Napa Plant Geek

Hello, my wife was calling me a lurker and said that I had to introduce myself. My name is Matt and I have been reading threads daily here for sometime. I am a Commercial and Industrial water treatment designer for "a worldwide water treatment company". Matbe I can help out with some water quality questions...

I have had many tanks in the past (reef, vivariums, wave tanks, ponds, and freshwater) but currently I am maintaining a 15 gallon biotope which is grwing to a 30 gallon today.

I have an eheim filter, 3 watts per gallon lighting, killer substrate, and some cool plants given to me by vendors. My animals are 2 alb. cory's, 5 cardinal neons, 1 pleco, tons of ramshorn snails, and 5 cherry shrimp. And if you read all of this I lost a bet with my wife.

It's a national regulation that some sort of sanitization happens on a municipal basis. If you pay for your water (not from a personal well or source) it's a safe bet that the are using chlorine or chloramines. A growing industry is ozone, but not many municipalites are using it. Chemicals are cheap, huge water systems are expensive. (But that's why I like to sell them).

You can alwyas ask your water service for a complete water report, they have to supply you with one.