Elmont, NY tap water
Supplied mostly by Water Authority of Western Nassau County, plus 1 other utility. Here's what the water means for your fish.
Disinfectant
Chlorine
Your water is treated with chlorine. It slowly gases off from standing water, and any water conditioner removes it.
Safety for fish and shrimp
Ammonia
3.53 ppm (Worth knowing)
Ammonia in the water as delivered. A cycled filter clears it within a day; a big water change in a new or very small tank adds more of it at once.
Published by your utility: Water Authority of Western Nassau County's 2024 water quality report.
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)
3.8–27 ppm (High)
Typical 27 ppm
High for tap water. Water changes can't take your tank's nitrate below this level.
From Water Authority of Western Nassau County's 2024 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (2012–2024).
Copper at home taps (first draw)
0.01–0.53 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: Water Authority of Western Nassau County's 2024 water quality report.
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
0.4–1.4 ppm
Typical 0.9 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: Water Authority of Western Nassau County's 2024 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
10–119 ppm
Typical 64 ppm
Soft. Good for tetras, rasboras and most shrimp. Livebearers, snails and African cichlids prefer harder water.
Published by your utility: Water Authority of Western Nassau County's 2024 water quality report.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
4–110 ppm
Typical 57 ppm
Moderate buffering. pH should stay fairly steady.
From Water Authority of Western Nassau County's 2024 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (2017–2024).
pH
7–8.5
Typical 8
Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
From Water Authority of Western Nassau County's 2024 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (2017–2024).
Total dissolved solids
55–327 ppm
Typical 191 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: Water Authority of Western Nassau County's 2024 water quality report.
- Water Authority of Western Nassau County adds phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.
Who supplies Elmont, NY
- 2024 water quality report
Water Authority of Western Nassau County
Serves 90% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine
Franklin Square WD
Serves 6% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine
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.