I need to kill chloramines

OM2

Member
So regular ascorbic acid in a fancy bottle?

People have been using ascorbic acid for ages for water treatment. You're better of buying a bag of ascorbic acid, there's dosages and recommendations if you search this forum.

In most scenarios it's not needed for plants, but handy in case you need to sterilize drinking water with chlorine and then neutralizing it with ascorbic acid. Some plants are very sensitive to chlorine, not common but wasabi is one of them.
You may be right, i'm not experienced and educated enough on this matter, i don't even use this myself. I use citric acid in granules to lower pH if that counts lol. But the OP asked for it, and i remembered seeing this product while i was buying something else. So i thought why not suggest it to him, at least give him a direction what to look for.
7€ is not crazy expensive, especially if you want to get something done quickly. I don't disregard your statement, but sometimes it's easier to just buy a product made specifically for what you need, without spending time and doing further research. Unless it costed hundreds of euros or something.
 
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bobj1598

Well-Known Member
Umm, I'd skip the light and just buy 1 lb of ascorbic acid powder. I use about 1/8 teaspoon per bucket of water.
What does it do to the chloramine exactly? Does the chloramine stay in the water? Or does it dissolve/evaporate away? Like how long can my water stay "unchloraminated" after I add the vitamin C?
 

Coco-garden

Well-Known Member
People could post a thousand legitimate studies showing that the levels of chlorine and chloramines in tap water are at levels that are completely safe to use to water their plants and will not kill the soil microbial population.

Yet people still feel the need to post links to products that are unnecessary. I've never seen so much disregard for actual science than I have in the cannabis growing community.
There is a ton of misinformation on the internet. It’s good people are trying to learn but when you read online about chloramines it suggests to get rid of them. Although I think I disagreed with you at one point on the subject I now deff agree that in my situation or any hydro it’s not going to do much harm.
 

Lenin1917

Well-Known Member
You need a filter to remove chloramines chloramines are a dissolved gas. Most carbon water filtration systems will remove them.
 

Lenin1917

Well-Known Member
If you’re using a garden hos
Garden Hose Filter - Removes Chlorine, Chloramines, VOCs, & Pesticides/Herbicides
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007I6MN72/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_129BEMZQRRH50376G4ZH

if you’re filling up a jug in the sink a regular sink filter (brita, pur etc) will take care of it.

you’re probably worried about nothing though. What’s your ph, ec(ppm if you don’t know what ec is) and grow media. I’m on city water, have run unfiltered for since after my first grow when I realized it wasn’t necessary for my situation.

There really is very little Chlorine/chloramine in our drinking water and most of it off gasses as soon as it’s an unpressurized environment. Not to mention they break down really quickly at such low concentrations in the microbe filled environment of a garden
 
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bobj1598

Well-Known Member
if you’re filling up a jug in the sink a regular sink filter (brita, pur etc) will take care of it.
my Zerowater been killing these little cockroaches this whole time!


I actually want to make aerated compost tea and it says to use unchlorinated water for that. chloramine is chlorine, isn't it?
 

jondamon

Well-Known Member
If you’re using a garden hos
Garden Hose Filter - Removes Chlorine, Chloramines, VOCs, & Pesticides/Herbicides
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007I6MN72/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_129BEMZQRRH50376G4ZH

if you’re filling up a jug in the sink a regular sink filter (brita, pur etc) will take care of it.

you’re probably worried about nothing though. What’s your ph, ec(ppm if you don’t know what ec is) and grow media. I’m on city water, have run unfiltered for since after my first grow when I realized it wasn’t necessary for my situation.

There really is very little Chlorine/chloramine in our drinking water and most of it off gasses as soon as it’s an unpressurized environment. Not to mention they break down really quickly at such low concentrations in the microbe filled environment of a garden
Also not to mention the fact that chlorine is a micro nutrient lol.

chloramines could be harmful to plants if concentrations are over 6ppm.

