Xenia and Zoa not looking so hot..

[mike31154]

Hmm, too bad you can't find a water report. Here's one from Greater Vernon. As you'll see there are some things in there that we actually need in our tanks such as calcium & magnesium. But there are also traces of undesirables that are just too risky IMO to keep feeding into my tank year after year. Come to think of it, I don't really even want to drink some of that stuff myself, even though according to the authorities it's at safe levels. I've been using RODI water for my tank for well over three years now & tapping off RO water for coffee, tea, drinking water as well. Great investment.

Testing for the standard parameters like nitrates, ammonia, phosphates, pH, calc, alk etc. is all well & good, but we don't generally test for copper, arsenic, aluminum...... so saying everything is zero is fine, but what about all the goodies (nasties?) you can't test for?

North Kalamalka Lake Intake Water Quality 2008
Water System: Greater Vernon Water
Source: Kalamalka Lake
Facility: Kal Lake Pumpstation
Sampling Point: Kal Lake Intake
Date: 7/14/2008
INORGANIC Results (mg/L unless noted)
Aluminum <0.050
Antimony <0.0030
Arsenic <0.0050
Barium 0.027
Boron 0.021
Cadmium <0.00010
Calcium 40.6
Chloride 5.38
Chromium <0.015
Copper <0.0030
Cyanide < 0.01
Fluoride 0.24
Iron <0.20
Lead <0.001
Magnesium 19.8
Manganese <0.0050
Mercury <0.00030
Molybdenum 0.005
Nitrate (as N) 0.069
Nitrite (as N) <0.010
Potassium 5.07
Selenium <0.0050
Sodium 18.4
Sulphate 51
Uranium 0.003
Zinc 0.011
PHYSICAL Results (mg/L unless noted)
Alkalinity (as CaCO3) 152
Colour <5 TCU
Conductivity 409 microS/cm
Hardness (as CaCO3) 183
pH 7.8
Total dissolved solids 238
Turbidity 1.0 NTU
UV Transmittance @254(%) 91%