College Station, TX tap water
Supplied mostly by City of College Station, plus 2 other utilities. Here's what the water means for your fish.
Disinfectant
Chlorine or chloramine
Utilities here use chlorine or chloramine, depending on which one serves your address. Chlorine slowly gases off from standing water; chloramine doesn't.
Safety for fish and shrimp
Nitrite (NO₂)
Not detected (Low)
Not detected in testing, so any nitrite in your tank comes from the tank itself.
From EPA monitoring data (2012–2019).
Nitrate (NO₃)
0.2–4.7 ppm (Low)
Typical 0.2 ppm
Low, so water changes lower your tank's nitrate well.
From EPA monitoring data (2012–2019).
Copper at home taps (first draw)
0.01 ppm (Low)
The 90th percentile of first-draw samples from homes: water that sat in household pipes for at least six hours.
Low. Water that sits in household pipes overnight can carry more than this.
Published by your utility: City of College Station's 2024 water quality report.
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
1–2.2 ppm
Typical 1.7 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: City of College Station's 2024 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
6 ppm
Soft. Good for tetras, rasboras and most shrimp. Livebearers, snails and African cichlids prefer harder water.
Published by your utility: City of College Station's 2024 water quality report.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
10–702 ppm
Typical 402 ppm
Strong buffering. pH stays steady and hard to lower without RO water.
From City of College Station's 2024 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (2012–2024).
pH
7–8.8
Typical 8.8
Alkaline. Many utilities raise pH to protect pipes. Stability matters more than the exact number.
From City of College Station's 2024 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (2012–2024).
Total dissolved solids
557 ppm
A rough measure of everything dissolved in the water. RO water reads near 0, so TDS is a quick way to compare waters.
Published by your utility: City of College Station's 2024 water quality report.
Who supplies College Station, TX
- 2024 water quality report
City of College Station
Serves 74% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine
Texas A&m University Main Campus
Serves 12% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine
Wellborn SUD
Serves 6% 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.