Salt Lake City, UT tap water
Supplied by Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities. Here's what its 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)
0.1–4.4 ppm (Low)
Typical 0.2 ppm
Low, so water changes lower your tank's nitrate well.
Published by your utility: Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities' 2025 water quality report.
Copper at home taps (first draw)
Up to 0.3 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: Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities' 2025 water quality report.
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
0.6–1.4 ppm
Typical 0.8 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: Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities' 2025 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
123–572 ppm
Typical 175 ppm
Moderately hard. Great for livebearers, and most community fish adapt.
Published by your utility: Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities' 2025 water quality report.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
95–254 ppm
Typical 160 ppm
Strong buffering. pH stays steady and hard to lower without RO water.
Published by your utility: Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities' 2025 water quality report.
pH
7.2–8.2
Typical 7.9
Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
Published by your utility: Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities' 2025 water quality report.
Total dissolved solids
214–796 ppm
Typical 234 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: Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities' 2025 water quality report.
Who supplies Salt Lake City, UT
- 2025 water quality report
Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities
Serves 95% of residents · Lake or river water · 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.