Water Quality test results from utility company...opinions please

[Element]

Hello everyone, registered here last night but haven't introduced myself in the appropriate forum yet...I've never owned a fish tank and would love to eventually move to a SW tank but figure I better cut my teeth on a FW first :)

I've been researching the heck out of how to cycle a tank and all the other fun research that I like to do when starting a new hobby. Only pets I currently have (had) are a cat and a few tarantulas, leaf insects (10" or so ;) ), centipedes, scorpions, and true spiders. But more on that when/if I write an introduction thread lol

Anyway...back to the topic at hand. Today I received my electric bill from the utility company and in it was included the water quality results from 2006 (yes, my electric company also is in charge of water supply...LUS - Lafayette Utility Systems). I wanted to post the results here to see what everyone thought of them as far as how "bad"/"good" it is. The one thing that caught my eye was that there was no mention of chlorine but I swear I've tasted it on occasion...then again, I'm not a chemist by trade (my background is electrical) so maybe it was some other chemical?

They gave it in three sections which I will title below (I'll leave out the extra info such as what the major sources are and the EPA designated contaminant level and max level goal...all of which these test results are FAR below):

"Monitored Before Any Treatment; substance - LUS maximum"
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Atrazine - 0.281 ppb
Barium - 0.207 ppm
Fluoride - 0.26ppb

"Monitored in the water distribution system; substance - LUS maximum"
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Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) - 12.3 ppb
Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) - 6.4ppb

"Monitored at customer's tap; substance - LUS results at 90th percentile testing *note: no individual sample exceeded the Action Level*"
-------------------------------------------------------
Copper - 0.028 ppm or less
Lead - 0.302 ppb or less

And that's it...so, what do ya'll think?

[gm72]

The lead is still well below the Federal Action Level of 15 ppb or above. The EPA has the "danger level" of copper set at 1300 ppb, so you are also far below that level.

Water tests look great!

[SkarloeysMom]

The report you accessed doesn't really give you the info you need to know for fishkeeping. Check this one out <[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]> It has the typical water analysis that tells you the Ph and residual chlorine numbers you are looking for as well as all the other elements in your water. The report is from 2005 so I guess they don't do that test annually.

[Element]

wow, I never even thought to search their site for any reports...but I did and found where you discovered that one at. Thanks! But yeah, the one I posted doesn't have the pH level either :(

I'm tempted to go buy some water test kits and test my water myself. But since the entire town's water is supplied by the same water company from the same source would the LFS's be able to just tell me what the typical water quality is? There's only one "specialty" fish store in town that I know of...there's a Petsmart but I don't generally trust large retail stores (seems 9 times out of 10 that 5 minutes of basic research on the net yields better info than their employees can give). There's also two other locally owned general pet stores, one of which I hate giving business to because I don't like how they keep their potential pets (not that most stores seem to house tarantulas and scorpions correctly...but the fish tanks don't always look the healthiest and I've heard their reptiles aren't kept too great either *i don't know jack about them*). The other didn't seem too bad but they have fairly limited hours, and last time I was in looking for a scorpion I looked at the fish and the tanks looked well kept.

Anyway, I digress...sorry lol (I ramble a lot).

So yeah, would it be worth asking a local pet store about the quality of our water or should I just get some test kits and do it myself?

Thanks again!

[SkarloeysMom]

Maybe do both - You might as well get the test kit and testing your tap water since you'll need the kit anyway. Its good to know what you have to work with and it would be interesting to see how close your numbers are to the utility company's report. Chatting with the LFS folks about the local tap water might give you some insight too. They may have some helpful tips.

[Nautilus29]

I would buy a test kit for sure. after you cycle your tank your water chem. can change and you wont be able to tell that by what is comming out of your tap.