Chloramine in my tap water, help!

Someguy15 said:

Depending on your location, chloramine residuals will be up to 3 mg/l (milligrams per liter) in your tap water. Generally speaking, the closer you are to one of our water conditioning plants, the higher the residual will be.

How can I deal with this? I really don't want to have to buy 15 gallons of water every week or two. Any suggestions? +rep if you can help me out!

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To fight the loss of Chlorine, many municipal water supplies have begun to see/use chloramine (chloramine is ammonia mixed with chlorine. ). This will not dissipate no matter the length of time water is left to stand. You can check to see if chloramine is used instead of chlorine in your local water supply. Their info must be posted online, or readily available by phone or snail mail. If you find high concentrations of chlorine in your water, you can use dechlorinators found at your local aquarium supply store. Tell them its for your outdoor pond with pricey coy fish.

Solved. Sry for post. http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752420 Petsmart link to product I will try.

There are carbon block filters specificall made for removing chloroamine. http://www.thefilterguys.biz/chloramine_filters.htm If yiour alraedy using an RO filter it is just one more cratridege to add. Without the RO prfeilters you would preferably use two carbon filters They each last for several thousand gallons of water.

You can get de-chlorinator in a pet store.Three drops per gallon instantly releases all the chlorine in the water.I've used it for years.

I just leave my water out for 24 hrs prior to watering(cap off).

Chlorine once arttached to ammonia very slowly dissipates as it and the ammonia form a strong bond. that is why it is being used instead of chlorine. It takes only over night typically for chlorine to outgas from water. It can take weeks for the chlorine to break free from the ammonia and out gas from water.

Chlorine neutralizer:Treatment of tap water requires between 0.1 grams and 0.3 grams of pentahydrated (crystalline) sodium thiosulfate per 10 liters of water.

500 gram bags at eBay for $4.50 http://cgi.ebay.com/Na2S2O3-Sodium-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27aaadb70b

Thats enough for between 3333 gallons and 10000 gallons. Or about $5 at a fish store for enough for 480 gallons. I'd buy the ebay bag and dump it in a two liter bottle then add water. That would mean say 0.6 ml per gallon for 3333 gallons. That would mean 1 tablespoon per every 25 gallons. That should definitely last for a while. A lot longer than a four ounce pet store bottle. I believe 133 twenty-five gallon reservoirs full of water.

fatman7574 said:

Chlorine once arttached to ammonia very slowly dissipates as it and the ammonia form a strong bond. that is why it is being used instead of chlorine. It takes only over night typically for chlorine to outgas from water. It can take weeks for the chlorine to break free from the ammonia and out gas from water.

Chlorine neutralizer:Treatment of tap water requires between 0.1 grams and 0.3 grams of pentahydrated (crystalline) sodium thiosulfate per 10 liters of water.

500 gram bags at eBay for $4.50 http://cgi.ebay.com/Na2S2O3-Sodium-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27aaadb70b

Thats enough for between 3333 gallons and 10000 gallons. Or about $5 at a fish store for enough for 480 gallons. I'd buy the ebay bag and dump it in a two liter bottle then add water. That would mean say 0.6 ml per gallon for 3333 gallons. That would mean 1 tablespoon per every 25 gallons. That should definitely last for a while. A lot longer than a four ounce pet store bottle. I believe 133 twenty-five gallon reservoirs full of water.

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K, so what order do I go for a rez change? water in rez, de-chloramine, nute, ph down? Is that the right order? Thanks guys, don't want any funky gases putting me in the grave lol. Will the chloramine remover affect PH or EC?

The chlorine remover will not remove the ammonia in chloramine, but its amount is so little it will have negligible effect on the ppm/EC readings as it is only used at a level of about 0.05 to 0.15 ppm. The order you mention is correct. It is best to have a small pump or airstone to keep the water moving when adding chen micals or fertilizers. If your using two part fertilizers and do not mix them in well seperately you will get precipitaes as calcium joins with sulfates and magnesium joins with nitrates. As long as the resrvoir water is in motion and one part is well mixed in before adding the next part all will work well. many times the PH does not immediattely stabilize so it is not wise to make a large adjustment all at once because often times if you do you will find out later that you way over adjusted. Remember tap water as well as RO water contains ec xcessive CO2 and thameans a lower than normal pH. Once that water has circlated awhile the excessive CO2 will have dissipated and your pH can rise depending upon your calcium levels.

