[AquaticLife] My new tank chemistry
It’s not just hot water heaters that use copper pipes. Many homes use copper pipes for the water supply throughout the home… whether cold or hot water lines, so if you see copper pipes coming out the walls to connect to the hot water heater, more than likely your entire home has copper pipes… BUT… yes, there’s always a “But”…
If you live in an area with “hard water” and the home or copper pipes are not brand new, you usually will not have a problem with the water ever coming into contact with the copper, the lead solder joints, etc., since hard water will leave a buildup on the insides of the pipes. This has been scientifically shown in lead poison related lawsuits down here in New Orleans. I’m in the construction industry and I’ve seen it first hand when cutting out the old copper pipes and the inside diameter of the pipe is severely reduced in many cases due to the mineral/calcium buildup.
If you live in an area with high pH (above 7.0) water flowing through your pipes… do a tap/source water baseline test to know this… then the pipes would be far less likely to leach any heavy metals into the water.
If you live in an area with low pH (below 7.0) water flowing through your pipes, then the pipes would be more likely to leach heavy metals into the water since low pH also means acidic.
It’s why most public utilities add buffers to the water supply to raise the pH so the water does not corrode the public pipes while flowing through them from the water plant.
Using a simple dechlor product that also treats heavy metals will usually counteract any heavy metals introduced by the water source but if you fear that your water does have a higher heavy metal content, your local public utility or county agent will usually have a free or very low cost way to get it tested.
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
