Hopkins, SC tap water
Supplied mostly by Hopkins Community Water System (4020002), plus 1 other utility. 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
Ammonia (with conditioner)
EstimateUp to 1.09 ppm (Worth knowing)
Typical 0.66 ppm
This is what a conditioner frees when it breaks the chloramine apart. 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. Some conditioners also bind ammonia for a day or so.
Estimated from the chloramine level City of Columbia, South Carolina reports (2025).
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).
Nitrate (NO₃)
0.2–1.8 ppm (Low)
Typical 0.2 ppm
Low, so water changes lower your tank's nitrate well.
From EPA monitoring data (2012–2019).
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
0–4.5 ppm
Typical 2.7 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 Columbia, South Carolina's 2025 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
20–33 ppm
Typical 26 ppm
Soft. Good for tetras, rasboras and most shrimp. Livebearers, snails and African cichlids prefer harder water.
Published by your utility: City of Columbia, South Carolina's 2025 water quality report.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
1 ppm
Little buffering. pH can drop quickly between water changes, especially with CO₂ or an older tank.
Published by your utility: City of Columbia, South Carolina's 2025 water quality report.
pH
7.5–8.6
Typical 7.9
Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
Published by your utility: City of Columbia, South Carolina's 2025 water quality report.
Total dissolved solids
Area estimate10–64 ppm
Typical 31 ppm
A rough measure of everything dissolved in the water. RO water reads near 0, so TDS is a quick way to compare waters.
Area estimate from nearby wells: USGS well samples in your county (2005–2016).
- City of Columbia, South Carolina adds phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.
Who supplies Hopkins, SC
Hopkins Community Water System (4020002)
Serves 76% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine
- 2025 water quality report
City of Columbia, South Carolina
Serves 24% 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.