Large discrepency between water report and measured levels!?

[7Enigma]

Hi all,

So I finally got around to getting my water report (this is from the treatment facility and not my house) and the numbers just don't make any sense.

Here's the levels that I'm confused on:

Calcium 34ppm (mg/L)

Magnesium 10ppm (mg/L)

Now that combined is 44ppm or a little over 2 degrees GH.

My GH test reads 10 degrees out of my tap! Now I know from the water facility to my tap changes and contaminants can enter the groundwater, but thats a LOT to believe.

I have been having some odd nutrient deficiency symptoms recently and some of my MTS shells appear a bit damaged, but I cannot imagine it was a calcium deficiency due to my GH levels (unless it was 90% Mg or vice versa).

Does anyone know if the AP liquid GH test kit can falsly detect some other component to give me a false GH reading?

As it stands now I think I might have to get a water report on my tap water, as if that much GH contaminant is present, I wonder what else is getting in too..........

 

[Zezmo]

Perhaps getting the actual water from your tap tested by an independant lab would help you correlate things better.
Here locally, there is a water filtration company that will do a free series of test on your water. You will probably have to sit through a sales spiel to get the tests.
http://www.raynewater.com/water_test.php

I also saw a bunch of "for pay" labs, they typically want $75-150 to get the kind of information we need for planted aquaria.

 

[Purrbox]

There can be significant differences between your tap water and the water report, especially if the water report that you received doesn't happen to be recent. Some of the difference may be due to the age of the report, and part due to contaminents between treatment and your home. There can be significant differences based on the time of the year. Many plants treat water differently during the summer than the winter. A water report will give you an estimate of what you are dealing with, but if you want to know for sure you'll need to have your tap water tested. I believe that they recommend periodic testing on Well Water, so I would expect that it shouldn't be too difficult to get your tap water tested.

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

I think the water reports are bogus. It is not continuously monitored so those readings may just represent one or two samples over the last year.

 

[fish_4_all]

My local water guy gave me the readings for the water and told me a few interesting facts. First, they test the water bi-weekly. The guy also said if there is something odd in my testing that magnesium and other soluable metals were often used in cast iron fritting and can leech huge amounts of magnesium, manganese, and many others causing hard water. There are parts of town, the older downtown, that have really hard water because of the older cast iron pipes where my reading are extremely soft, GH/KH<1. They can even have a very high salinity due to the tidal water coming up almost to the level of some of the older pipes.

When we get no drinking warnings from heavy rains the GH and KH can be as high as 30-150 degrees. Talk about some sweet CO2 levels!

 

[7Enigma]

Well this report was dated mid September this year so I figure that's current enough. I'm going to have to look into this one a bit more closely and see just how expensive it is to get our water tested. In our area over the past 3-5years they have been replacing water pipes on the streets around our street (but not ours). I'm concerned I'm seeing high Ca and Mg levels because there are cracks somewhere along the line allowing the ground water to mix with the treated water.

I have a 3 1/2month old that is bottle fed and we have been using primarily bottled water with some tap water if we're really pressed for time (child screaming.........), I think for the short term until we find this out we will have to keep her completely on bottled. I'll drink practically anything out of the tap, but nothing but the best for my daughter!