Alkalinity Question

[WinterWarlock]

I'm looking for some clarification regarding the carbonate and/or bicarbonate content of my water. For some reason the water report provided by my local water district shows a value for
CaCO3 ppm, but does not contain any info about HCO3 ppm. Is that normal practice for municipal water reports or is it possible they simply didn't test for HCO3 ppm?
I've been using EZ water for my spreadsheet calculations, which gives you the option of inputting CaCO3 ppm or HCO3 ppm, but not both. Why is it one or the other? Also, why doesn't EZwater show these in the resulting water profile (after salts are added). I'd like to target some of the brunwater sample profiles, but without any knowledge of the HCO3 ppm content of my water, I'm at a loss. I plan to send a sample off to ward labs, but for now I'm going with the report provided to me. Thanks for your input!

 

[mabrungard]

I’m betting that they are reporting Alkalinity “as CaCO3”. That is an easy conversion. Bru’n Water helps you with that.

 

[WinterWarlock]

I best be changing programs then. Thanks, Martin!

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

The simple conversion is:

Alkalinity as CaCO3 = 50/61 x Bicarbonate

Bicarbonate = 61/50 x Alkalinity as CaCO3

or even more simple:

Alkalinity as CaCO3 = 0.82 x Bicarbonate

Bicarbonate = 1.22 x Alkalinity as CaCO3

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I'm looking for some clarification regarding the carbonate and/or bicarbonate content of my water. For some reason the water report provided by my local water district shows a value for
CaCO3 ppm, but does not contain any info about HCO3 ppm. Is that normal practice for municipal water reports or is it possible they simply didn't test for HCO3 ppm?

Yes, reporting Bicarbonate in unit terms of "Alkalinity as CaCO3" is the norm, and therefore yes, they did test for bicarbonate. If you have one and need to know the other, simply use the conversion factors as seen above.