Removing chloramine w/out chemicals-possible?

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Johnez

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Nov 3, 2020
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As the title says, I want to remove chloramines without having to use Prime or any other additive.

Part of the reason is I want to feed my garden the waste water from a water change, and there's a warning on the label not to consume anything that has used the treated water. Another reason is I simply don't like the idea of being stuck with Prime/Safe/dechlor and would love to open up a spigot and be good to go.

I know there's RO/DI but that's another messy solution and I prefer something turnkey. The fact that there is "waste water" turns me off, then I have to account for draining? Kinda hard in an apartment...

Is there a filter system that I can just attach to a spigot and replace a cartridge every 3-6 months and call it good? I've read about "catalytic carbon" cartridges and they seem primising however I'm not sure how effective they would be outside an RODI system. Some literature seems to indicate it requires 24 hours to remove chloramines. Is there a better way?

I know it sounds lazy, but hell I've done water changes religiously for 5 years and plan on expanding my collection. I want to make this as efficient as I can.
 
There are drinking water filters that connect to the tap that claim chlorine and other chemicals removed.
duanes duanes
 
I was looking at one of these:

For my personal water use, however I figure something a little beefier should be out together for aquarium water changes.

Do you guys think a similar DIY version cobbled together from 2 filter housings inline filled with catalytic carbon would do the job?
 
I use a three stage hma filter for my tanks, works well and doesn't waste water.
I only have chlorine in my tap water, dont know if it will get chloramine out.
 
I worked as a chemist/microbiologist in a drinking water facility that used chloramine as a disinfectant.
As an experiment we put a chlorinated sample , and a chloraminated sample of finished water out in containers exposed to the air to see how long each would take for the two chemicals to dissipate, at 1.5 ppm, and we tested each sample a number of times daily, using the DPD method.
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The chlorinated sample took 2 days to fully dissipate , but even after 2 weeks the chloraminated sample still tested 1.00ppm.
We were able to use carbon filled tubes that chloraminated would slowly be dripped thru to remove chloramine.
The easiest, most effective way of removal was using sodium thiosulfate, or calcium thiosulfate.
Another simple way of removal was using lemon juice or glacial acetic acid, but this tended to create a significant drop in pH.
This is one of the reasons you find a lemon wedge in a glass of tap water in restaurants, the lemon reduces the tell tale bleach odor .

If you have low pH loving fish, and if your tap water has a high pH, this might be considered a reasonable way to dechloraminate.
But this can create a dangerous situation with a lack of buffering capacity, that then fish waste, unless water changes are frequent enough to buffer tank water create too much of a pH crash.
 
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If you're set on not using chemicals to remove chloramine, then also purchase a total chlorine/free chlorine test, not the pool strips. I've used pool strips from different manufacturers and the readings aren't that accurate. You want something to tell you that the system you made is no longer working at removing chloramine.
 
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Rocksor said:
If you're set on not using chemicals to remove chloramine, then also purchase a total chlorine/free chlorine test, not the pool strips. I've used pool strips from different manufacturers and the readings aren't that accurate. You want something to tell you that the system you made is no longer working at removing chloramine.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip. I think BRS has a decent electronic one by Hanna.
 
It seems the "simple" solution I was hoping for is more complicated than I had envisioned. Still I'm on the path towards being chemical free water conditioning.

Currently assembling a chloramine removing system with a 1 micron sediment cartridge, 1 activated carbon cartridge, and 1 catalytic carbon cartridge. I'm not planning on an ATO system quite yet, but do intend to use this to fill my tanks and perform frequent water changes 2/week, 30-50% changed. Basically a 3 cartridge system without RO/DI.

My question is this-from what I gather ammonia will still be present after the chloramine bond is broken and chlorine removed. I have read there is a minute amount, is it enough to worry about? Is there any way to address this? In addition I was wondering about using this system for drinking water as well, and am curious if this is possible.
 
I would think that you would have an initial spike but that the bb would catch up and process through to nitrate.
 
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