Beginner here: I bought this Aqueon Basic 10 Gallon kit, set it up, and bought a betta the next day. Just learned about cycling (yikes), so I'm doing a fish in cycle with very regular water changes. I'm testing the water everyday and I have a few questions. Yesterday, the tests said: 1 ppm Ammonium and .25 ppm Nitrite. I know that Ammonium was WAY too high. So, I did a 50% water change after that and treated with SeaChem Prime.
However, when I tested my tap water- it showed about 1 ppm Ammonium already in the water (very slightly less green than my tank reading). I've looked into it online and what I've read says that its probably in a non-toxic form. I did the test TWICE on my tap water and got the same result. Should I subtract my tank water reading from the tap water reading after every test? or Just accept whatever the tank reading is? Do I need to start buying bottled water for my tank?
I'm waiting the full 24 hours after adding SeaChem Prime to test again (I read that it can mess up tests for up to 24 hours).