Confused About Tap Water

[LolaLouie]

I'm really confused as the contents of my tap water keeps changing... 3 months ago the pH was 8 and the nitrate was 0 then 1 month ago the pH was 7.8 and the nitrate 40. I just tested again yesterday and the pH is 7.6 and nitrate is 20. It is definitely not a faulty test kit as i thought that with my old kit and have just bought a new one.

I'm really pleased that my pH is dropping and my nitrates seem to be going down again but what I don't understand is why the tap water keeps changing like this? Isn't this going to damage my fish, changing pH and nitrate levels all the time? At one point my tap even had some nitrites in!


Any water experts here?

Thanks

 

[Miss Wiggle]

tap water quality will vary, there's seasonal fluctuations which can change the pH and hardness. then there's thngs like the machinery at the water processing plant. i don't know details of what they use but i'll bet some stuff wears down and needs replacing at some point. so depending on where they are with routine maintenance and upkeep that may affect the quality of your tap water.

remember also that the test kits we have at home are not brilliant, they're generally good enough for our purposes however don't take the readings as the gospel truth.

i wouldn't be too concerned, doing smaller but more frequent water changes will help to keep things stable in your tank because if you (for example) add water of a lower pH it will bring your pH down a bit, if you add half the quantity of water of a lower pH the effect will be less significant.

i wouldn't be concerned about nitrate readings fluctuating, nor about .2 variance in pH (unless you have v sensitive fish)

if you are really concerned though monitor readings daily for a couple of weeks, assess the scale of the problem and get in touch with your water board. if you find the water is really not workable then you can get a RO unit (basically a filter that returns your water to pure H20 or as near to pure as you can reasonably get at home) and run water through that, although you would need to remineralise the water before using it.

 

[backtotropical]

Move to Scotland!

 

[LolaLouie]

Yep well that's one option, london definitely isn't the place to keep fish, unless you want malawis.