# What makes my tapwater a blueish color?



## jhoetzl (Feb 7, 2005)

What kind of lighting are you viewing that water under?


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## dissident (Oct 15, 2003)

pour the water in a clean clear glass. If the water is still blue I probably wouldn't be drinking it. My guess is that it is the bucket and how the light reflects of the bottom and sides or the lighting in the room you are doing it. If it looks clear in a glass or your tank I wouldn't worry about it.


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## random_alias (Jun 28, 2005)

When I used to use several different 5 gal buckets I noticed that water would be clear in some and have a blue tint in others. As has been said, it's highly likely that it's the bucket. 

Seemed like the whiter and newer the bucket, the bluer the water.


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## spinjector (Mar 20, 2005)

It's a plain white 5-gallon HDPE paint pail from Home Depot - they sell them clean and new for $3.99; I have a whole stack of them for water changes and so forth. The lights in the bathroom are two plain 60-watt tungsten incandesecent light bulbs, and two 6500k Lights of America CF bulbs (who but nuts like us would know this about our lights, right? :icon_mrgr My point is that the pail is white before the water goes in, and as the pail fills up, I can look down through the water at the bottom of the pail, and the bottom looks bluer and bluer as it fills up with water, so it really does seem as if it's the water that's blue, and not the pail.


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## dissident (Oct 15, 2003)

Is the water really blue or does it just appear blue? Do you drink the blue water? Is it clear when you put it in a glass container? If the water is blue looking at it through a clear glass I would get concerned.

White reflects all colors, and water refracts light. The blue spectrum is what is escaping the water in the bucket so it may appear blue to the eye.


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## toofazt (Jun 18, 2005)

I was in Las Vegas, NV a month ago. I filled up the bath tub and the water was blue; white tub and no blue lighting. I think it must be something some citys add to their water that gives it a blue tint.


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## Momotaro (Feb 21, 2003)

I experience the same thing when I mix up water change water. It is the bucket! roud: 

Mike


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## Khamul1of9 (Nov 29, 2005)

Could it be copper in the water? Either that or those crystals you were using contaminated the buckets.


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## anonapersona (Oct 19, 2002)

*its the water*

I say it is the water. Not the bucket, not the lighting. The ocean is blue, clear lakes are blue. 

When I aged water for my discus in a large white container, it was blue. In my white bucket it is blue. 

Now, I do wonder if this is due to looking down on the water and not through the water, as in a clear glass, but it does require a lot of water for the blue to accumulate enough to notice it. 12 to 14 inches will show blue, ceartainly 3' shows a ot of blue, like the big barrel I had, but an inch or two will not show blue.


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## KevinC (May 24, 2004)

Ozone also tends to add a blue tint. Does your water supplier use chlorine or chloramine or ozone? Ozone is the most expensive, but a few suppliers might be using it to treat for microorganisms.

Kevin


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## banderbe (Oct 10, 2005)

spinjector said:


> What makes my tapwater a blueish color?
> 
> I have noticed that when I fill a white 5-gallon plastic pail, the water has a blueish tint to it. I used to put Start Right crystals in the bucket before filling it with water (they are blueish-purple), so I never noticed it before. Now I am using Prime, which is clear, and even before I put that in the water, it looks blue. Is this the normal color of water (like the ocean), or is there something there that I should ask the county water department about? Correct me if I am wrong, but I could have sworn clean water is supposed to be colorless...


You might have smurfs stuck somewhere in your plumbing.


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## spinjector (Mar 20, 2005)

KevinC said:


> Ozone also tends to add a blue tint. Does your water supplier use chlorine or chloramine or ozone? Ozone is the most expensive, but a few suppliers might be using it to treat for microorganisms.
> Kevin


I would think it's chlorine or chloramine. I live near Buffalo, and our water comes right from Lake Erie, and our water system feeds like most of this end of the state. To ozonate that much water would be a teensie bit expensive. 

BUT - I think I will call and found out just for educational purposes.


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## spinjector (Mar 20, 2005)

banderbe said:


> You might have smurfs stuck somewhere in your plumbing.


AWESOME! Maybe they can show me the way to where they hide their little mushroom houses in the woods... roud:


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## triple red (May 27, 2005)

try this...http://webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/5B.html


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## random_alias (Jun 28, 2005)

This is insane. Instead of researching ozone use in your area, speculating on all kinds of things, etc why don't you just take the initiative and try a different bucket?

