Chloramine - check your water source!

[phi delt reefer]

its important to remember that that most household RO systems are just running a low micron prefilter and a ro membrane.

as BBLinks article stated activated carbon will pretty much get rid of all of the chloramine. Most of your aquarium grade RO/DI units use atleast one carbon stage as part of prefiltering.

i guess the question is how effecient is the carbon block at removing chloramines and when would it be exhausted. IS there a hobby grade kit we can purchase for chloramine testing?

[mike31154]

To the best of my knowledge, RO systems rated for chloramine simply incorporate two carbon stages. I've only skimmed through the linked articles briefly, but my own system came with two carbon stages & was rated for chloramine removal because of that. When I found out Greater Vernon uses chlorine, I removed the activated carbon stage & added another poly pre filter in its place. So now I have a 5 micron poly, a 1 micron poly, 0.5 micron carbon block 'chlorine guzzler', RO membrane & finally DI. Been running for close to 3 years, DI is still good, membrane still good. Only thing I've ever replaced is the first stage 5 micron poly. Tap water TDS is 210-220.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by phi delt reefer

its important to remember that that most household RO systems are just running a low micron prefilter and a ro membrane.

there is a reason for that. its called sales. chlorine will damage the membrain so in a household system people are usaly told to replace there prefilter and post carbon every six months and there ro membrain every year.

I used my RO membrains for seven years befor they started to degrade, and I atribute that to a proper selcection of prefilters and religious back flushing.

Steve

[mike31154]

Been keeping track of gallons throughput of my RODI since setting it up in April '09 on an Excel spreadsheet. Other than the poly pre filters I prefer to use gallons throughput rather than months as criteria for when to change my carbon filter. The documentation for my 0.5 micron carbon block says it's "Highly effective for chlorine.... for up to 20,000 gallons at a rate of 1 GPM".

According to my calculations, I've put an estimated 12,600 gallons through my system in just under 3 years. I say estimated since I'm using not only gallons of pure water produced, but also adding 4 times the amount of pure to the total since there's an estimated 4 gallons of waste for every gallon of pure water produced. This all goes through the carbon block. The 1 to 4 ratio is an approximation & I can only guess that since I don't measure this every time I produce water. I'm a cheapskate & don't fancy the idea of changing my carbon filter after 4 months if I haven't come anywhere near the rated gallon amount the filter is supposed to be good for. When feasible, I also like to verify manufacturer's claims so that I don't knacker my RO membrane before its rated life. So a few months ago I decided to check for chlorine at the tap source as well as after my carbon block. Results follow, I feel warm & fuzzy that my carbon block is still good & can go for a few thousand gallons more.

Sorry getting a little off topic from chloramine, but there has been some info provided in posts here regarding when to change certain filters.

Two photos since it may be difficult to tell the colour difference, one made with flash & one without. Should be able to tell on the strip in left of photo chlorine is 0 whereas the one on right shows a touch of purple indicating the presence of chlorine. This of course is the one dipped into the source water & the left one is after the carbon block.

[hillegom]

Mike, will your test strips also check for chloramines?
Thanks

[d33ps3a]

I bouaght a ro/di system from aquasafe's eBay store for 200 incl shipping. Its a 7 stage w extra filters for 6 changes and other accessories. They state on their website that chloramine is filtered out. Pretty good deal considering what you get. Also, its a 3 stage di filter.

[Buckeye Field Supply]

You'll want to remove the 3 DI filters from their clips and orient each of them vertically so that flow through them goes from the bottom to the top.

Horizontal DI filters are a fundamental configuration error...

Russ

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Field Supply

You'll want to remove the 3 DI filters from their clips and orient each of them horizontally so that flow through them goes from the bottom to the top.

Horizontal DI filters are a fundamental configuration error...

Russ

So your first sentence should read to orient the DI filters "vertically", vice horizontally?

[Buckeye Field Supply]

Agghh! Thanks - I fixed my post.

[mike31154]

Ya, couldn't let that one slip by... I know, it's early in the morning still out west here.