Memphis, TN tap water
Supplied by Memphis Light, Gas, & Water. Here's what its 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
Nitrate (NO₃)
Up to 1.4 ppm (Low)
Typical 0.4 ppm
Low, so water changes lower your tank's nitrate well.
Published by your utility: Memphis Light, Gas, & Water's 2025 water quality report.
Copper at home taps (first draw)
0.34 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: Memphis Light, Gas, & Water's 2025 water quality report.
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
0.1–2 ppm
Typical 1.2 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: Memphis Light, Gas, & Water's 2025 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
14–151 ppm
Typical 48 ppm
Soft. Good for tetras, rasboras and most shrimp. Livebearers, snails and African cichlids prefer harder water.
Published by your utility: Memphis Light, Gas, & Water's 2025 water quality report.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
21–158 ppm
Typical 57 ppm
Moderate buffering. pH should stay fairly steady.
Published by your utility: Memphis Light, Gas, & Water's 2025 water quality report.
pH
6.2–7.9
Typical 7.3
Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
Published by your utility: Memphis Light, Gas, & Water's 2025 water quality report.
Total dissolved solids
Area estimate37–264 ppm
Typical 84 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 (2000–2023).
- Memphis Light, Gas, & Water adds phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.
Who supplies Memphis, TN
- 2025 water quality report
Memphis Light, Gas, & Water
Serves 97% 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.