Sydney water quality is getting worse

[Proteus]

Just an update.

I have been informed that Sydney Water are adding extra chemicals to make the water safer for human consumption, and have also been informed by someone who lost an entire tank load of fish that the Ammonia level in the tap water was 3.8ppm per litre (this was confirmed by a call to Sydney Water)

[elvip]

Hi Proteus,
Sydney water sounds too scary atm!

Just a couple of questions:
- from what you say, I should be replacing my carbon regularly?? - I run my water in my barrels though an external filter containing only carbon
- I have always heard that the water filters and RO units waste a lot of water in their processes -about 2/3 of water is wasted- is this true??
- So Redox potential is also important in freshwater as saltwater aquariums? So by what mechanism(s) does your MV computer control the Redox potential (Ozone or Nitratereducter)??
- Is water hardness in any way linked to Redox potential?
Sorry to fire all these questions at you - but I think I may just have to look at investing at one of these MV computers!!

Thanks for all your help
Cheers
Elvira

[Baro]

I recall hearing on the radio that there was a blue-green algae bloom in Warragamba. According to http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/disaster/drou...poisoning.html Copper sulphate is used to treat blooms.

"If repeated blue green algae blooms occur, consider treatment of the water. Copper sulfate is most commonly used. A level of 1 part per million is usually considered the upper level of treatment."

Increased Chloramine and Chlorine levels would also be a possible treatment.

The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications...es/eh19syn.htm

"Blooms of algae and cyanobacteria may be controlled by judicious application of copper sulfate or other algicides to the source water, provided that the cyanobacterial genus is not toxic."

The NHMRC guideline value is 2 mg/l for copper. ">1mg/L may stain
fittings. >2mg/l can cause ill effects in some poeple." "Copper entering a water treatment plant may be removed to some degree through coagulation with clarification/filtration. Elevated pH assists in copper removal."

Ammonia may be from clorinamine treatment of the water "In drinking-water treatment, ammonia is added with chlorine (at a fi xed ratio of ammonia to chlorine) to produce chloramine disinfectants... To produce monochloramine, the pH should be between 8 and 9... Chloramines present in water are harmful to people on kidney dialysis and to animal species in aquaria; therefore, it is important for water utilities using chloramination to inform consumers at risk."


And with summer on the way there are likely to be more blue-green algal blooms. So I will need to do some surfing for copper test kits and removal methods.

Cheers,

Paul.

[boost.puppy]

hey guys, I don't know if many of you guys know, but I work for the catchment authority, today I ran a report of the latest water conditions as of this morning.. I thought you guys might like a peek.. I'm sorry other states, I don't have access to the same info... ENJOY guys

Turbidity Lab/Field (NTU)
9.33

True Colour at 400nm
32

Iron Total (mg/L)
0.76

Manganese Total (mg/L)
0.06

Aluminium Total (mg/L)
0.33

Total Hardness (mgCaCO3/L)
25

Alkalinity (mgCaCO3/L)
17

pH (Lab/Field)
6.94

Temperature (Deg C)
21.8

Areal Standard Unit (algae)
678

this is the first part of the report.. theres a TON of them, if anyone is interested in anything NOT on the list, lemme know, I'll organise it for you.

It's interesting to see what the dam state is & what actually comes out of our taps...

[boost.puppy]

Guys, I was just talking to the manager in Bulk water.. I asked him directly about the Copper Sulfate & he assures me this is hogwash.. due to two reasons.. Copper sulfate is not cost effective in any way & wouldn't affect the algae at all! So I'm sorry but the website is incorrect. the ACTUAL way they are losing the Algae is that the Algae lives at the Surface of the dam, so they are withdrawing our supplies at 40% so to bi-pass the algae...
I asked him (as he is a fellow fish breeder) what's going on with the add-ons & he's assured me it's not been from the catchment authority, Sydney water adds chlorine, and ammonia (to make the chlorine last longer) which then makes it safer for us to drink, but not so much for our fishies.
I hope this clarifies everything for everyone, I am currently running a report on the latest dam stats.. hopefully I will have it for you guys by this afternoon.

I think the two best options is running extra ager (find one who consontrates on chlorine) OR get a tank hooked up to your down-pipes & use the rain water.

I recall hearing on the radio that there was a blue-green algae bloom in Warragamba. According to http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/disaster/drou...poisoning.html Copper sulphate is used to treat blooms.

[swingn]

Just for info, I checked the PH & KH this evening with water that I was about to put into my tank.

PH = 7.2 - 7.4

KH = 1 - 2

I normally ajust PH before adding to my tank, but was somewhat supprised how hard our water is.

[Proteus]

I wonder how the composition os Sydney water is no with the addition of the de-salination plant which is feeding water into one of the catchments.

I think this only effects people within 5-10km of the coastline but there must be a change somewhere in the water chemistry

[Proteus]

lol... pays to read other posts before posting...

Technically the Desal water will be just a slightly lower grade then RO so if anything it should be better (stable 150ppm tds vs 96-136 from prospect/warragamba), from what i understand they'll be using the De sal water to top up prospect res as well eventually which means most of greater syd will have a mix of dam storage and desal water.

the water in the res has been tempremental, i'm getting a ph of 7.3-7.6 out of the tap and a kh of 5~9 as well as massive spikes in chloroamine after rain. I was hoping the desal would help stabilize it, if for no other reason to make adjusting my water chemisrty more idiot proof but i guess linking the Desalination plant to prospect is still a few years away.

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20504