Water questions city water

[sayitfast]

Ok... I live in Tucson which gets most its water via ground water. The are several issues with the water supply for my neighborhood in particular, which sits far to close to an aerospace ceramics plant.

Where I work is only a mile from my house and all the drinking water is RO... Most people use bottled water to drink.

The City provides these measurements from their public site:

Chlorine, mg/L 1.03 NOV 02 2011
Fluoride, mg/L F 0.44 NOV 15 2011
Hardness, mg/L CaCO3 254 NOV 19 2011
Nitrate as Nitrogen, mg/L N 1.1 NOV 15 2011
Sodium, mg/L Na 64 NOV 19 2011
Temperature, Deg.F 80.8 SEP 02 2011
Total Dissolved Solids, mg/L 438 NOV 02 2011
pH, Std. Units 7.79 NOV 02 2011

Does anything jump out at you I should be worried about?

Honestly I will probably do RO/DI unit depending on more thorough results I get from a friend of mine.

Also for people who use RO/DI units do you use any water additives?

Thanks!

[TURQ64]

I add back minerals by way of the RO reject water..

[Skip]

it takes 8 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of RO/DI water..

why waste it?!

you fish will be just fine in the that water..

wait till you see the jump in the elec bill AND water.. :)

[sayitfast]

Kewl.. thanks for the replies.

It's good to know the tap water is decent for the fish.
Unfortunately the expanded test will most likely show much more dangerous chemicals that barely meet standards.. that is what concerns me.

I will update when I see those... If not bad then all the better!

[ericatdallas]

Nothing you posted jumps out... EPA standards are also a lot stricter than they need to be. They are very conservative. That doesn't mean that they're 100% safe (what is..?) or that the water will ALWAYS meet standards.

I wouldn't worry about it though. Discus are just fish after all. Even for myself, I probably wouldn't think twice about it.

What exactly is everyone worried about anyway? Any specific chemicals? Lots of times when people panic the cause is usually irrational (hence the panic) than to any real issue. Of course, like many of you, I've seen Erin Brockovich too, I can't rule out that there may be a real threat.

[sayitfast]

#10

[sayitfast]

Honestly it could just be rumor... that's why I'm having a friend do a more detailed test. Like they say if you don't measure you don't know what you're doing.

But here is the reason for concern:
http://baronandbudd.com/legal_services/water_contamination/tce
http://ag.arizona.edu/AZWATER/publications/sustainability/report_html/chap6_01.html

The trichloroethylene and chromium plume on that map is the area where my water comes from or used to come from. It's difficult to get a straight answer... I figure this cannot be good for anyone even fish.

Arizona leads the nation in bottled water consumption for lots of reason not all heat related... but this could all be cleaned up by now.

[ericatdallas]

Okay, I take it back... after reading that, I would still let my fish swim in it but I would not let my children drink it. Occassionally cooking with it, I probably wouldn't worry.

Since I have three small children, I would probably use RO and bottled water for them :)

[Ike]

Hey Sayitfast, sorry this is off topic, I live in Arizona too, do you breed discus? I visit Tucson a lot since my Fiancee lives/goes to school at U of A.

[sayitfast]

Hey Sayitfast, sorry this is off topic, I live in Arizona too, do you breed discus? I visit Tucson a lot since my Fiancee lives/goes to school at U of A.

I'm new to discus... don't even have any in a tank yet. Just learning as much as I can as I get my tanks ready. There's a good pet store Campbell & Glenn area "Arizona Nature Aquatics" they specialize in planted aquariums. They also sell Jack Wattley discus... really nice healthy 4 inchers typically. You should check it out.

[Skip]

I'm new to discus... don't even have any in a tank yet. Just learning as much as I can as I get my tanks ready. There's a good pet store Campbell & Glenn area "Arizona Nature Aquatics" they specialize in planted aquariums. They also sell Jack Wattley discus... really nice healthy 4 inchers typically. You should check it out.

make sure they don't have REALLY BIG EYES!

[Sean Buehrle]

Your water is pretty hard, pushing 500 which kinda sucks.

If you can afford it, cut it with an ro filter. otherwise, plenty of discus have been raised in water just like yours.