Moving to an area that uses chloramine

[peytoon]

Hey guys,

I'm moving to West Windsor in NJ which uses chloramines. They report that their water contains between 1-4 ppm chloramines.

I'm wondering whether a BRS 5 stage is sufficient (they say 5-stage is appropriate for "small" amounts of chloramines), or should I look to get a 6-stage for this concentration of chloramines?

Thanks for the help.

 

[jft]

Just use seachem Prime To Condition all water. Never had a problem with My tanks using this Product for 10 years, NO issues.

 

[zalick]

My water has similar chloramine levels. If you have the space, you should install a big blue carbon filter with a sediment filter before it to protect the carbon. So the setup goes sediment -> big blue -> RO unit. I have this setup and my first to stages of my RO unit are now empty.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Hey guys,

I'm moving to West Windsor in NJ which uses chloramines. They report that their water contains between 1-4 ppm chloramines.

I'm wondering whether a BRS 5 stage is sufficient (they say 5-stage is appropriate for "small" amounts of chloramines), or should I look to get a 6-stage for this concentration of chloramines?

Thanks for the help.

Generally speaking, an RO/DI system that uses 2 carbon blocks as a pre-treatment step (after particulate filtration and before the RO stage) will be sufficient to remove municipal chloramines for a production rate in the 100 gpd range. However, as a scientist, I'd recommend verifying this. Fortunately, doing so is easy and cheap - just buy a package of free chlorine/chloramine test strips, and test your water after it goes through your carbon block setup - the easiest way to do that is simply sample the bypass water from your RO filter (i.e., the waste water). Here's one source for the tests strips.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree. Use a normal RO/DI and check for total chlorine in the effluent. IF you need to up the carbon blocks to something special, then spend the extra money. IME, people pushing special cartridges may be getting many people to waste money:

Chloramine and the Reef Aquarium - Reefkeeping.com

Lessons Learned and Suggestions:

1. Most RO/DI systems seem capable of removing chloramine adequately for aquarists.
2. The carbon cartridge may become less useful over time, and it is possible that the chloramine removal effectiveness of a system may be lost before the DI appears to need changing.
3. Cheap sediment cartridges may expose the carbon cartridge to unnecessary fouling, which may permit chloramine to pass through the system. Cartridges should be replaced as soon as the pressure drops significantly, even if RO/DI water is still being produced at a reasonable rate or purity as measured by total dissolved solids.
4. Testing for chlorine and chloramine is easy, so any concern is easily reconciled.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Just use seachem Prime To Condition all water. Never had a problem with My tanks using this Product for 10 years, NO issues.

Are you suggesting treating raw tap water, or RO/DI effluent?

Assuming you are talking about raw tap water, folks reading and posting such claims ALWAYS need to recognize that they are not a meaningful indication of whether any other individual could effectively do the same. Tap water varies tremendously from house to house, even on the same water system. Some are OK and some are not.

An analogy is my claiming I do not need to wear a jacket when going outside, with the inference that others need not as well. Obviously it depends on the location and time of year. Same with tap water.