New Castle, DE tap water
Supplied mostly by Municipal Services Commission, 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)
Estimate0.01–0.78 ppm (Low)
Typical 0.39 ppm
This is what a conditioner frees when it breaks the chloramine apart. A cycled filter clears it within a day.
Estimated from the chloramine level Artesian Water Company reports (2023).
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)
9.3–33 ppm (Worth knowing)
Typical 12 ppm
Water changes can't take your tank's nitrate below this level.
From EPA monitoring data; Artesian Water Company's 2023 water quality report (2012–2023).
Copper at home taps (first draw)
0.25 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: Artesian Water Company's 2023 water quality report.
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
0–3.2 ppm
Typical 1.6 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: Artesian Water Company's 2023 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
26–359 ppm
Typical 113 ppm
Moderately soft to medium. Suits most community fish and plants.
Published by your utility: Artesian Water Company's 2023 water quality report.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
17–250 ppm
Typical 19 ppm
Little buffering. pH can drop quickly between water changes, especially with CO₂ or an older tank.
From EPA monitoring data; Artesian Water Company's 2023 water quality report (2012–2023).
pH
6.2–10.9
Typical 7.4
Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
From EPA monitoring data; Artesian Water Company's 2023 water quality report (2012–2023).
Total dissolved solids
38–409 ppm
Typical 212 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: Artesian Water Company's 2023 water quality report.
- Municipal Services Commission and Artesian Water Company add phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.
Who supplies New Castle, DE
Municipal Services Commission
Serves 89% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine
- 2023 water quality report
Artesian Water Company
Serves 11% of residents · Buys water from Chester Water Authority · 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.