North Charleston, SC tap water
Supplied mostly by Charleston Water System, plus 1 other utility. Here's what the 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 about 0.73 ppm of ammonia here. Some utilities switch to plain chlorine for a few weeks a year.
Safety for fish and shrimp
Ammonia (with conditioner)
EstimateUp to 0.73 ppm (Worth knowing)
Typical 0.73 ppm
This is what a conditioner frees when it breaks the chloramine apart. A cycled filter clears it within a day; a big water change in a new or very small tank adds more of it at once. Some conditioners also bind ammonia for a day or so.
Estimated from the chloramine level Charleston Water System reports (2025).
Nitrite (NO₂)
Not detected (Low)
Not detected in testing, so any nitrite in your tank comes from the tank itself.
From EPA monitoring data (2017).
Nitrate (NO₃)
0.6–1 ppm (Low)
Typical 0.6 ppm
Low, so water changes lower your tank's nitrate well.
From Charleston Water System's 2025 water quality report; Lake Moultrie Regional WS, which supplies Summerville Cpw (SC1810003) (2012–2025).
Copper at home taps (first draw)
Up to 0.26 ppm (Low)
The 90th percentile of first-draw samples from homes: water that sat in household pipes for at least six hours.
Low. Water that sits in household pipes overnight can carry more than this.
Published by your utility: Charleston Water System's 2025 water quality report.
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
0–3 ppm
Typical 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: Charleston Water System's 2025 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
54 ppm
Soft. Good for tetras, rasboras and most shrimp. Livebearers, snails and African cichlids prefer harder water.
Published by your utility: Charleston Water System's 2025 water quality report.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
25–29 ppm
Typical 29 ppm
Little buffering. pH can drop quickly between water changes, especially with CO₂ or an older tank.
From Charleston Water System's 2025 water quality report; Lake Moultrie Regional WS, which supplies Summerville Cpw (SC1810003) (2012–2025).
pH
8–8.2
Typical 8.1
Alkaline. Many utilities raise pH to protect pipes. Stability matters more than the exact number.
From EPA monitoring data (2012–2019).
Total dissolved solids
100 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: Charleston Water System's 2025 water quality report.
- Charleston Water System and Summerville Cpw (SC1810003) add phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.
Who supplies North Charleston, SC
- 2025 water quality report
Charleston Water System
Serves 75% of residents · Lake or river water · Chloramine
Summerville Cpw (SC1810003)
Serves 15% of residents · Buys water from Lake Moultrie Regional WS (SC0820008) · 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.