What's the properties of Chloramine?

[JimmyL]

Too lazy to find out. Can someone fill me in the Chloramine issue. Why is it necessary in our drinking water. What's harmful effect to the fish but not human? At what concentration it will show bad effect to the fish? I was told they are good for the fish esp. big scale fish farm in Asia? A myth or a fallacy?

[etr63]

Hi Jimmy
Here is a site I found. HTH
http://www.ci.new-bedford.ma.us/SERVICES/Water/safewater/protectyourfish.htm

Earl

[Carol_Roberts]

I think that cities add chloramine because it does not disipate like chlorine does . . .it works longer for less money. I don't know the answer to the rest of your question. . . except that chlorine leaves the water pretty quickly with circulation, chloramine does not

[ppv1951]

chlorine is a poison. it's deadly to fish AND humans if the concentrations are high enough. our water companies put it in our water in low concentrations to get rid of the bacteria and other nasties. NOW, in many areas, they are using chloramine, which is, from what i've been able to gather, a mixture of chlorine and ammonia. if you remove the chlorine, you release ammonia into the water (maybe this why some posters' fish are getting sick; their water has chloramine, they add something like de-chlor to get rid of the chlorine, and dump ammonia right in their tanks).

in the past, we left our water standing, open, and the chlorine would dissipate inside of 24 hours. if you've read any of carol's posts, you know she always suggests straight, aged tap water. that won't be possible anymore with the addition of chloramine to the water supply. chloramine doesn't dissipate more SLOWLY..... according to this new bedford article, it doesn't dissipate AT ALL!

that leaves us with 1.) using expensive additives, or 2.) using a carbon block filter to remove the chloramine.

it would probly be a good idea to call the water company and get the low-down on your water. i'll be calling mine monday morning.

anybody for a nice..... tall..... cool..... glass of water?

pat.

[Alight]

Very quickly, water companies are switching from chlorine to chloramine treatment because chlorine alone reacts with organic compounds in the water to produce toxic chlorinated hydrocarbons, which the EPA monitors and will not allow in drinking water above certain levels. When levels are too high, water companies switch to chloramine which is less reactive with organic compounds and produces fewer of the CHCs.

Does this make chloramine safer than chlorine? The jury is out on this one. Sort of like are new pesticides safer than old ones, simply because we have no long-term data on them?

The alternative would be to remove the organic compounds from the water before treatment with chlorine (which kills all kinds of nasty organisms like crytosporidia and giardia lamblia, as well as viruses). Of course this is more expensive than simply using chloramine.