Chloramines and TDS

[PK3]

Hi all,

 

I'm in the process of looking for an RO/DI unit and I read that Fairfax water has chloramines in it, so I had a few questions related to this:

 

1. Do chloramines show up on a TDS meter? I.e. if your TDS shows up as 0, does this mean your "regular" RO/DI unit removed the chloramines?

2. How many of you in Fairfax County use catalytic carbon and a carbon block specifically for chloramine removal? Does it work well?

3. For those that don't, does your RO/DI still effectively remove the chloramines? How do you know?

 

Just trying to get people's first hand experience. I was leaning toward getting the chloramines RO/DI, but didn't want to spend the extra dollars if it's not absolutely necessary and if a regular could get the job done.

 

Thanks.

[Origami]

1. Yes. The ions will show up as TDS.

2. I used it while in Loudoun. It works to extend the life of the membrane and the DI resin.

3. When chloramine passes by activated carbon, it can be broken into ammonia and free chlorine ions. The chlorine can be processed by the carbon but the ammonia can slip by and through the RO membrane. Luckily, it'll get taken up by the DI resin, but this can lead to reduced resin life. One point of chloramine-specific stages is to more efficiently break up the chloramine and to allow more contact time and reduction of these ammonia levels to give greater life to the resin.

 

An easy way to handle it is just to get a blank canister, a refillable cartridge and to buy some catalytic carbon from Bulk Reef Supply. Just insert this in front of a carbon blocks and behind the sediment filter. Or, if retrofitting a unit with a two-stage carbon block, replace the first block with a refillable cartridge filled with well-rinsed catalytic carbon.

[PK3]

1. Yes. The ions will show up as TDS.

2. I used it while in Loudoun. It works to extend the life of the membrane and the DI resin.

3. When chloramine passes by activated carbon, it can be broken into ammonia and free chlorine ions. The chlorine can be processed by the carbon but the ammonia can slip by and through the RO membrane. Luckily, it'll get taken up by the DI resin, but this can lead to reduced resin life. One point of chloramine-specific stages is to more efficiently break up the chloramine and to allow more contact time and reduction of these ammonia levels to give greater life to the resin.

 

An easy way to handle it is just to get a blank canister, a refillable cartridge and to buy some catalytic carbon from Bulk Reef Supply. Just insert this in front of a carbon blocks and behind the sediment filter. Or, if retrofitting a unit with a two-stage carbon block, replace the first block with a refillable cartridge filled with well-rinsed catalytic carbon.

 

So basically I could probably go with a regular RO/DI and get all the chloramines out (0 TDS), but I might be better off going with the chloramine-specific RO/DI as it is more effective and will lengthen the life of my RO membrane and DI resin. Hmm, I'm debating on which way to go here. Any idea of what percentage of the club's members go regular vs. chloramine? I would assume a significant portion do not have chloramine-specific stages but still maintain healthy reefs?

[LCDRDATA]

I'm also in Fairfax County; while I can't speak to the "majority" of the club, I'm running a carbon block designed for chloramines - but not an extra stage. As far as I can tell, it seems to be working as advertised.

[PK3]

I'm also in Fairfax County; while I can't speak to the "majority" of the club, I'm running a carbon block designed for chloramines - but not an extra stage. As far as I can tell, it seems to be working as advertised.

 

So you're running a 4 stage: sediment, chloramines carbon block, RO membrane, DI?

[LCDRDATA]

So you're running a 4 stage: sediment, chloramines carbon block, RO membrane, DI?

 

Correct.

[howaboutme]

I have a 4 stage as well except my 2nd stage is a 1 micron solid carbon block for chlorine removal. I'm not 100% sure if they meant chloramine though I know the 2 are not the same. I looked at the manufacturer that I have (purely h2o) as well as Spectrapure (the most popular) and they both say "chlorine" and not "chloramine". Either way, I'm not too concerned.LCDRDATA, what bran do you have that specifically says "chloramine"? I'm curious now.

[LCDRDATA]

It's a Pentek (Pentair Water) "ChlorPlus 10" - I got it from Bulk Reef Supply during a group buy last year (there's one on now, and in the past my experience has been that you can get added even after the official start). The BRS SKU was 200057.

[PK3]

I have a 4 stage as well except my 2nd stage is a 1 micron solid carbon block for chlorine removal. I'm not 100% sure if they meant chloramine though I know the 2 are not the same. I looked at the manufacturer that I have (purely h2o) as well as Spectrapure (the most popular) and they both say "chlorine" and not "chloramine". Either way, I'm not too concerned.LCDRDATA, what bran do you have that specifically says "chloramine"? I'm curious now.

 

There are specific ones for chloramine. If it doesn't say it, then it is likely just for chlorine. May be something you might want to look into as well because chloramines are toxic to fish.