clean the owerflow? If the waterlevel is lower now it might be dead algae or bacteria fouling there. If the tank has a rim upside it could be dead bacteria there. I rinse such things with a new kitchen sponge, well rinsed. A bucket tap water beside to clean the sponge.

 

[ThunderGoose]

Did I see ammonia in your tap water? That's not good. If you have well water you may need a filter on your system. If it's tap water I'd contact the city and at least request a water quality analysis. Did you test your RODI water after filtration? That's the easy way to see if the RODI removes ammonia.

To absolutely rule out pet urine - use a UV light. Pet urine glows under UV. But I really like the suggestion to pull some water and move it to another room to see if it smells or if it's something else.

Good luck!

 

[Ghxst]

I just got my BS in Env Sci with a concentration in water management and hydrologic science (water quality) and have experienced what you have so don't think your crazy. What ever it is clearly something is up with your water in tank and tap. Do you live in a rural area with farming or agriculture, a swamp or in a forest? You said well water so I am assuming you have some contamination in your well and that's what is causing some issues on top of the move. It might be two separate issues, Regardless 2mg/l of ammonia outta the tap is no good. Your rodi will filter with carbon filter but a chloramines filter or more carbon pre filters would be better. Like others have said I would suggest a better filtration system from the well or tap into the house and using carbon on the tank for now.

For reference

From the WHO:

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/ammonia.pdf

Natural levels in groundwaters are usually below 0.2 mg of ammonia per litre. Higher natural contents (up to 3 mg/litre) are found in strata rich in humic substances or iron or in forests (8). Surface waters may contain up to 12 mg/litre (1). Ammonia may be present in drinking-water as a result of disinfection with chloramines.


The presence of ammonia at higher than geogenic levels is an important indicator of faecal pollution (5). Taste and odour problems as well as decreased disinfection efficiency are to be expected if drinking-water containing more than 0.2 mg of ammonia per litre is chlorinated (9), as up to 68% of the chlorine may react with the ammonia and become unavailable for disinfection (10). Cement mortar used for coating the insides of water pipes may release considerable amounts of ammonia into drinking-water and compromise disinfection with chlorine (10).

 

[Ghxst]

Was 2mg ammonia using the fresh or salt kit? I know salts mess with Hach ammonia test and reagents need to be added in saltier water, not sure how much that would interfere with those test.

 

[DDewit]

Glad no one asked if he had a catfish....sorry I couldn't resist.

 

[tyler1503]

Glad no one asked if he had a catfish....sorry I couldn't resist.

Hahaha I'm surprised someone hadn't made that joke

 

[WhiskeyCoffee]

Was 2mg ammonia using the fresh or salt kit? I know salts mess with Hach ammonia test and reagents need to be added in saltier water, not sure how much that would interfere with those test.

I did the ammonia test of tap water with both a freshwater and saltwater test kit. Just to get every one up to speed, here are some pics.

I just got my BS in Env Sci with a concentration in water management and hydrologic science (water quality) and have experienced what you have so don't think your crazy. What ever it is clearly something is up with your water in tank and tap. Do you live in a rural area with farming or agriculture, a swamp or in a forest? You said well water so I am assuming you have some contamination in your well and that's what is causing some issues on top of the move. It might be two separate issues, Regardless 2mg/l of ammonia outta the tap is no good. Your rodi will filter with carbon filter but a chloramines filter or more carbon pre filters would be better. Like others have said I would suggest a better filtration system from the well or tap into the house and using carbon on the tank for now.

For reference

From the WHO:

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/ammonia.pdf

Natural levels in groundwaters are usually below 0.2 mg of ammonia per litre. Higher natural contents (up to 3 mg/litre) are found in strata rich in humic substances or iron or in forests (8). Surface waters may contain up to 12 mg/litre (1). Ammonia may be present in drinking-water as a result of disinfection with chloramines.


The presence of ammonia at higher than geogenic levels is an important indicator of faecal pollution (5). Taste and odour problems as well as decreased disinfection efficiency are to be expected if drinking-water containing more than 0.2 mg of ammonia per litre is chlorinated (9), as up to 68% of the chlorine may react with the ammonia and become unavailable for disinfection (10). Cement mortar used for coating the insides of water pipes may release considerable amounts of ammonia into drinking-water and compromise disinfection with chlorine (10).

I do have high iron and manganese. Would that affect ammonia levels? There are no commercial business or farms nearby - I'm in a rural area in the pacific northwest so very heavily wooded.

 

[Ghxst]

I do have high iron and manganese. Would that affect ammonia levels? There are no commercial business or farms nearby - I'm in a rural area in the pacific northwest so very heavily wooded.

Without looking at your watershed and finding all the source water for your well, I can't be certain if there is another offender. But heavily wooded areas would produce higher ammonia. Another one up that way would be commercial and govt fish hatcheries or mining activity, FYI. I don't think fe or mn would cause a reaction increasing ammonia cause they are all positive ions (cations), it is probably the break down of that wooded forest and soils decomposing and acidic rain leaching it into well water over time. Seeing those test, I would get whole house filtration. A small price to pay to enjoy living away from the city and not drinking ammonia and whatever else is in there.

 

[WhiskeyCoffee]

Without looking at your watershed and finding all the source water for your well, I can't be certain if there is another offender. But heavily wooded areas would produce higher ammonia. Another one up that way would be commercial and govt fish hatcheries or mining activity, FYI. I don't think fe or mn would cause a reaction increasing ammonia cause they are all positive ions (cations), it is probably the break down of that wooded forest and soils decomposing and acidic rain leaching it into well water over time. Seeing those test, I would get whole house filtration. A small price to pay to enjoy living away from the city and not drinking ammonia and whatever else is in there.

So serious question - should I be using this water to shower and cook with? Someone said it could be very harmful.

 

[Ghxst]

I'll ask a phd on campus, I wouldn't drink it personally but I've become a water snob based off all the crap I learned. I also don't drink bottled water either. Unless your skin is sensitive I think showering is fine.

 

[Ghxst]

"There are no action levels or MCL set by the US EPA or guideline values from the World Health Organization at this time. The concentration of ammonia that exists in drinking water has been determined by the US EPA and WHO not to be of a health risk. WHO does recognize odor effects at a concentration of 1.5 mg/L and taste effects at 35 mg/L." Quote from online


So according to epa and who, you will smell ammonia at your levels but don't regulate it in any water, why, because its impossible to uniformly regulate. It does get more toxic as ph and temp increases though, so boiling water for coffee might had additional effects. A 50$ shower filter and cooking/drinking using your ro unit will help all this. Just don't drink ro/di water unless you add in the proper amount of salts.

 

[Stigigemla]

With such an amount of ammonia I am curious: Whats about Nitrate?

 

[Katrina71]

I'm brand new, but I recently had something in my tank that smelled like cat pee/vomit in my tank. It was cyano. Do you by chance have this issue? Ammonia was 0 when this happened.

 

[Nadicus]

I just moved an 14g's worth of corals into my 55g sump frag rack and this happened. Carbon and zeolite fixed in hours. Maybe it is bacteria strain warfare from each tank, the loser dies and smells maybe