Shoal & Stem

North Bellmore, NY tap water

Supplied mostly by Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick, plus 1 other utility. 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 (Low)

Typical 0.3 ppm

Low, so water changes lower your tank's nitrate well.

From Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick's 2025 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (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)

4–53 ppm

Typical 53 ppm

Moderate buffering. pH should stay fairly steady.

From Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick's 2025 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (2015–2025).

pH

5–8.1

Typical 7.5

Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.

From Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick's 2025 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (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 North Bellmore, NY

  • Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick

    Serves 81% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine

    2025 water quality report
  • Town of Hempstead Water Department

    Serves 19% 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.

Also supplied by Liberty Utilities New York - Merrick

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