# Carbon bottles and Chloramine



## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

I've read a lot of controversy surrounding this subject. I just want to clear up a few things and let everyone know what it takes to fully remove chloramine. As we all know chloramine is basically molecularly bonded chlorine and ammonia and that it takes CATALYTIC CARBON to break that molecular bond. I'm going to keep it simple instead of getting into the actual chemistry terms only a chemist can understand lol. The CATALYTIC CARBON will then readily remove the chlorine from the water and ammonia is still present. So you're left trying to figure out how the cost of the carbon bottle actually justifies the end result. I actually worked with a water chemistry expert and we came up with a solution that most aquarists are familiar with, Zeolites. By first filtering through 1 cubic foot of catalytic carbon and then through 1/2 cubic foot of a synthetic zeolite media, we were able to remove both chlorine and ammonia. So yes it is possible to remove chloramine without an expensive and wasteful RO/DI unit. If you have any questions feel free to ask


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## mambee (Apr 13, 2003)

I'm not a chemist but my understanding is the Prime and Safe make the ammonia safe, and that is why you get false positive readings for ammonia when you use these products. I've been using Prime or Safe (the dry powder version of Prime) for 25 years with no problems.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

mambee said:


> I'm not a chemist but my understanding is the Prime and Safe make the ammonia safe, and that is why you get false positive readings for ammonia when you use these products. I've been using Prime or Safe (the dry powder version of Prime) for 25 years with no problems.


I'm not talking about using prime, I'm talking about using a filtration system to remove chloramine. When you have chloramine in your water, there is always ammonia left over after after it filters through catalytic carbon unless you use a zeolite bottle. Prime doesn't remove ammonia, it binds it until the biological filter can process it and it requires more than the normal dose to do so. Prime can cause a false positive in plain old chlorinated water and I think you are confusing the two. It's really personal preference, but I prefer to just remove the chloramine completely before it goes into my tank.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

It also makes water changes a lot easier because you can just hang the water hose directly into the tank instead of having to use some sort of reservoir to dechlorinate.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I have a couple questions that may be important to this method so please elaborate if you can.

What are the levels of chloramine that you are personally experiencing at your tap water and have you noticed if these numbers vary from time to time?

How often do you test your chloramine levels at the tap?

How long does it take to process the tap water through the catalytic carbon and zeolite filters? Secondly, how long before needing to replace either component?

Do you have pics of your set up that may help explain how you set it up?


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

I'm at work right now but the bottles are similar to these. https://i.imgur.com/5kq22i0.jpg The first is a 1 cubic foot bottle filled with 1 cubic foot of catalytic carbon, there's a female garden hose adapter going into the filter bottle, the outlet is plumbed into a second smaller bottle that is filled with 1/2 cubic foot of zeolite, the outlet of which has a needle valve to control flow rate and a male garden hose adapter. I connect a garden hose from the house to the first bottle and a hose from the outlet on the second bottle to the tank with a $15 flow meter from a hardware store at the end so I can set the flow rate to 1.5 to 2 gallons a minute. I can't measure "chloramine" per se but the ammonia levels from the tap read anywhere from .5-1.5 ppm and the chlorine level is in the same ballpark. The catalytic carbon, according to the filtration expert I dealt with should last 5-8 years depending on usage and the zeolite, which is considerably cheaper than the catalytic carbon, lasts maybe 6 months to a year unless you go with synthetic zeolite which has a life of closer to two years with proper backwashing.


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## joselepiu (Jul 22, 2017)

caldwelldaniel26 said:


> I'm at work right now but the bottles are similar to these. https://i.imgur.com/5kq22i0.jpg


the link says that the pic is not available, can you upload the pics again please?...
thx...


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

This is the actual setup.


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## joselepiu (Jul 22, 2017)

thx...
where did you buy the tanks?...


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

From a place that specializes in water filtration for industrial and healthcare settings.


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## joselepiu (Jul 22, 2017)

great thx...
ill do some research then...
is activated carbon and catalytic carbon the same?...


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## joselepiu (Jul 22, 2017)

great thx...
ill do some research then...
is activated carbon and catalytic carbon the same?...


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

No they aren't the same, activated carbon won't break the chloramine bond like catalytic carbon does.


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## joselepiu (Jul 22, 2017)

thx again...


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

No problem


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## Drake1588 (Jul 19, 2017)

Thanks for the work here, DC! I am looking to do something similar in the future due to the extreme levels of chloramine in the water where I live. Have had two incidents now where using enough safe to bind the chloramine has caused severe oxygen depletion in the tank.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

No problem, I don't like using chemicals if I don't have to and in my experience, it's been great at removing all traces of chloramine.


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