Water: Chlorine or Chloramine what to do....

reverof

Active Member
Ok, so I constantly see this conversation about water and Chlorine or Chloramine and it seems many people really have no clue about their tap water and if they have Chlorine or Chloramine in their local waters.

Many people state that they use tap water for watering their plants, others state you should not use tap water due to chlorine and others say you can use tap water if you fill your water container and let it sit out at least 24 hours. The 24 hour or longer sit period is to allow Chlorine to evaporate, which is very true it will do so in a period of 24-36 hours. However sitting your tap water out in the open for 24-36 or even longer will not let Chloramine evaporate. Actually one of the only techniques for removing Chloramine from tap water is to run the water through an extensive carbon filter (to remove the chlorine molecule) followed by a reverse osmosis or cation filter (to remove the ammonia) is necessary. Chlorine on the other hand can easily be removed water tap water, letting sit out, running through a simple carbon filter, or using any aquarium based Chlorine remover.

How do you tell if you have chlorine or chloramine in your tap water? Well there are many ways to find out, including asking your local water company, another route is to visit http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/home ... then enter your zip code into the Whats in your water? box located on the right hand side. You will then see a page listing all the elements in your tap water. You will either have chlorine listed or a chloramine.

You can also read much more into chloramine at:
http://chloramine.org/chloraminefacts.htm

Chlorine or Chloramine are not bad for your plants, they will not kill your plants. What Chlorine does do is actually effect the micro's in your soil. There are many benefits though to using tap water to water and feed your plants. chlorine in your tap water can actually help reduce or eliminate many root or soil related diseases and illnesses, but does kill many micro's in soil. It is a catch 22 really when you really think about it, but be assured majority of all tap water in the US is safe to use on plants with doing nothing more than a PH up or down and many times PH of water coming out of a tap is great for soil grows. Not all locations, so do please check your tap water for PH and adjust if necessary.

I hope this information helps anyone out there, I hope the noted web sites above give some great information to those that use it.

Good luck with all your grows!
 

nog

Active Member
never had a problem with my tap water, contains 0.5mg/litre, plants dont mind it at all
 

yesum

Well-Known Member
I think chloramine will evaporate in about a week of sitting out. 1 or 2 days sitting out and the chlorine in my water is gone.

I try to get the chlorine out of my 'weed' water, but if in a hurry I use it straight from tap.
 

burrr

Active Member
fuuny... after running my water through the RO filter I add chloramine back to it in the form of Zone.
 

tomato57

Well-Known Member
Ascorbic acid can be used to neutralize chloramine from water, but I dont think its necessary to take such measures.
 

reverof

Active Member
I think chloramine will evaporate in about a week of sitting out. 1 or 2 days sitting out and the chlorine in my water is gone.

I try to get the chlorine out of my 'weed' water, but if in a hurry I use it straight from tap.
Actually if you read the Chloramine facts stated in the original post at http://chloramine.org/chloraminefacts.htm
it even says Chloramine can't be removed by sitting out, can't even be removed by boiling.
 

novice11

Active Member
Just use an Aquarium water neutralizer. 1 Teaspoon / 10 gallons so I just put in a 1/4 TSP for my 2 1/2 gallon reservoir. I still leave it out before using. The stuff is cheap. Just make sure the labeling says it also treats chloramine as well as chlorine.
 

Jack Harer

Well-Known Member
One way or another, it has never affected either the micro colony in my soil, or the plants themselves. I use ST to get rid of chlorine, it also breaks the chlorine/ammonia bond in chloramine. The chlorine is taken care of by the ST, the ammonia is taken care of by the nitrobacters (and nitrogen fixing bacteria) in the soil by breaking it down into usable nitrogen compounds.
 

reverof

Active Member
Jack, I agree 100%. I just wanted to share this information for all that think tap water kills plants in soil, which of course is false.
 

Jack Harer

Well-Known Member
I'd tend to agree with that. I'm not even coninced that the chlorine content will harm much of anything, if at all. Being a free radical ion, chorine practically JUMPS out of solution at the time it's dispensed from the tap. Certainly within minutes of it. (depending on exposed surface area, of course.)
 

Xcon

Active Member
I use 3 and 5 gallon jugs to store and aerate municipal tap water. There is a very noticable difference in smell between one that has been aerating for 3 days and one that is fresh out of the tap.

We've had some bad storms lately and a lot of towns are having problems with their water supply. My water has been coming out rusty but I don't know what the fuck else is in it so I've been using the R/O station at walmart. I may be overreacting but if I have a doubt, I won't use it.
 

Homebud

Active Member
1 up on the rep bro. Thx for the info. I always let my water sit for at least 24 hours before I pour it into my plants. Amazing the bubbles I get off the water after the sit. Good info though
 
Top