Chloramine! Let’s talk about it.

[HotRocks]

I just checked mine. Found my strips.

So my RO is definitely removing some of the chloramine I just don’t know if it’s getting it all.

Pics are hard to tell. In person the tap water is around 2ppm and the RO water is around .5ppm. I’ve only made 100-150 gallons on this set of filters so they are pretty fresh.


Tap water:

After RO

 

[Mgex]

I just checked mine. Found my strips.

So my RO is definitely removing some of the chloramine I just don’t know if it’s getting it all.

Pics are hard to tell. In person the tap water is around 2ppm and the RO water is around .5ppm. I’ve only made 100-150 gallons on this set of filters so they are pretty fresh.


Tap water:

ARO

Seachem prime declorinator is my go to for declorinating the water i would use that with the ro filters to make sure it gets rid of all the chloramines

 

[greg 45]

Randy this issue with water treatment seems to change with the weather outside . Water treatment plant 's change how they treat the water by outside temperature.
Will a pool chlorine test kit work on tap water.
Also some friends just went through this in Pa. as they were working on the water pipes / replacing and cleaning .

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy this issue with water treatment seems to change with the weather outside . Water treatment plant 's change how they treat the water by outside temperature.
Will a pool chlorine test kit work on tap water.
Also some friends just went through this in Pa. as they were working on the water pipes / replacing and cleaning .

Yes, a pool chlorine kit will work.

 

[dwest]

Yes, a pool chlorine kit will work.

So, based off @HotRocks testing pictures above, would you say his chloramines have been removed by his RO?

 

[Dan_P]

So I recently discovered that my municipality changed from using free chlorine to using chloramine to treat our local water. This was back in the fall. I started having all kinds of issues with my SPS tank and my other tank around this time. Lots of unexplained SPS RTN and STN that lead to death as well as major algae outbreaks in both of my tanks. All parameters on SPS that should be monitored were in acceptable range. Is it possible that the chloramine is making it through my spectapure RODI and affecting the biodiversity of my tanks. Killing off coral as well as beneficial bacteria leading to an imbalance that has allowed algae to take over?

Chloramine is a bactericide and it can react with and be decomposed by organic compounds and producing ammonia. A test for total chlorine but not free chlorine will detect it. It may be the bactericidal property of chloramine, the ammonia or both that caused your issues. I would keep an open mind about the coral health problem starting before the chloramine addition started.

 

[HotRocks]

Chloramine is a bactericide and it can react with and be decomposed by organic compounds and producing ammonia. A test for total chlorine but not free chlorine will detect it. It may be the bactericidal property of chloramine, the ammonia or both that caused your issues. I would keep an open mind about the coral health problem starting before the chloramine addition started.

I certainly will keep an open mind. I don’t think this is a smoking gun or anything like that. I actually stumbled across the release when I was searching for some other info on our local govt site. The thing is my tanks were both in really good shape and thriving previously and I never changed anything (other than the water once a week haha) and I just found the timing interesting and was curious if it may have been part of the unexplained issues I had encountered.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Very hard to tell shades of color in a photo.

My suggestion is to put one those same strips into water that you think has none and do a side by side comparison of the strip color.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I certainly will keep an open mind. I don’t think this is a smoking gun or anything like that. I actually stumbled across the release when I was searching for some other info on our local govt site. The thing is my tanks were both in really good shape and thriving previously and I never changed anything (other than the water once a week haha) and I just found the timing interesting and was curious if it may have been part of the unexplained issues I had encountered.

On a related note to keep in mind in such a scenario, if your water supply company does use chloramine, then there will be substantial ammonium on your DI resin, and when it first starts to deplete, a lot of ammonium will come out since it is more weakly bound than many ions, and may be far higher in the effluent than the input water.

I once made a batch of limewater (kalkwasser) when my DI was depleting without realizing it, and it stunk of ammonia (the high pH converted it all to the more readily vaporized NH3 form ).

 

[HotRocks]

On a related note to keep in mind in such a scenario, if your water supply company does use chloramine, then there will be substantial ammonium on your DI resin, and when it first starts to deplete, a lot of ammonium will come out since it is more weakly bound than many ions, and may be far higher in the effluent than the input water.

I once made a batch of limewater (kalkwasser) when my DI was depleting without realizing it, and it stunk of ammonia (the high pH converted it all to the more readily vaporized NH3 form ).

That is interesting and I had no idea that this was even possible. Thank you for the input Randy it is much appreciated! I do use the color changing DI resin so do you say it’s best to just chuck the filter when it has 10% life left?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That is interesting and I had no idea that this was even possible. Thank you for the input Randy it is much appreciated! I do use the color changing DI resin so do you say it’s best to just chuck the filter when it has 10% life left?

Do you have a tds meter? I think that's a better way to monitor.

 

[HotRocks]

Do you have a tds meter? I think that's a better way to monitor.

Yes I have a handheld and my RODI has two built in. I always change filters as soon as I register 1 TDS

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes I have a handheld and my RODI has two built in. I always change filters as soon as I register 1 TDS

Sounds good!

 

[shadow1013]

Randy do you know if the Chloramines break down the membrane faster than than if they used chlorine?

Also do you think having three DI filters (single cation, single anion, and single mixed)!vs dual mixed?

Sounds good!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy do you know if the Chloramines break down the membrane faster than than if they used chlorine?

Also do you think having three DI filters (single cation, single anion, and single mixed)!vs dual mixed?

Membranes should be protected from both chlorine and chloramine. That's a big reason to have the carbon block in front of the membrane.

As to which might do more damage if it got through? Not sure.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy do you know if the Chloramines break down the membrane faster than than if they used chlorine?

Also do you think having three DI filters (single cation, single anion, and single mixed)!vs dual mixed?

I typically had two mixed beds in series. When the first depletes, replace it with the second and put the new one in the last position. That way you can completely use a DI and always have zero ppm tds.

If you recharge them yourself, or have a ton of CO2 in the water the single beds may be better from a cost perspective. Don't think the choice matters from a purity perspective.

 

[shadow1013]

Do you have a single carbon filter or dual?

Membranes should be protected from both chlorine and chloramine. That's a big reason to have the carbon block in front of the membrane.

As to which might do more damage if it got through? Not sure.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you have a single carbon filter or dual?

I typically had a sediment, carbon block, RO membrane, and two mixed bed DI. If I ran out of sediment filters, another carbon block might get used.

 

[shadow1013]

Do you run two membranes in series to half the waste : product water ratio?

Had to leave a space or the : became a with the p next to the : lol

I typically had a sediment, carbon block, RO membrane, and two mixed bed DI. If I ran out of sediment filters, another carbon block might get used.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you run two membranes in series to half the waste : product water ratio?

Had to leave a space or the : became a with the p next to the : lol

I don't. Water is not in particularly short supply where I live, and it adds substantial complexity because you presumably need a booster pump too.