Shoal & Stem

Rolesville, NC tap water

Part of Rolesville is supplied by City of Raleigh, plus 2 other utilities. Here's what its 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)

Estimate

Up to 0.97 ppm (Worth knowing)

Typical 0.55 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 City of Raleigh 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 (2019).

Nitrate (NO₃)

Up to 7.1 ppm (Low)

Typically not detected

Not detected in testing, so water changes lower your tank's nitrate well.

From EPA monitoring data (2012–2019).

Copper at home taps (first draw)

0.04–0.08 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 the utility: City of Raleigh's 2025 water quality report.

Chlorine or chloramine at the tap

0–4 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 the utility: City of Raleigh's 2025 water quality report.

Water chemistry

General hardness

22–35 ppm

Typical 25 ppm

Soft. Good for tetras, rasboras and most shrimp. Livebearers, snails and African cichlids prefer harder water.

Published by the utility: City of Raleigh's 2025 water quality report.

Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)

23–46 ppm

Typical 30 ppm

Little buffering. pH can drop quickly between water changes, especially with CO₂ or an older tank.

Published by the utility: City of Raleigh's 2025 water quality report.

pH

6.3–8.4

Typical 8.4

Alkaline. Many utilities raise pH to protect pipes. Stability matters more than the exact number.

From City of Raleigh's 2025 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (2012–2025).

Total dissolved solids

1–2 ppm

Typical 1 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 the utility: City of Raleigh's 2025 water quality report.

  • City of Raleigh adds phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.

Who supplies Rolesville, NC

  • City of Raleigh

    Serves 34% of residents · Lake or river water · Chloramine

    2025 water quality report
  • Tuckahoe S/D

    Serves 9% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine

  • Deerchase S/D

    Serves 5% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine

We couldn't fully map which utility serves Rolesville. These numbers come from the utilities we matched, which serve about 49% of residents.

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 City of Raleigh

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