Nitrite In My Tap Water?

[Kipsie]

I tested my tap water for nitrite and it read .5.
Is that normal?
I used test strips, because that's the only type of test the Walmart had.

 

[OldMan47]

That is a bit unusual but entirely possible if your local water supplier is using a surface source like a lake and you live in an agricultural area. One of the local water suppliers near where I live publishes the numbers on nitrites and nitrates once a year when they go over the allowable federal limits. They are using a lake for their water source and the fertilizer run off from farming adds nitrogen to the lake water in large amounts via the creeks and streams that fill that lake.

 

[Kipsie]

I think our county uses Lake Okeechobee as a water source.
I dunno how to find our water info.
No one in their right mind here drinks tap water anywho.

 

[waterdrop]

Wasn't that the lake that caught fire in 2008? High arsenic (element, chemical symbol As) levels and lots of farm runoff that killed most of the fish population if I remember right. This water source might indeed present problems for tank water.

As OM47 mentions, all water authorities must make their inspection results publicly available. Since you probably get a water bill, that's the easiest starting place for phone numbers or web sites. Make it a project and track down the lab info on ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and arsenic and other heavy metals etc. in your tap water. It may be that you'll need to go to some sort of RO water system to supply your hobby.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Kipsie]

Yes. It's the same one.
http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Okeechobee
I'll track down the info.