I let mine sit out 24 hrs and have never had a problem. I don't use an ro, ppm of of water is a little less than 100.

R.O. set-ups can be found on "The Bay" for under $70.00 that will go for 3000 gallons at 50 gallons a day before filter change. The output of the setup will be around 2.0 ppm with incoming water of 250-280 ppm. Nice little setups to see if you like using R.O. water.

If you do go R.O. add a little Cal-MAg or MagiCal. Your plants need some "crude" <g>

Actually a RO filter is on average doing very well if it g has a rejection rate of 95%. The very best only do 98% tops. Typically the cheap units do about 85%.

Best at 98%: (250-(250*0.9) = 5.0
Average 95%: (250-(250*0.95)) = 12.5
Cheap at 85% (250-(250*0.85)) = 37.5

Considering most nutrient mixes limit calcium to 50 ppm a cheap eBay RO filter might not be such a good buy. About a $160 or better unit would work much better and for $14 extra you get the up d grade to Chloroamine filters instead of regular carbon filters for chlorine. http://www.thefilterguys.biz/ro_di_systems.htm This filter $160 will give you zero ppm water.

Even the cheap R.O. setups on "The Bay" have at least 4 stages, so you are getting some extra filtration from the pre-filters and the carbon post filter.

Distilled water is the purest, but most small home units would have to run 24/7 to keep up.

StreetRider said:

Even the cheap R.O. setups on "The Bay" have at least 4 stages, so you are getting some extra filtration from the pre-filters and the carbon post filter.

Distilled water is the purest, but most small home units would have to run 24/7 to keep up.

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Prefilters are for emoving large solid materials (sediments)and chlorine. A typical carbon prefilter removes chlorine well butnot choroamine. Prefilters do ot removed dissolved solids. The b carbon will remove a few pertoluem ditlates. The smam horizintal DI filters t
ypically sold with Chep\ap RO DI systems are very near worthless. For one they settles and then water flows through the open channels bipassing the reisn, plus they have such a small capacity their life span is very, very short.
Distilled water is seldom the purest unless you have a glass distilllation apparatus and do the distillation your self to assure only vapors at specific temperatures are condensed and there fore bottled. Almost no paharmecutical companies, laboratories or electronics manafacturers that need ultra pure water use distillers. They use RODI filters with a high grade resin and usuallu use at least two DO cartridges and if they start with water above about a TDS of 150 to 200 they run thw water first through a water softener.

If your talking about filter like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Portable-4s...all_Kitchen_Appliances_US?hash=item588438b9f9 Don't bother as it will cost twice as much to operate as a beter filter with all prefilters d and DI filters being in a standard vertical housing. And due to the vertical mountings you will not get good prefiltartion or post filtration. Toyr substandard RO menbrane will not last as long as it will have to deal with poorly prefiltered water. The RO membare will aslo only function witha rejection rate of 80% to 85%.

This is a good filter except for the near worthless carbon post filter mounted horix zontally on top. Yu would stll need to add at least one carbon filter cartridge to use if you have chloroamine in your water. Just replace the DI cartridge with the chloramine filter cartridge. The mebarne (DOW Filmtech 75 gph) is the best smaller RO membrane sold. If you want zero TDS water just add another filter cartridge if you use the existing one for DI.

All the others use crappy RO menmbranes like the chaeap one that will only reject 80% to 85%. DI resins are expensive and have very limited capacity ies. They should never be expected to remove more than a very few TDS.

Unless your willing to spend the effort to remount horizontal DI filters (and other Prefilters) vertically do not bother buying a system that uses them.

Someguy15 said:

Depending on your location, chloramine residuals will be up to 3 mg/l (milligrams per liter) in your tap water. Generally speaking, the closer you are to one of our water conditioning plants, the higher the residual will be.

How can I deal with this? I really don't want to have to buy 15 gallons of water every week or two. Any suggestions? +rep if you can help me out!

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http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=18384

Good luck.