WHO recommends chloramine levels are kept under 5ppm for municipal water supplies across the globe.

so realistically unless you live in some 3rd world country you aren’t gonna see an issue with plants.

Edited with a source after just a quick Google fu (first hit)

 
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Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
my Zerowater been killing these little cockroaches this whole time!


I actually want to make aerated compost tea and it says to use unchlorinated water for that. chloramine is chlorine, isn't it?
Use hydric acid.
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
There is a ton of misinformation on the internet. It’s good people are trying to learn but when you read online about chloramines it suggests to get rid of them. Although I think I disagreed with you at one point on the subject I now deff agree that in my situation or any hydro it’s not going to do much harm.
If people want to go through the effort of removing chlorine and chloramine that's their choice. I'm just pointing out that it isn't necessary. I've never thought it was and when I started reading about it on cannabis forums it didn't make any sense. But I now realize that there are many growers that have never grown anything but cannabis and think it has some special requirements to grow. They'll never believe that the same conditions for growing tomatoes or thousands of other plant species will work with cannabis.

As far as hydro goes I added plain old Clorox bleach to my reservoirs to prevent root rot. I always had nice healthy roots and plants. The chlorine had no negative effect on the plants and in fact it's used by the plant. As with anything though too much can be harmful. To have chlorine toxicity the levels would need to be 20 times what's in tap water. And also, chlorine is the 12th most abundant element on earth and is already present in soil and if people were to test those bags of fancy potting mix they buy they would find levels of chlorine higher than what's in tap water.


There was a guy up in Canada that did his own study and had the results submitted to a lab for analysis of soil bacteria. There was no difference in levels in soil that had recently been watered with tap water and soil that hadn't.

https://www.albertaurbangarden.ca/2015/06/05/does-the-chlorine-in-tap-water-harm-beneficial-bacteria/

There are tons of studies done by very intelligent people with PhDs and years of education and research that say it's not harmful yet people are still going to refuse to believe it.

I could go on and on but I've done enough commenting on this topic over the years so this will be the last comment I make about it ever again. It gets old watching people ignore science and instead choose to engage in some group mentality online with no basis in fact. Right after two legitimate scientific studies were posted that show it's not harmful someone posts a link to a product to remove it and then others continue discussing the product.

People can waste their time and money trying to fix something that isn't broken. It's amazing that millions of people are growing hundreds of millions of plants all around the world and watering with chlorinated and chloraminated water and have healthy plants.

Signing off from this topic forever. :wall:
 

calvin.m16

Well-Known Member
Water them with the water you have and if it hurts them then get an RO system and stop trying to do easy fixes for clean water. You're breaking the cardinal rule, KEEP IT STUPID SIMPLE.
 

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
my Zerowater been killing these little cockroaches this whole time!


I actually want to make aerated compost tea and it says to use unchlorinated water for that. chloramine is chlorine, isn't it?
"Chloramine is a combination of ammonia with chlorine. The ammonia binds the chlorine gas to keep it in solution longer. Unlike straight chlorine, which dissipates fairly quickly when exposed to air, chloramine remains in the water longer."

I dunno if it matters for aact, because I've always ro'ed the water I use for it. If you have a microscope, you could always run a test yourself.
 
Hello All,
I am a water treatment expert by day and hobby grower in my free time. If you have any water questions I am able to help with, feel free to reach out.

The way to remove chloramines is with catalytic carbon, so you can use a chloramine block filter in a housing and fix the issue of not wanting to give chloramine to the plants. Chloramine is a disinfectant used in water just like chlorine. It is not as strong, but stays in water longer as far as contact time. The easiest fix for good water for your crop is reverse osmosis with good nutrients so that you do not lack any that are needed. The size of the system depends on how much water is needed per day. If you have any questions I can help with, let me know.
 

