Spry, PA tap water
Supplied mostly by York Water Company, 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)
Estimate0.05–0.78 ppm (Worth knowing)
Typical 0.61 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 York Water Company 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 (2012–2019).
Nitrate (NO₃)
12–21 ppm (Worth knowing)
Typical 15 ppm
Water changes can't take your tank's nitrate below this level.
From York Water Company's 2025 water quality report; Red Lion Municipal Authority, which supplies Dallastown Yoe Water Auth (2012–2025).
Copper at home taps (first draw)
Up to 0.21 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: York Water Company's 2025 water quality report.
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
0.2–3.2 ppm
Typical 2.5 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.
From York Water Company's 2025 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (2018–2025).
Water chemistry
General hardness
85 ppm
Moderately soft to medium. Suits most community fish and plants.
Published by your utility: York Water Company's 2025 water quality report.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
26–53 ppm
Typical 51 ppm
Moderate buffering. pH should stay fairly steady.
From EPA monitoring data; Red Lion Municipal Authority, which supplies Dallastown Yoe Water Auth, measured before treatment (2012–2019).
pH
8.3–8.6
Typical 8.5
Alkaline. Many utilities raise pH to protect pipes. Stability matters more than the exact number.
From EPA monitoring data (2016–2019).
- Dallastown Yoe Water Auth adds phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.
Who supplies Spry, PA
- 2025 water quality report
York Water Company
Serves 99% of residents · Lake or river water · Chloramine
Dallastown Yoe Water Auth
Serves 8% of residents · Buys water from Red Lion Municipal Authority · 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.