I wanted to know trace elements and such that are in my tap water....so I found this chart on a website. I have no idea what it means Can some one help me decipher this? I have a betta with reoccuring fin rot, and I'm thinking that maybe something in the water is doing this. I also want to know how much prime I should use when treating fresh water going into the tanks. I also have a water softener, so that might change some of the numbers, but I'm not sure how much. Thanks

Um... is this what you're talking about?



Anyways... it really doesn't tell us much. Your town's pH is pretty normal, which is good. I got one of those for my parent's town, and it said the pH was 8.4 (!!!). Your water can come with up to 8 ppm nitrates, but that's not anything to worry about either. And it looks like they use Chlorine rather than Chloramines, which is good too.

Anyone else? I'm no expert at this.

Oh god. Stupid me forgot the link! I'm so losing it...sorry guys, I'm having a really rough..uh..month?

http://www.ci.gilbert.az.us/eservices/wate...5WtrQualRpt.pdf

Is this the right site to look for that stuff?

We're talking about the same thing... the pic I posted is just a screen shot from that pdf file. If you click on it, it gets bigger.

And yeah, it's the information you're looking for.

Lol, the pic didn't show up when I first went to look. Wierd...my pH is about 7.9-8.2

Your water comes from 2 sources. the salt river project and from 13 wells. They use ozone and chlorine to disinfect the water and filter it thru activated carbon. they also add caustic soda which is probably soda ash which is a buffer. Several of the wells will exceed the new standards for arsenic but overall the water doesn't exceed the new standard. I can't tell from their diagram where the well water comes into the system. My city has a similar thing going on with several wells and as I understand it, the well water goes directly into the distribution system rather than thru the water treatment plant, so our water varies somewhat depending on where you live in town.

These are the Metal Safe Limit levels as defined in the Textbook of Fish Health:
Your highest value - toxicity info
.0051ppm - Copper 0.014mg/l More toxic in soft water; Zinc exacerbates toxicity; Combined both are dangerous;
Zinc 0.01mg/l Synergistic with copper; 0.15mg/l In hard Water;
Cadmium 0.03mg/l;
.02ppm - Chromium 0.10mg/l;
.001 - Lead 0.01mg/l In soft Water; 4.00mg/l In hard Water;
Silver 0.03mg/l
(mg/l is the same as ppm).
From another source:
.0616ppm - The 50% kill in 48 hours for carp for chloroform (TriHaloMethanes or THMs) is 162 ppm.

Those look ok, tho copper is about half the the toxic level. What's your water hardness (GH)?

These are also nasties, but I don't have any toxicity info on them: Bromodichloromethane
Bromoform
Chloroform
Chloromethane
Dibromochloromethane
You might check here and see if carbon adsorbs any of those.

Of the monthly samples taken 3.2% tested positive for coliform bacteria. but no fecal coliforms were detected. coliform bacteria are an indicator of bacterial contamination in the water. There is also some radioactivity happening too, but again, I don't know how much is a problem.

Your alkalinity (KH) ranged from 40-130ppm. Wow! wide range... Keep an eye on it.
Ph ranged from 6.8 to 7.8. Wow! wide range... Keep an eye on it.
Chloride ranged from 140-440ppm. (Chloride is a major player in osmoregulation and protects against nitrIte poisoning).
13.5 gr/gallon = 231ppm calcium or about 13dh carbonate hardness number. Great for goldies and plenty to keep copper and zinc from being as toxic. Any idea what range bettas like?
nitrAte ranged from 0.65 - 7.90ppm

So are you using water from the water softener?
Are you adding anything to replace the minerals removed by the softener?
What are you water test readings from that?

Thanks Betty From the softened tap, the hardness is at about five, and the untreated stuff from the hose is off the chart hard. I haven't tested this in a long time tho, since I ran out of that kind of test strips. My kH is always 130+, but I'll keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't dip down that low. I use the softened water for my tanks...should I start using the unsoftened stuff? I haven't been adding anything to the water except prime..I didn't know we had to. What should I add? I'm not sure how much calcium bettas like...is calcium and carbonate hardness the same thing?

hmmm. I think you'd be fine using the unsoftened water. The IBC betta splendens page says 5-19dh, so 13dh would be fine for them. The side benefit is that would make both copper and zinc less toxic. Goldies also like harder water.
http://ibc-smp.org/species/splendens.html

That's interesting that your KH is higher than in the water report. I would have expected it to be lower than that and to vary.

Prime is fine, especially if the betta is in an uncycled tank. But given they're just using chlorine, the AP tap water conditioner would work fine for your cycled tanks since there isn't any ammonia in your tap water. I like it cuz it doesn't contain extra stuff and it's very concentrated. it only detoxes chlorine/chloramine and heavy metals. It also won't cause a drop of oxygen saturation like the ammonia detoxing conditioners do.

GH (General hardness) is mainly calcium and magnesium ions. KH (carbonate hardness) is primarily bicarbonate ions.

I wouldn't add anything to the water cept a water conditioner that detoxes chlorine and heavy metals.

I added a sponge filter to the betta tank that had been cycling along with my 29 gallon today, so hopefully he'll enjoy the benefits of a cycled tank very soon. Is it still okay to use prime with him? I've got tons and I'm completely spent out. What does oxygen saturation mean? (sorry...I don't know all those technical terms)

Should be ok. Bettas can breath via the surface. Oxygen satuation is how much oxygen is dissolved in the water.

'Nother question: For my goldie tank, do you think it would be a good idea to use a mixture of softened tap water and hard hose water? Or does it not matter that much?

I think you should be fine just using the unsoftened water. I'd make the transition gradually over time thru your partial water changes.