Levittown, NY tap water
Supplied mostly by Town of Hempstead Water Department, plus 2 other utilities. 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
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)
0.3–32 ppm (Worth knowing)
Typical 17 ppm
Water changes can't take your tank's nitrate below this level.
From EPA monitoring data; Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick's 2025 water quality report (2012–2025).
Copper at home taps (first draw)
Up to 1.3 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: Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick's 2025 water quality report.
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
0.5–2.2 ppm
Typical 1.3 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: Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick's 2025 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
1–19 ppm
Typical 6 ppm
Soft. Good for tetras, rasboras and most shrimp. Livebearers, snails and African cichlids prefer harder water.
Published by your utility: Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick's 2025 water quality report.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
0–59 ppm
Typical 12 ppm
Little buffering. pH can drop quickly between water changes, especially with CO₂ or an older tank.
From EPA monitoring data; Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick's 2025 water quality report (2015–2025).
pH
5–8.1
Typical 5.5
Acidic. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
From EPA monitoring data; Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick's 2025 water quality report (2016–2025).
Total dissolved solids
124 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: Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick's 2025 water quality report.
Who supplies Levittown, NY
Town of Hempstead Water Department
Serves 71% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine
- 2025 water quality report
Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick
Serves 17% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine
Bethpage 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.