Chloramine filter

[dirtyplants]

My filter will remove or at least break the bound leaving ammonia. I would not want to add any more chemicals to the water.Milwaukee's web page regarding water and the actual results after coming out of the tap will not match. Many of us have monitored our water and talked with the Milwaukee water department about major discrepancies.

The amount of ammonia in Milwaukee water is not harmful to fish. The amount, less than 0.3 milligrams per liter, is below the detection level of the test kits typically used to test for ammonia in aquaria.

I would not bank my fish on that statement, anyway I am concerned about free ammonia after the bound is broken. I think I can monitor the amounts but that still leaves me with ammonia which I do not want. I can use chemicals but really don't want to do that. My goal is to have a unit that removes the chemicals Milwaukee places in the water. You know I should look at the ammonia directly from the tap, which I will do tomorrow.

[yogi]

Carbon can filter chloramines out of tap water.

Chloramine, which consists of a mixture of chlorine and ammonia, is added to the water of many cities as a substitute for free chlorine. It is often referred to in the plural, as “chloramines,” because it can take on a number of forms according to the pH and mineral content of the water.

The whole reduction discussion for chloramines can become quite complex, but the main thing you need to know is that chloramine is removed from water with essentially the same strategies that are used to remove chlorine. This means that carbon filtration is the best removal method, and, contrary to urban legends, filter carbon does indeed remove chloramine. The problem is that it takes more carbon and more contact time to do the job. In practical terms this means that if your city disinfects your tap water with chloramines you'll need to get a larger and better carbon filter than you would need if chlorine alone were used.

For drinking water you can consider high quality carbon units like Multipure, or double and triple units that use lots of carbon. And, contrary to another widely promoted myth, reverse osmosis units do remove chloramine. In fact, they do it well, because any good RO unit contains a couple of carbon filters and the water gets an extra slow pass through the first one.

In choosing carbon for chloramine removal, a specially prepared carbon called “catalytic” carbon is far superior to regular carbon.

Catalytic carbon is a specifically processed grade of filter carbon that is designed especially for, among other things, exceptional chloramine removal. On our site, the brand name for catalytic carbon is Centaur.

You should also consider specially prepared carbon filters from Pentek, which are expertly designed to reduce chloramines.

[yogi]

I use a one cubic yard carbon tank to pre filter all of my tap water for my fish tanks. I run it at one gallon per 45 seconds and I run over 500 gallons a week through it. It was installed in may of 2011. I took these readings today when I saw this post. I'm using an aquarium pharmaceuticals ammonia test kit. The reading on the left that is yellow (zero ammonia) is after the carbon tank, the reading on the right is straight tap out of the faucet and is green with a 1.0 ammonia reading. I also get zero for chlorine after the carbon so yes chloramines can be filtered out of your tap water.

[nc0gnet0]

Jerry,

Just curious, what do you use for testing for chlorine? Is there a liquid test kit out there for that, or are you using the strips (I hate those).

[Len]

You can get little pouches of powder to use. You take a sample of the water and dump it in. When I got my replacement carbon bloc a couple weeks ago, the guy gave me some to try. They don't measure the amount of chlorine really, but if the water turns pink, it is present. If the filter did it's job, it stays clear.

[yogi]

You can buy a swimming pool chlorine test kit for about $6 to $10. This one is on ebay but you can just check if Home Depot sells them or if you have any swimming pool supply stores close to where you live. http://www.ebay.com/bhp/chlorine-test-kit

[pcsb23]

Just put a chlorplus cartridge in-line somewhere (after an activated carbon and pre filter is best), http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/pentek...s-removal.html

[AS76]

Sodium Thiosulphate Or as the pool shop calls it: chlorine remover, guess what seachem use in their prime?

[pcsb23]

Sodium Thiosulphate Or as the pool shop calls it: chlorine remover, guess what seachem use in their prime?

Except that by just using st it produces free ammonia. If the tank filter is properly matured etc then it will pose few problems, but for some it may be an issue.

[dirtyplants]

The whole reduction discussion for chloramines can become quite complex, but the main thing you need to know is that chloramine is removed from water with essentially the same strategies that are used to remove chlorine. This means that carbon filtration is the best removal method, and, contrary to urban legends, filter carbon does indeed remove chloramine. The problem is that it takes more carbon and more contact time to do the job. In practical terms this means that if your city disinfects your tap water with chloramines you'll need to get a larger and better carbon filter than you would need if chlorine alone were used.

