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Toronto/Peel/Halton water analysis

19K views 19 replies 17 participants last post by  Dis 
#1 ·
Here's the link for the analysis of Toronto water:http://www.toronto.ca/water/publications/index.htm

Select 'Drinking Water Analysis Summary' to get a pdf with everything you wanted to know and much much more.

Here's a summary of the summary:
````````````````````````````````````units```````````max```````min``````average
Alkalinity```````````````````````mg/L```````````87.8``````80.8 `````85.2
Conductivity``````````````````mhos/cm`````398```````280```````307
Hardness ( as CaCO3 )``mg/L```````````125```````116```````122
pH``````````````````````````````````````````````````7.9```````7.4`````````7.7
Total Solids```````````````````mg/L```````````198```````168```````180
This comes out to a GH of less than 7 and a KH of less than 5.

It's not at all clear what constitutes 'soft' or 'hard' water. It depends on context, and what the author is used to! Many German books regard anything under GH 10 as soft. While few people would regard Toronto water as soft, it's not very hard, either. The African Rift Lakes are hard only in comparison to the soft waters of tropical rainforests. Lake Malawi has a hardness of 6-10 DH, and Lake Tanganyika's hardness is 10-12 DH.

Some books when describing the water in a natural site give the conductivity in siemens or microsiemens. 1 mho = 1 siemens This is a metric of all ions in the water, not just the ones that contribute to hardness. Total solids includes all ionic compounds as well as non-ionic ones. mg/L is the same as ppm.

Toronto water works well for most fish you are likely to keep. Some black water species may need softer more acidic water for breeding. Lake Malawi species do well in Toronto water, as do most Lake Tanganyika species.

My own opinion is that clean water and stable conditions are more important than trying to match the waters from which the fish originated. You're more likely to do frequent water changes if you can use tap water rather than having to adjust the parameters of the water you add, and the fish are less likely to be subjected to sudden changes.
 
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#8 · (Edited)
I'm trying to figure out exactly how much of the water is Ca and Mg because I suspect I'm having some Mg deficiency symptoms.

I looked at their water analysis and they listed 9.2mg/L of Mg in Toronto's tap water...

If you do the conversion this works out to about... 164dGH...

I know there's a margin of error for liquid drop tests... But I'm pretty sure my tap water is closer to 9dGH...

Maybe I misread their analysis or something, but they say the unit is mg/L, and they do say for magnesium it's 9.2...

Unless it's the converter I'm using...
 
#9 · (Edited)
That water analysis gives the hardness in terms of CaCO3 as something like 120 mg/liter. To convert to GH you would have to divide by 17.8 which is like 6 or 7. The Magnesium and Calcium are also given separately as something like 10 and 30 mg/liter. You would have to add in the weight of the CO3 first before converting to GH. Not really sure but I believe you would have to add another 25 mg/liter for the magnesium and another 45 mg/liter for the Calcium. So 10 + 30 + 25 + 45 = 100 which is less than 120. Not sure where the other 20 went. In any case, I am pretty sure that you have enough Magnesium as long as you do consistent water changes.

Well aside from not being able to add I think I have the concept right. The CO3 has about 3.5 times more mass than the Magnesium and 1.5 times more than the Calcium ion. So, 10 mg. Magnesium + 35 mg. CO3 + 30 mg. Calcium + 45 mg. CO3 = 120.
 
#12 ·
you can check under york region - they used to have annual reports and it can be a bit scary. It lists how many injector malfunctions occur. That explains why on occasions a lot of people are out buying replacement fish. You can lose a whole tank on water change day because you never know when those injectors misfire. See my post today about newmarket water.
 
#13 ·
May be wrong; however, I read that they do not use Chloramine in North York water supply.
I still get 0.25 PPM of ammonia in my tap water though.

In the water report; they said there is Aqua Ammonia used to disinfect the water supply.
Would that be the cause?
Or is it the chloramine instead.
Even though they do not state that it is used int he water report.
 
#19 ·
Hi everyone. An update on this. I bought some Seachem Safe to treat my water so I emailed City of Toronto water and one of the managers that work in the lab replied to me. The currently do not test for chloramine levels but still do for Chlorine. But he stated:

"The chlorine residual can be slightly above 1.4 mg/L at any given time. From some testing we have done in the past the total ammonia level has been in the range in the 0.2 to 0.35 range.

Seachem safe instructions: 100 mg/100 L of water will remove 1 mg/L (ppm) of chloramine, 1.4 mg/L (ppm) of chlorine and 0.33 mg/L (ppm) of ammonia

So it sounds like to be safe it might be best to use a bit more than the recommended amount.
 
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