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Suffolk water anybody?

Paul Kettless

Member
Joined
17 Aug 2015
Messages
349
Location
Lowestoft
Hi all, I live in Lowestoft , so the most easterly point in Britain and yes the hometown of The Darkness, This comes under Essex & Suffolk water, there website is horrendous and I cannot see anywhere on there where I am able to get my water parameters. I know that our water is very hard, but I want to know whats within it. You wouldnt think that is hard to get but I cant seem to find it anywhere.

Does anyone have a link to the parameters
 
Top man Darrel, Thanks for that.... I couldnt find that part on the site

Now if anyone could help me decifer the important parts for a planted tank, that would be great. I was hoping it would say ppm or in plain english for us Suffolk Folk lol
 

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Hi all,
If im reading it right, I think Nitrate is 29ppm from the tap
It is a bit of a strange read. Nearly everything on it has a regulatory limit (that is why you have all the pesticides) and they don't report any values that they aren't legally required to.

The conductivity is high and they've told you the water is "hard" or "very hard", so you can assume most of that is calcium (Ca++) and bicarbonate (HCO3-) ions from the chalk aquifer. They don't give you a calcium value, but it will be ~150 ppm Ca.

You still have some other ions to account for, which are likely to be sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl-) ions from, a very small amount, of saline water inflow.

There were 52 samples taken for Nitrate (NO3) analysis, the mean average reading was 8.6 ppm, but the minimum value was 2.1 ppm and the maximum value 29 ppm. All you can deduce from that is that the NO3 value was more likely to be in the 2 - 17 ppm range than the 29 ppm, we have no way of knowing whether "29 ppm" was a single anomalous reading etc.

I would have expected that value to be higher, because of where you are located, and they may be blending low NO3 water in with the supply.

There are a slightly elevated max. ammonium (NH4+) and nitrite (NO2-) readings as well, which may relate to emergency chloramine dosing (that could also account for the high NO3 reading). Chlorine levels ("Residual Disinfectant") are about what you would expect (no more than 0.5ppm Cl).

There is a document at <"Essex and Sussex water resources plan ">, but I haven't been all the way through it

cheers Darrel
 
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I live nearby (Gorleston) so this thread is very interesting to me.

I don’t know if this is useful, but I contacted Essex and Suffolk in 2011 (yikes 10 years ago) about the GH, they said it’s “16.1 degrees German”

ceg4048 was very helpful and explained

There are a few different standard units of General Hardness and it can be measured in a variety of ways:
1 German Degree is the equivalent of having about 18 ppm of Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) dissolved in your water. Calcium Carbonate is the chalky deposit you may see on the coils of your kettle, or the white deposit you may see on the kitchen sink or bathrooms wet surfaces.

3 GH is therefore the equivalent of having about 54ppm of CaCO3 dissolved in your water.
16 GH is therefore the equivalent of having 288ppm of CaCO3 dissolved in your water.

This does not mean that you actually have 288ppm of CaCO3 in the water though, but some of the chemical effects, and some of the electrolytic effects of the components that are dissolved are the same as having that much CaCO3 dissolved, hence the term "equivalent".
 
I live nearby (Gorleston) so this thread is very interesting to me.

I don’t know if this is useful, but I contacted Essex and Suffolk in 2011 (yikes 10 years ago) about the GH, they said it’s “16.1 degrees German”

ceg4048 was very helpful and explained

Small world, I work in Gorleston, be interested to know where you buy your fish from, as the majority in Lowestoft and surrounding area are not great, and still selling non-aquatic species of plants. Do you use tap water? I really do not want to go the RO route as we are on a meter in this house and I just cant justify the cost. Also be interested to know if your buffer Fe as I have been reading in here that many supplement iron depletion in very hard water areas.
 
Hi all,

It is a bit of a strange read. Nearly everything on it has a regulatory limit (that is why you have all the pesticides) and they don't report any values that they aren't legally required to.

The conductivity is high and they've told you the water is "hard" or "very hard", so you can assume most of that is calcium (Ca++) and bicarbonate (HCO3-) ions from the chalk aquifer. They don't give you a calcium value, but it will be ~150 ppm Ca.

You still have some other ions to account for, which are likely to be sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl-) ions from, a very small amount, of saline water inflow.

There were 52 samples taken for Nitrate (NO3) analysis, the mean average reading was 8.6 ppm, but the minimum value was 2.1 ppm and the maximum value 29 ppm. All you can deduce from that is that the NO3 value was more likely to be in the 2 - 17 ppm range than the 29 ppm, we have no way of knowing whether "29 ppm" was a single anomalous reading etc.

I would have expected that value to be higher, because of where you are located, and they may be blending low NO3 water in with the supply.

