Silver Lake, KS tap water
Supplied mostly by City of Silver Lake, 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
Nitrate (NO₃)
2.3–20 ppm (Worth knowing)
Typical 19 ppm
Water changes can't take your tank's nitrate below this level.
From EPA monitoring data; Shawnee Co RWD 4C, which supplies Shawnee Co RWD 2C (2012–2019).
Water chemistry
General hardness
Supplier's figure116–208 ppm
Typical 154 ppm
Moderately hard. Great for livebearers, and most community fish adapt.
From the utility that supplies yours: City of Topeka, which supplies Shawnee Co RWD 2C (2024).
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
247–285 ppm
Typical 273 ppm
Strong buffering. pH stays steady and hard to lower without RO water.
From EPA monitoring data (2012–2017).
pH
7.3–7.5
Typical 7.5
Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
From EPA monitoring data (2012–2017).
Total dissolved solids
Supplier's figure250 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 the utility that supplies yours: City of Topeka, which supplies Shawnee Co RWD 2C (2024).
- City of Silver Lake adds phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.
Who supplies Silver Lake, KS
City of Silver Lake
Serves 75% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine
Shawnee Co RWD 2C
Serves 12% of residents · Buys water from Shawnee Co RWD 4C · 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.