Carteret, NJ tap water
Supplied by Middlesex Water Company. Here's what its water means for your fish.
Disinfectant
Chloramine
Your water is treated with chloramine. Unlike chlorine, it doesn't gas off when water sits out, and many pitcher and fridge filters aren't rated to remove it. Conditioners that list chloramine on the label break it apart, which frees about 0.27 ppm of ammonia here. Some utilities switch to plain chlorine for a few weeks a year.
Safety for fish and shrimp
Ammonia (with conditioner)
Estimate0.27 ppm (Low)
This is what a conditioner frees when it breaks the chloramine apart. A cycled filter clears it within a day.
Estimated from the chloramine level Middlesex Water Company reports (2024).
Nitrite (NO₂)
Not detected (Low)
Not detected in testing, so any nitrite in your tank comes from the tank itself.
From EPA monitoring data (2018).
Nitrate (NO₃)
5–16 ppm (Low)
Typical 6 ppm
Water changes can't take your tank's nitrate below this level.
From EPA monitoring data (2012–2019).
Copper at home taps (first draw)
0.3 ppm (Worth knowing)
The 90th percentile of first-draw samples from homes: water that sat in household pipes for at least six hours.
Shrimp and snails are sensitive to copper. Water that sits in household pipes picks up the most; it drops once the tap has run for a minute.
Published by your utility: Middlesex Water Company's 2024 water quality report.
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
1.1 ppm
At tap levels, chlorine and chloramine are toxic to fish, shrimp and the bacteria in a filter. Water conditioners are made for this range.
Published by your utility: Middlesex Water Company's 2024 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
32–300 ppm
Typical 157 ppm
Moderately hard. Great for livebearers, and most community fish adapt.
Published by your utility: Middlesex Water Company's 2024 water quality report.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
28–196 ppm
Typical 90 ppm
Moderate buffering. pH should stay fairly steady.
Published by your utility: Middlesex Water Company's 2024 water quality report.
pH
7–8
Typical 7.5
Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
Published by your utility: Middlesex Water Company's 2024 water quality report.
- Middlesex Water Company adds phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.
- Middlesex Water Company softens its water at the plant, so it may be softer than the local groundwater.
Who supplies Carteret, NJ
- 2024 water quality report
Middlesex Water Company
Serves 98% of residents · Lake or river water · Chloramine
Our data comes from public records and is still incomplete. Many utilities don't publish every number, so we're adding more all the time. Your city's range is a starting point: testing your own tap is the only way to know exactly what's in it.
Tap water lookup covers US cities only for now. Want to know why it matters? Read our story on tap water.
Compiled by Shoal & Stem from public records. Free to cite with a link.