Manchester, NH tap water
Supplied by Manchester Water Works. 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 a little ammonia. Some utilities switch to plain chlorine for a few weeks a year.
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 (2014–2019).
Nitrate (NO₃)
5.3–14 ppm (Low)
Typical 8.4 ppm
Water changes can't take your tank's nitrate below this level.
Published by your utility: Manchester Water Works' 2024 water quality report.
Copper at home taps (first draw)
Up to 0.16 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: Manchester Water Works' 2024 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
16 ppm
Soft. Good for tetras, rasboras and most shrimp. Livebearers, snails and African cichlids prefer harder water.
Published by your utility: Manchester Water Works' website.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
29 ppm
Little buffering. pH can drop quickly between water changes, especially with CO₂ or an older tank.
From EPA monitoring data (2014–2019).
pH
7.5–8
Typical 7.7
Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
Published by your utility: Manchester Water Works' 2024 water quality report.
Total dissolved solids
Estimate85–111 ppm
Typical 98 ppm
A rough measure of everything dissolved in the water. RO water reads near 0, so TDS is a quick way to compare waters.
Estimated from Manchester Water Works' conductivity readings.
- Manchester Water Works adds phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.
Who supplies Manchester, NH
- 2024 water quality report
Manchester Water Works
Serves 99% 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.