Piedmont, SC tap water
Supplied mostly by Greenville Water, plus 2 other utilities. 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 0.56 ppm of ammonia here. Some utilities switch to plain chlorine for a few weeks a year.
Safety for fish and shrimp
Ammonia (with conditioner)
Estimate0.56–0.78 ppm (Worth knowing)
Typical 0.56 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 Greenville Water reports (2025).
Nitrate (NO₃)
Up to 3.7 ppm (Low)
Typical 0.2 ppm
Low, so water changes lower your tank's nitrate well.
From Greenville Water's 2025 water quality report; Greenville Water and Anderson Regional Joint WS, which supplies Powdersville Water District (SC0420002); Anderson Regional Joint WS and Greenville Water, which supplies Big Creek W/S District (0420009) (2012–2025).
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
2.3–3.2 ppm
Typical 2.3 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: Greenville Water's 2025 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
17 ppm
Soft. Good for tetras, rasboras and most shrimp. Livebearers, snails and African cichlids prefer harder water.
From Greenville Water's website; Greenville Water, which supplies Powdersville Water District (SC0420002); Greenville Water, which supplies Big Creek W/S District (0420009).
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
8–12 ppm
Typical 8 ppm
Little buffering. pH can drop quickly between water changes, especially with CO₂ or an older tank.
From EPA monitoring data, measured before treatment; Greenville Water and Anderson Regional Joint WS, which supplies Powdersville Water District (SC0420002), measured before treatment; Anderson Regional Joint WS and Greenville Water, which supplies Big Creek W/S District (0420009), measured before treatment (2012–2019).
pH
7.5–8.2
Typical 7.9
Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
From EPA monitoring data; Greenville Water, which supplies Powdersville Water District (SC0420002); Greenville Water, which supplies Big Creek W/S District (0420009) (2012–2019).
- Greenville Water, Powdersville Water District (SC0420002) and Big Creek W/S District (0420009) add phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.
Who supplies Piedmont, SC
- 2025 water quality report
Greenville Water
Serves 51% of residents · Lake or river water · Chloramine
Powdersville Water District (SC0420002)
Serves 28% of residents · Buys water from Greenville Water (SC2310001) · Chloramine
Big Creek W/S District (0420009)
Serves 19% of residents · Buys water from Anderson Regional Joint WS (SC0420011) · 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.