Thanks all of you, I personally agree with most of everything mentioned as it coincides with what I have read but Buckeye says this is dead wrong a misconception. I am not sure why they would disagree on this, they are getting their money either way.

[Buckeye Hydro]

Carbon breaks the bond between the chlorine and the ammonia. the chlorine the adsorbed by the carbon, chloride is removed by the membrane. Ammonia is a dissolved gas, and it continues through the membrane, and will be present in the RO water. Many remove the ammonia with DI resin.

Russ

[oliverk]

I have been going down the auto change drip system using tap as the source water. When I talk with the water filtration experts (who are trying to sell me a ro or rodi system) say that indeed the leftovers from chloramine breakdown is ammonia in an RO process. The water filter experts say the preferred/usual way to get rid of the ammonia is DI although they mention other possibilities as well but generally say DI will get the water really clean of everything for you so you know your baseline.

(In poking around the quality of water in Houston I find that as recently as 2011 the water quality is among the 10 worst in the country, often has variations in quality (smell, color etc - last month there were wide spread reports of rancid smelling water that is "safe to drink" according to water dept who suggested refridgerating(sp) it) and I have therefore been debating the merits of filtering the entire house vs just for the fish that is another story however) Some of the reports or links on the various water filtering websites to water quality in your area had pretty scary sounding stuff about a lot of cities water. Am not sure though what sounds scary and what really is can be two things....

Anyway in talking with the water filtration experts they say since I plan on running the water through a series of other filters before return to the tank (I plan on growing hydroponic plants in aerated aquarium water (some plants in substrate, some plants suspended) that I shouldn't have an ammonia problem after the water goes through that process, however I believe in having backup eg ability like cutting out the run of plants so am doing a normal wet dry filter just before return and have decided to go ahead and do the DI to prevent overload on the my wet/dry sump in backup mode.

Note: The combining of fish and plant filtration is called aquaponics - although in most cases tilapia, trout or other food fish are grown as the fish in the system and it has become widespread in commercial food production - both for fish and veggies.

Am not sure what the water filtration experts would say about your situation city etc and your pattern of usage and need to get rid of ammonia - as a by-product from chloramine breakdown, but from what I am coming to understand a lot would depend on where in the system you add the RO filtered water and in what amounts - are you dumping large amounts right into the display tank, or are you trickling it into the wet dry/sump or other filter that would be able to deal with the extra ammonia?

So most auto top off or auto fill systems I've looked into do some form of the trickle method of adding water - remember if you drip in JUST a quart of water an hour every hour that is 6 gallons per day. If you do 6 gallons a day over seven days that is 42 gallons of water a week. Depending on the size of your tank and what you have in it that could be a very substantial amount of new water per week in the system. On a 50 gallon clean bottom no plants no gravel tank it is almost 100 % and almost 50% on a 100 gallon tank.... so... (note my uncovered 20 gallon tank in an air conditioned house loses a quart of water a day - I usually remove one quart and treat and add two quarts to it)

If adding fairly slowly into the filter perhaps normal filtration you have, will along with the dilution from your other water, be enough to keep water quality high enough for happy discus fish. If on the other hand you plan on storing the water and making a project of changing out 40 gallons of water at 10am on Sat you may overwhelm your normal filter and need to get the ammonia from chloramine breakdown out of the water before doing the Saturday morning water change.

In my case I plan on having a small leveling tank fed by two sources of water - water from the aquarium and water from the RODI unit. If the level in this tank gets low, water from the RODI filter will flow into the leveling tank and mix with the aquarium water and then on through the rest of the system - in full aquaponics mode a series of growing tanks and then to the wet dry/sump and in bypass mode just to the wet/dry sump. Am thinking plant respiration and evaporation will be enough so that I will be doing a substantial % water change without a lot of lifting or physically moving water.

Disclaimer: I don't have discus fish - yet - and am not a water filtration expert am just trying to learn the wife wants veggies and ....... the RODI waste and the hydroponics should produce a lot of veggies in the "greenhouse". Really just an area to be enclosed with rigid clear plastic two wall material and kept just above freezing and barely heat tolerable most of the time but should be a good place for plants year round.

[Buckeye Hydro]

I use a one cubic yard carbon tank to pre filter all of my tap water for my fish tanks.

I think you mean a 1 cu ft tank, no? Would be something like a 9" x 48" tank.

Russ

[Buckeye Hydro]

When the RO water pH is below 7.0, the ammonia is present as the cation ammonium - which ion exchange resin will remove.

Russ