There are very reasonable test strips mostly made for pools, that give a good idea of chlorine/chloramine, pH, alkalinity, etc that would give a good idea of the tap water constituents. Below is one made by Pentair
The top square measures free chlorine, the 2nd Chloramine (sometimes referred to as Total Chlorine), 3rd alkalinity, 4th pH, and lastly hardness.
If tested against your tank water, you can find if your "tap water" pH and "tank pH" are in sync.
Some fish (lemon tetras and some cores e.g.) are very sensitive to variations in pH.
If after a week doing a large water change (and you have not cleaned a canister lately, and it is spewing metabolism byproducts creating a significant pH drop in the tanks) leaving your tank at a pH of 5.5, and your tap at pH 7.6, this could easily wipe out a group of lemons, and then switching them back and forth could torque them out even more.
Sometimes in this instance, smaller, but more frequent water changes may be a better idea so as not to make the pH changes drastic. And if your alkalinity is low, your tank may not be able to buffer the changes.
This is also especially important in smallish tanks, where water can change in components drastically in only a week, with a low alkalinity and medium to high fish load.
I am not ruling out a chlorine spike, but if the water guy told you his routine is stable, I would tend to believe him, what does he have to lose, from my own experience as a water guy, nothing.
Chloramine using water plants are able to keep disinfection dosage low because chloramine is much more stable than chlorine, and has a longer residual time.
So I think as an experiment you need to test pH before and after water changes to make sure your tanks are not becoming acidified, and compare with tap pH. And by using the kind of strip above test chlorine/chloramine and alkalinity as insurance.
The top square measures free chlorine, the 2nd Chloramine (sometimes referred to as Total Chlorine), 3rd alkalinity, 4th pH, and lastly hardness.
If tested against your tank water, you can find if your "tap water" pH and "tank pH" are in sync.
Some fish (lemon tetras and some cores e.g.) are very sensitive to variations in pH.
If after a week doing a large water change (and you have not cleaned a canister lately, and it is spewing metabolism byproducts creating a significant pH drop in the tanks) leaving your tank at a pH of 5.5, and your tap at pH 7.6, this could easily wipe out a group of lemons, and then switching them back and forth could torque them out even more.
Sometimes in this instance, smaller, but more frequent water changes may be a better idea so as not to make the pH changes drastic. And if your alkalinity is low, your tank may not be able to buffer the changes.
This is also especially important in smallish tanks, where water can change in components drastically in only a week, with a low alkalinity and medium to high fish load.
I am not ruling out a chlorine spike, but if the water guy told you his routine is stable, I would tend to believe him, what does he have to lose, from my own experience as a water guy, nothing.
Chloramine using water plants are able to keep disinfection dosage low because chloramine is much more stable than chlorine, and has a longer residual time.
So I think as an experiment you need to test pH before and after water changes to make sure your tanks are not becoming acidified, and compare with tap pH. And by using the kind of strip above test chlorine/chloramine and alkalinity as insurance.
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