San Fernando, CA tap water
Supplied mostly by Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), plus 1 other utility. Here's what the 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)
Estimate0.92–1.07 ppm (Worth knowing)
Typical 1 ppm
About 0.58 ppm is already in the water, and a conditioner frees about 0.41 ppm more 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 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) reports; California Water Board lab results (2024–2025).
Nitrite (NO₂)
Not detected (Low)
Not detected in testing, so any nitrite in your tank comes from the tank itself.
From California Water Board lab results (2023–2026).
Nitrate (NO₃)
4.9–16 ppm (Low)
Typical 4.9 ppm
Low, so water changes lower your tank's nitrate well.
From Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)'s 2025 water quality report; California Water Board lab results (2024–2026).
Copper at home taps (first draw)
Up to 0.53 ppm (High)
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.
From Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)'s 2025 water quality report; California Water Board lab results (2023–2025).
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
1.4–2 ppm
Typical 1.7 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: Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)'s 2025 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
78–280 ppm
Typical 116 ppm
Moderately soft to medium. Suits most community fish and plants.
From Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)'s 2025 water quality report; California Water Board lab results, measured before treatment (2023–2025).
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
86–200 ppm
Typical 103 ppm
Moderate buffering. pH should stay fairly steady.
From Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)'s 2025 water quality report; California Water Board lab results, measured before treatment (2023–2026).
pH
7–8.7
Typical 8
Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
From Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)'s 2025 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (2013–2025).
Total dissolved solids
187–625 ppm
Typical 251 ppm
A rough measure of everything dissolved in the water. RO water reads near 0, so TDS is a quick way to compare waters.
From Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)'s 2025 water quality report; San Fernando-City, Water Dept.'s conductivity readings (2024–2026).
Who supplies San Fernando, CA
- 2025 water quality report
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)
Serves 51% of residents · Lake or river water · Chloramine
San Fernando-City, Water Dept.
Serves 51% 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.