RO water looks blue in some of my white buckets and clear in others. Why is that such an impossibility? 

You've said the water only looks blue in the bucket, not before, not after. What kind of answer do you want to hear? Fill a glass and hold it up to a white wall if you want to. Put a white sheet of paper in the bottom of the bucket. 

And the ocean is not blue because water is blue. C'mon people. Where does the blue magically go when you scoop water out of the ocean? Do our water purification plants have a "blue filter" to make the water clear for us? 

Light reflects and refracts differently at different angles and at different depths. 

Let's not speculate on the complicated before doing simple tests to eliminate the simple.

Personally, I think it's Metachlorians. It makes perfect sense to me. Water is considered to be life-giving and Metachlorians live inside our cells and give us life and the ability to know the Force. When we drink the blue water, our Metachlorian counts are being replentished.

Maybe I should call my water folks and ask them what my water's Metachlorian count is. But then how do I explain how it varies so much from one bucket to another. It must be more complicated than I thought! Perhaps my mood is affecting it?


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## dissident (Oct 15, 2003)

random_alias said:


> Personally, I think it's Metachlorians. It makes perfect sense to me. Water is considered to be life-giving and Metachlorians live inside our cells and give us life and the ability to know the Force. When we drink the blue water, our Metachlorian counts are being replentished.
> 
> Maybe I should call my water folks and ask them what my water's Metachlorian count is. But then how do I explain how it varies so much from one bucket to another. It must be more complicated than I thought! Perhaps my mood is affecting it?



:icon_lol: 

But how do you know if once the water is in the tank if the fish will be drawn to the darkside or not? My PO4 is at 3ppm will that be ok, or should I dose more Fe?


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## spinjector (Mar 20, 2005)

triple red said:


> try this...http://webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/5B.html


Wow this is an amazing article about water and color! And the picture in there of the two tubes, one filled with with light water, and the other filled with heavy water clearly shows the regular water to be bluish in color. There is some deep technical stuff in that article. I love a good brain exercize. My eyebrows are sweating from the exertion.


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## m.lemay (Jul 28, 2002)

That is a great article...I'll have to go back to it, I need more time to rreally read it.  

Marcel


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## spinjector (Mar 20, 2005)

random_alias said:


> This is insane. Instead of researching ozone use in your area, speculating on all kinds of things, etc why don't you just take the initiative and try a different bucket?
> 
> Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.


Sorry to have bothered you by seeking knowledge from other members of this open forum. Perhaps you should read the scientific article referred to in post #15 of this thread, which uses repeatable scientific methods to explain why water is blue, and then get back to us on what you think is insane or not.


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## random_alias (Jun 28, 2005)

Perhaps you should try a different bucket? :icon_roll 

And BTW, trying a different bucket is an extremely scientific approach to finding an answer to your question. Controls and variables. Basic scientific stuff.

I don't need to read the article, look at all the graphs, do independent research to ensure that the author isn't just BSing people that don't look into things. 

I don't need to do any of that because I tried a different bucket. Call me stupid, but I tried a different bucket. And can you believe it, but the "intrinsic color" of water magically changed, throwing the whole nature of the universe into question.

I'm not saying that article isn't true. I'm just saying that you still haven't disproved the obvious variable in all this, the bucket. The logical thing to do would be try different buckets. Then, if you can eliminate the buckets as a variable, move on to the other stuff.

There's a difference between seeking knowledge and ignoring the common sense advice that people are giving you in favor of a more complicated answer because you somehow feel the need to protect your bucket's reputation as a non-blue-maker.

It bothers me that you haven't reported on testing the bucket but all this other stuff is being pushed.

I'm sure that guy knows a lot more about the color of water than me, but his article isn't talking about the tint of water in a 5 gallon bucket. You're not keeping the subject in proper perspective. You were asking about the tint of water in your bucket. That article is a whole different ball game and you can't point to it and say, "See!" without testing your bucket first. I'm sure that if the author knew you were taking that article and applying it to your bucket situation without testing anything else and drawing this conclusion from his work he would :icon_roll .

C'mon. Just don't be silly about this.


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## yoink (Apr 21, 2005)

random_alias said:


> There's a difference between seeking knowledge and ignoring the common sense advice that people are giving you in favor of a more complicated answer because you somehow feel the need to protect your bucket's reputation as a non-blue-maker.