There are a slightly elevated max. ammonium (NH4+) and nitrite (NO2-) readings as well, which may relate to emergency chloramine dosing (that could also account for the high NO3 reading). Chlorine levels ("Residual Disinfectant") are about what you would expect (no more than 0.5ppm Cl).

There is a document at <"Essex and Sussex water resources plan ">, but I haven't been all the way through it

cheers Darrel
Really appreciate your input as always Darrel.
 
From the reading I have been doing today, it appears that areas like mine having hard-very hard water it is almost certain that there are low levels of iron in the water. As I am going low tech to start, low/moderate lighting is it advisable to use an all in one fert, and also dose Fe. I have 2 channels on my doser.
 
Small world, I work in Gorleston, be interested to know where you buy your fish from, as the majority in Lowestoft and surrounding area are not great, and still selling non-aquatic species of plants. Do you use tap water? I really do not want to go the RO route as we are on a meter in this house and I just cant justify the cost. Also be interested to know if your buffer Fe as I have been reading in here that many supplement iron depletion in very hard water areas.
Just over 3 years ago I set up my old tank using Tim Harrison's Dirted Tank method The Soil Substrate or Dirted Planted Tank - A How to Guide I had soil covered by plastic fine netting and swimming pool filter sand on top.

I used CO2 and I also did the EI dossing method EI DOSING USING DRY SALTS

About 2 years ago, I stopped both the CO2 and the EI dosing.

All I did was feed the fish, and do partial water changes. Nothing else at all.

I used tap water and a tiny amount of Stress Coat (as per instructions on bottle).

A few of my plants died (don't ask which ones, can't remember), but many simply kept going and going. Every week or three I still had to do a bit of trimming.

Yesterday, I was just about to empty my old fish tank and stick it in the shed out of the way, I put the light on and took a quick photo, this hasn't been touched for 8 weeks (I left filter running and light on timer), no water changes, nothing (I did top the water up when it evaporated below top line of tank). Again, Tap water, Stress coat and nothing else at all for two years, zero ferts, zero anything.

old tank.JPG


When I first started keeping fish many years ago (plastic plants) , I bought a water checking kit along with all the other bits, was checking water daily and adding things to try and get it perfect. Some of my fish kept dying. I spoke to the owner of an aquarium shop and he said words along the lines of "throw your test kit away, just leave the water alone and everything will be fine". I stopped testing and trying to get the water perfect and my fish stopped dying. Of course that was probably more to do with me not knowing how to use the kit etc proper;y, but no water testing for years and virtually no deaths either.

As for where I get my fish from, Koi-Joy is about 200 yards away from me, so usually there. I've been to others in the area (Cherry lane garden center, Maidenhead aquatics, a couple in Lowestoft etc) and they all appear to be on par with each other.

I did find out from this forum a couple of days ago that there is an aquascaping shop in Norwich that I knew nothing about, Scaped Nature.

If ever you do go Hi-Tec, FlameSkill on Harfreys ind estate refills 2KG fire extinguishers while you wait for £6
 
Top man Darrel, Thanks for that.... I couldnt find that part on the site

Now if anyone could help me decifer the important parts for a planted tank, that would be great. I was hoping it would say ppm or in plain english for us Suffolk Folk lol

Your Copper and Manganese levels fluctuate quite a bit as well (as do mine in Yorkshire, so some plants you will have issues with- just like the rest of us with Hard/very hard water
 
I did find out from this forum a couple of days ago that there is an aquascaping shop in Norwich that I knew nothing about, Scaped Nature.

If ever you do go Hi-Tec, FlameSkill on Harfreys ind estate refills 2KG fire extinguishers while you wait for £6
Thanks for the heads up, I will def be going high tec its only a matter of time, so good to know about flame skill. I have used Koi joy over the years more out of the fact that they are there, rarther than choice. Multiple times I have been in the shop and seen very poor looking fish, and unfotunately been given bad advice, and sold non aquatics in my very inexperienced days years back. Hopefully they have upped there game a bit since then.

I wasnt aware of scaped nature either, when this lockdown is over and we are able to travel, I will def be giving the guys a look.
 
Your Copper and Manganese levels fluctuate quite a bit as well (as do mine in Yorkshire, so some plants you will have issues with- just like the rest of us with Hard/very hard water

Thanks for the heads up on that I will make a mental note of that. Is that a problem because there is too much or too little in the water. Would an hma filter help at all, as I understand they dont have the waste of an ro unit
 
Is that a problem because there is too much or too little in the water.

They could be a little on the high side - at certain times of year,
Would an hma filter help at all,

Possibly, I have only just become aware myself of these big fluctuations in my water, I do have some issues but on the whole the three year old tank has done well Olympus is calling , If I wasn't moving soon I would be looking to reduce my heavy metals
Some possible issues/solutions have been discussed in Anyone figured out H.Pinnatifida?

There is so much to learn and much all we have is a best educated guess at really.

 
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