urbana water profile

[andycook]

Anyone have a water profile for Urbana? I found this for Champaign on a home brew webpage. I'm toying with "dosing" tap water as a means to avoid dosing Fe and KNO3 to encourage macro algae growth. With RO water my NO3 is 0.

CHAMPAIGN WATER PROFILE
pH 9.1
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est 204
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.34
Cations / Anions, me/L 3.2/ 3.7 ppm
Sodium, Na 39
Potassium, K 2
Calcium, Ca 10
Magnesium, Mg 11
Total Hardness, CaCO3 71
Nitrate, NO -N 3 < 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO -S 4 < 1
Chloride, Cl 9
Carbonate, CO 3 22
Bicarbonate, HCO 3 166
Total Alkalinity, CaCO 3 173

MY TANK
water parameters at last test
sg 1.025
NH3 0
NO2 0
NO3 0
KH 8
PH 8.2
PO4 0.5 ppm
CAL 520

 

[tommer725]

Interesting concept, do you think any heavy metals in the water will have an effect on water quality?

 

[syrinx]

Same water company for both cities, so champaign values should be the same as urbanas.

 

[andycook]

I thought so too. And if it came from a home beer brew webpage it must be accurate.

Same water company for both cities, so champaign values should be the same as urbanas.

 

[andycook]

Guess I'll find out. When I've run tanks in the past I've always had a DSB. Now I have a BB tank. Looking back it seems to me that the DSB acted as a kind of shield where it masked/absorbed choices like using only tap water or little or no mechanical filtration. Even when a I ran FW tanks with tap water I let the substrate and plants handle the heavy lifting.

Interesting concept, do you think any heavy metals in the water will have an effect on water quality?

 

[_shorty_]

interesting idea... if you do it, make sure you report back how it goes. I have heard of some poeple considering dosing tap water because of the trace metals it has - for purpose of algae growth in a scrubber.

I'm no water expert, but I'd caution that even though this is most likely a valid profile - it could probably vary (I'm guessing by a good amount) from day to day or week to week. There may also be other unwanted trace metals (like lead and copper) and flouride and other 'stuff' (even though very low amounts) that you are probably also adding to your system. Seems a little risky. Kind of like the saying - don't dose unless you test for it.. you are dosing quite a bit more 'items' than what you are testing for... whether in small amounts, or not.

I'm not saying it won't work. Just saying be careful. Let us know how it goes if you try it.

I'm also guessing your water is a tiny bit better than Decatur water...

You might also be able to get a full analysis of your own tap water. I don't know how much these services run, though.

 

[BrianD]

I'm no water expert, but I'd caution that even though this is most likely a valid profile - it could probably vary (I'm guessing by a good amount) from day to day or week to week.

I think this is very much true.