That's the funniest thing I have heard all day.


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

You could eliminate (or prove) the possibility of a non-volatile blue contaminant in your water. Get a large pot. Fill it with water. Boil it until no water remains. (Watch carefully towards the end to avoid burning your pot, stove, house, etc.) Is the residue blue?

Then, do the same with the bucket. You may have to chop it up to fit it all in the pot. :icon_bigg


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## Rex Grigg (Dec 10, 2002)

I'm still thinking of that poor Smurf stuck in the plumbing.

If I use my green bucket the water appears green.

If I use my yellow bucket the water appears yellow.

If I use my white bucket the water appears blue.

Maybe I'm the old timer here but I can remember my mother using Mrs. Stewart's Bluing in the laundry to help keep my Dad's work clothes looking whiter. She even used it in the bath water of her white show Poodles to make them look whiter. And once in a while we would have a blue Poodle running around if my sisters helped.


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## random_alias (Jun 28, 2005)

Rex Grigg said:


> Maybe I'm the old timer here but I can remember my mother using Mrs. Stewart's Bluing in the laundry to help keep my Dad's work clothes looking whiter. She even used it in the bath water of her white show Poodles to make them look whiter. And once in a while we would have a blue Poodle running around if my sisters helped.


LOL. Old people really do tell great stories!

:wink:


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## spinjector (Mar 20, 2005)

Rex Grigg said:


> If I use my green bucket the water appears green.
> 
> If I use my yellow bucket the water appears yellow.
> 
> If I use my white bucket the water appears blue.


See??? Someone else noticed it too!!

I don't need to try a different bucket because I know that the bucket is white before I put the water in, and when I fill it with water, the bottom of the bucket gets bluer the deeper the water gets. The fact is that I see a _change_ as the water goes in. Since the tint of the water is very very slight, my admittedly human eyes would probably only be able to detect the bluishness in a white bucket.

And I didn't bother trying a different bucket, because I am aware that the bucket is made of plain white high density polyethylene, and when used with water is checmically inert. We know it is chemically inert because it is the same plastic used to make milk jugs, yogurt cups, and water tanks for motor homes, and a friggin kazillion other things in the food and plumbing industries. If HDPE released any substances into water, it sure as heck wouldn't be used for all these different purposes.

The bucket could be beige, or ivory, or light gray; my point was that I noticed a _change_ in the color as the water filled the bucket. Please correct me if I am wrong, but since I just filled the bucket with water, and now the bottom of the bucket appears to be a different color, and I am sure there is not blue smoke filling the bathroom, then by my admittedly non-Vulcan logic, then the water is BLUE dammit!!! LOL 

Good grief where are those damn smurfs...? :icon_mrgr


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## Rex Grigg (Dec 10, 2002)

You missed the whole point of my post.

If you fill that white bucket with pure alcohol, which is colorless, it will look blue. It's the bucket.

If you look end to end in your aquarium the water would look blue if it was the water. Or if you want then put a white plate on the substrate and look at it. If it's the water it will have a blue tint.


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

Are people's planted tanks really doing so well that we're bored enough to continue with the bucket/smurf theorems? 

By the way, I've always wondered... Exactly what was Gargamel planning to do with the Smurfs once he caught them?


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## jart (Jan 17, 2003)

If I recall correctly, this topic was rather heatedly debated a few years ago on APD.

Ahh, here we go: http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.9703/msg00364.html


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## banderbe (Oct 10, 2005)

DarkCobra said:


> Are people's planted tanks really doing so well that we're bored enough to continue with the bucket/smurf theorems?
> 
> By the way, I've always wondered... Exactly what was Gargamel planning to do with the Smurfs once he caught them?


Eat them, I believe!


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## banderbe (Oct 10, 2005)

jart said:


> If I recall correctly, this topic was rather heatedly debated a few years ago on APD.
> 
> Ahh, here we go: http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.9703/msg00364.html


There's nothing on that forum about what Gargamel planned to do with the Smurfs.


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## yoink (Apr 21, 2005)

I'm pretty sure he was always wanting to cook up some smurf stew or something of the like.


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## spinjector (Mar 20, 2005)

yoink said:


> I'm pretty sure he was always wanting to cook up some smurf stew or something of the like.


I thought it was tea. :wink:


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