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Chloramines are the least of your concerns - there are far nastier shit in all municipal water systems - VOC’s / microorganisms/ pathogens from both animal and human / heavy metals including microplastics ( which will never be removed. )

Just recently ( a few days ago ) reports of microplastic contamination has been found in remote areas of Antartica - remote areas devoid of human activity- found in the environment.

If tap hasn’t killed you or your outside plants / lawn or pet dog then use it. Your outdoor ornamental plants give zero shits about chloramine.
 

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Maybe some egghead somewhere will brew a tea from a bagged soil medium for 24 hours then test what shakes out in solution. A full spectrum list of contaminants.

Betting there will be some surprises.

So regardless of “ water “ , contaminants can come from your medium , nute line , pest control just growing the stupid plant .

.
 

1212ham

Well-Known Member
Chloramines are the least of your concerns - there are far nastier shit in all municipal water systems - VOC’s / microorganisms/ pathogens from both animal and human / heavy metals including microplastics ( which will never be removed. )

Just recently ( a few days ago ) reports of microplastic contamination has been found in remote areas of Antartica - remote areas devoid of human activity- found in the environment.

If tap hasn’t killed you or your outside plants / lawn or pet dog then use it. Your outdoor ornamental plants give zero shits about chloramine.
Yeah, I've read about the microplastic in remote places..... the average American eats something like 5 grams of microplastic per week. They also discovered it IN plants!
 

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Kind of what im getting at - OP hyper focused on part of the grow ( water ) yet the other components of grow will bring in pretty much the same shit in or even more elements .

Thats why laugh about “ organic “ gardening . You use the same bagged shit ( big agro ) puts out by bag or “ element sources “. I mean really … what the fuck is really in “ aged forest products “ ( bagged soil labels ) …. It contains waste by products from mill and lumber plus who knows. So wondering about tap water becomes moot.
 

1212ham

Well-Known Member
Hello All,
I am a water treatment expert by day and hobby grower in my free time. If you have any water questions I am able to help with, feel free to reach out.

The way to remove chloramines is with catalytic carbon, so you can use a chloramine block filter in a housing and fix the issue of not wanting to give chloramine to the plants. Chloramine is a disinfectant used in water just like chlorine. It is not as strong, but stays in water longer as far as contact time. The easiest fix for good water for your crop is reverse osmosis with good nutrients so that you do not lack any that are needed. The size of the system depends on how much water is needed per day. If you have any questions I can help with, let me know.
Welcome to RIU. I read that calcium/magnesium are hard on RO membranes and a water softener extends their life. At what hardness might you suggest a softener?
 
Hello,

I am good, thank you for asking!

Less than 1gpg (grain per gallon) is considered soft water
Slightly hard 1-3.5 gpg
Moderately Hard 3.5-7 gpg
Hard 7-10 gpg
Very Hard Over 10 gpg

When you talk about a water softener with an RO system. For a small under sink model, at that small amount, it would shorten the membrane life feeding hard water, but not to the extent that it would be months sooner or anything like that unless it is way up there in hardness. Now on a whole house or commercial reverse osmosis system, you are talking a high number of gallons per day and membranes that are more in the $400-$500 range instead of $35-$40 for the smaller RO's. That is where soft water becomes very important because of costs of membranes. In the big systems we use Anti-Scalant solution with an injection pump as part of the system. A water softener is ok to use, just the reverse osmosis system removes sodium, so using a water softener makes the ro system work harder to remove that extra sodium. With anti scalant you do not have that issue. Just only used on the big systems rather than the under sink models.
 
Also, if you are getting a reading from a water test or city water report on what the hardness is, if it is not listed in gpg (grains per gallon) it will be in ppm ( parts per million) or mg/l (milligrams per liter). If it is listed in ppm or mg/l they way to convert it to gpg is to divide by 17.1
Example:
122 ppm of hardness
divide by 17.1
= 7.13 gpg of hardness
mg/l and ppm are equal so it would be the same math rather it is listed in ppm or mg/l
 
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