tap water

[kat and james]

just did a water test on our tap water (curious you know) and i found that all the stats are alrighty, the GH was a little low at only 4 degrees, and pH was a little high at 8, but everything else was alright.

is this the general finding, or is it true and the water down here in devon isn't all that bad?? hows your guys' tap water quality?

 

[Bloo]

Thames Water in Greater London
Tap
pH 8.2
gH 20
kH 11

in other words - rubbish !

 

[funkybodal]

Yeah London tapwater really does suck - the nitrates are horrible too, I'm sure that they're sometimes hovering around the legal limit (50ppm). Having said that most fish seem to do ok in it (although I use a nitrate filter).

I'd imagine the water quality in devon is pretty good.

 

[Bloo]

Yeah London tapwater really does suck - the nitrates are horrible too, I'm sure that they're sometimes hovering around the legal limit (50ppm). Having said that most fish seem to do ok in it (although I use a nitrate filter).

I'd imagine the water quality in devon is pretty good.

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Yeah the average Nitrates is 32 but yes, can be as high as almost 50 according to the report.

 

[kat and james]

yea i guess so, was wondering really for doing water changes and we are moving house soon, and moving the fish to a new tank.. bigger .. and was wondering about the water, ie whether we will need to treat it before adding it to the tank (along with the old tank water.. so like we were just doing a big water change)or not!m

when we do water changes we don't add anything to the water.. never had any casualties.. and even spoke to the guy in the lfs (he keeps fish himself.. never met anyone so enthusiastic) and he said that we don't really need to treat the water down here.. aren't those guys supposed to be selling us stuff.. not telling us that we don't need the stuff!

 

[breezer40]

Derby stats today

Nitrates =5
PH =7.6
GH=9

Doesn't look too bad today but this is the same waterboard that last year decided to pump cleaning chemicals through the pipes and kill off half my fish

 

[kat and james]

wow that sucks.. poor little fishies.. i can't believe they would do that .. ppl drink from the taps as well as the fish! makes you wonder what else they put in there.. and what damage it does to us and our fish!

 

[breezer40]

The chemicals they use are apparently "fit for human consumption" or at least thats what they tell you!

 

[kat and james]

yea chemicals "fit for human consumption" but they won't tell us exactly what these chemicals are...

 

[rdd1952]

Most of the water in my area has a GH and KH of 0 (or what ever the lowest measure is). The water companies remove pretty much everything so there is no bufferng capacity. The pH varys (mine is now about 7.4). I don't have any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in the tap water. It's pretty pure.

 

[kat and james]

lucky you!! i haven't had a chance to check our nitrates yet, as the test kit is at james's parents house.. but i hope it is low also!!

 

[Bloo]

Nitrates are notoriously difficult to measure accurately with standard test kits. most above 40 all look the same on the color chart
Best to get a water report sent to you by your water board. It's quite interesting really.

 

[steelhealr]

Don't feel too bad over there in London/UK. Even here on 'rustic Long Island', we have similar problems. When I was cycling last fall for the first time, I couldn't figure out as a newbie why I always had a nitrate level of 5ppm. Turns out our tap water can go as high as 20ppm during fertilizer season....rather scarey if you think abou it. SH

 

[paulthegreat]

Here in Holmsund, Sweden I have a pH of 7.3, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate

 

[ncjharris]

West country has very good, soft water.
In fact I read in this months PFK that trimar (who are based in Cornwall) harden their water for their livestock to 'aclimatise' them, given that most of the UK has harder water!