Town water components

DanConnor · Nov 24, 2015

So, I just got hooked up today (!!!) to town water, and no longer have to deal with my utterly unacceptable well water. The town publishes a document that shows all the levels of various components in the water- what I'm wonder is, from an aquarists perspective which of these levels are important? I have heard of some people who have such good water that they can dechlorinate and use it with no RO processing...

twilliard · Nov 24, 2015

I would not recommend tap water use.

DanConnor · Nov 24, 2015

Yeah, wasn't really planning on it. I was just wondering how good the water was.

AZDesertRat · Nov 24, 2015

One issue with municipal water systems is the quality changes, sometimes drastically in a very short period. Say a storm blows through and they have to change their treatment method or chemical additions to account for the dust and mud in the source water. Or Joe Contractor knocks the fire hydrant off down the street or digs into the water main a block over and causes a backsiphonage from your neighbors house who has a garden hose stuck in a horse trough or tree well where he just fertilized the tree. Or during peak summer months they must bring on additional sources to keep up with demand and they have not been used since last year and were not flushed well? Or they switch from free chlorine to chloramines and they don't have to tell you right away but you were not prepared for it and the ammonia kills your tank?

Too many variables when a good reef quality RO/DI is less than $150 and you alone control your water quality for an average of about 5 cents a treated gallon nationwide.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 24, 2015

Aside from the obvious chlorine and chloramine, copper is a huge concern from your own pipes. The water may also have excessive nitrate, phosphate, or trace metals of other sorts that are not bad for people but bad for marine inverts.

i discuss it and show some data here:

Aquarium Chemistry: Tap Water in Reef Aquaria ? Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/1/chemistry