# Sticky  Toronto/Peel/Halton water analysis



## bae

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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## bae

I've posted this link and some of the comments several times. Perhaps it, or part of it, could be made sticky for general reference?


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## Tearran

Thanks for the Info! very useful.


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## Mr Fishies

A sticky with GTA area water analysis info is a good idea. Methinks so anyways...here's my bit, Peel Regions Water test pages:

http://www.peelregion.ca/pw/water/quality/reports/2008/

I looked up Halton's for someone once too:

http://www.halton.ca/ppw/water/TapWater/WaterQuality.htm


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## ameekplec.

Stickied. Useful stuff. 

I just wish there was some way to know when they're kicking up Chloramine usage and such in the municipal treatement systems.


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## InSpirit

*chloramide*

I heard they are using it continuously now. Comes from a guy within Markham Hydro. May be because of the unusally warm winter we had but that's only my guess. I bought four liters of Prime.


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## InSpirit

*chloramine/chloroamine/chloramide*

Tonight I did a tap water test for Scarborough's municipal water at it shows 0.5 ppm ammonia... which means chloramine is being used.


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## qwerty

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...


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## waj8

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.


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## tominizer

Any results for York Region? I wasn't able to find anything


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## splur

InSpirit said:


> Tonight I did a tap water test for Scarborough's municipal water at it shows 0.5 ppm ammonia... which means chloramine is being used.


Yeah, I tested the tap water from downtown last fall and it had 0.5 ppm of ammonia, so they've been using it for a while.


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## mousey

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.


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## OneLastDecree

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.


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## ScarletFire

I found something for Hamilton: http://www.hamilton.ca/CityDepartme...v/Reports+and+Studies/WaterQualityReports.htm

It doesn't look THAT bad, does it? (I'm looking at Greensville)


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## getochkn

ScarletFire said:


> I found something for Hamilton: http://www.hamilton.ca/CityDepartme...v/Reports+and+Studies/WaterQualityReports.htm
> 
> It doesn't look THAT bad, does it? (I'm looking at Greensville)


Except for the 4.65 to 6.43 mg/L of Nitrates that greensville has compared to my water from the Woodward plant which is 0.39 to 0.48.


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## ScarletFire

getochkn said:


> Except for the 4.65 to 6.43 mg/L of Nitrates that greensville has compared to my water from the Woodward plant which is 0.39 to 0.48.


If I cycle the tank with plants, would it be okay to still use tap water? (I'm assuming that the area around McMaster University is supplied by Greensville considering that it's the closest plant)


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## Ryan.Wilton

Not every region is the same within York Region.

I used to live in markham at elgin mills and woodbine. It's well water so no chemicals added. Same thing where my parents moved to up in Stouffville.


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## SKurj

Here is Oshawa/Whitby/Ajax 2012 http://www.durham.ca/departments/works/reports/2012/OWAReport.pdf

And the durham index:
http://www.durham.ca/works.asp?nr=/departments/works/reports/reportsinside.htm


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## Pocky

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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## Dis

I'm in hamilton and have used the recommended amount for over a year without issue. Thanks for posting that info. Safe seems difficult at first but you learn to trust it 

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk


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