What is your tap water parameters?
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193 Posts
New York City
My tap
ph 7.0
kh 3
My tap
ph 7.0
kh 3
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4,700 Posts
Mine seems to be pretty much a sodium bicarbonate solution. No calcium, no magnesium, no potassium, no nitrate, KH = 9.0, GH = 0. pH out of the tap is 8.5. Upon standing, some CO2 diffuses out, and the pH goes up to 8.6.
Weird! It is like hard water that has been through a water softener.
I don't like it. I collect rain water and use that. I throw some ground limestone in the tank to get some calcium and magnesium in the water and get the GH up to 3 or 4.
Weird! It is like hard water that has been through a water softener.
I don't like it. I collect rain water and use that. I throw some ground limestone in the tank to get some calcium and magnesium in the water and get the GH up to 3 or 4.
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2,250 Posts
Sure. They should send you an annual water report. Additionally, what they send you might not include all of the aquarium helpful information. But if you ask them for specific test information, they are usually glad to give it. Took my local water district about 2 days to get me the info.StrungOut said:
Side note: I'll post my info later.
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705 Posts
Should I check out my dad's bills? or rather is there an online source I can check out?turbomkt said:
I don't think plants have a preference, heard as plants needing softwater as a myth. I have HC growing nicely and one downoi growing slowly but both are just fine, I don't think there would be any difference if I had soft water. I can't vouch for other plants though, all I have are echinodorus and mosses. Where do you live by the way?chiahead said:
Read through this,
http://aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/showthread.php?t=2298
http://aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/showthread.php?t=2298
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705 Posts
In northern Austin, Texas
Out of the tap:
After 24hrs aeration in a trash can, pH drops to 8 +/- .05, kH and gH hold steady.
These numbers track with the City of Austin's water quality reports, which are available online. You might check your city's website to see if they post their reports, too.
I called the water department, to find out how the heck they had such a high pH with such soft water. Turns out they treat the liquid rock at the plant with calcium oxide to drop the hardness from its 200+ source level (lots of limestone around here). The lower hardness saves pipes.
For our lower-pH fish, I cut the pH (and kH) with muriatic acid, and bring the pH back up to 6.5-ish with tiny additions of baking soda. The kH is still negligible, but with our weekly 30% water changes the pH in the 55 gal only fluctuates about 0.07 between lights-out and lights-on. I'm going to try the Seachem Acid/Alkaline Buffer ratio-based system in the tank to see if I can at least add a bit of buffering to the water while keeping it at 6.5 or so (just to add suspenders to the belt).
Glen
Out of the tap:
pH is 9.8 to 10.0
kH is 3 deg, or 50-75ppm depending on test
gH is about 5 deg, or around 100 depending on test
kH is 3 deg, or 50-75ppm depending on test
gH is about 5 deg, or around 100 depending on test
After 24hrs aeration in a trash can, pH drops to 8 +/- .05, kH and gH hold steady.
These numbers track with the City of Austin's water quality reports, which are available online. You might check your city's website to see if they post their reports, too.
I called the water department, to find out how the heck they had such a high pH with such soft water. Turns out they treat the liquid rock at the plant with calcium oxide to drop the hardness from its 200+ source level (lots of limestone around here). The lower hardness saves pipes.
For our lower-pH fish, I cut the pH (and kH) with muriatic acid, and bring the pH back up to 6.5-ish with tiny additions of baking soda. The kH is still negligible, but with our weekly 30% water changes the pH in the 55 gal only fluctuates about 0.07 between lights-out and lights-on. I'm going to try the Seachem Acid/Alkaline Buffer ratio-based system in the tank to see if I can at least add a bit of buffering to the water while keeping it at 6.5 or so (just to add suspenders to the belt).
Glen
Whether the city publishes it on the net or not is up to the city. Austin has it, but Ft. Worth doesn't. I started at the City of Austin website, and dug from there. Since then, I've Googled "austin water reports" and gotten there that way. As another alternative, you should be able to call the water company and request their latest Drinking Water Quality Report - they should be able to e-mail, fax, or snail-mail it to you. At worst, you may have to go to their office to get it. AFAIK, every water company has to send their results at least to the State (or they do in Texas, anyway) if not to the EPA(?).
HTH
Glen
HTH
Glen
I just found my cities water report. It is missing alot of useful facts like phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and alot of other-iron, boron, damn the only usefull things are Ph, Kh, Gh, chlorine, and nitrate. Heres a link
ftp://www.ci.phoenix.az.us/pub/payf/qualre03.pdf
ftp://www.ci.phoenix.az.us/pub/payf/qualre03.pdf
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Dennis,StrungOut said:
It looks like the City of Santa Ana Public Works Agency has a Water Resource Division that handles your water. You can download an older water quality report for your city here. You will probably have to contact them to get a current breakdown. Oh yeah...the right web page is here.
--Mike
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