From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Auburn Maine, USA

does anyone know if when heating city water, not to the boiling point but around 100 degrees, if chloramine (not chlorine) will evaporate out of the city water? The idea being holding city water in covered black plastic drums for a few days.

2/6/2007 6:42:39 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

24 hours in an open top drum should release enough gas to make it usable.

2/6/2007 11:49:35 PM

Billerica,Massachusetts

Chloramine does not dissapate in water as chlorine would it is more stable and that is why lots of communities have been switching over to it, it poses a big problem to home aquariums where it is highly toxic to fish, there are chemicals available at pet stores that will remove the chloramine, of course you may have to purchase alot of it, also there are filters available, you can search online for suppliers mostly geared toward removing it from you home drinking water.

Glenn

2/7/2007 8:20:03 AM

Billerica,Massachusetts

Chloramine can also be removed by adding chlorine, such as from bleach or pool sanitizer, the free chlorine will strip the ammonia that is bound to the chloramine, the excess chlorine can then dissapate from the water in an open container, exposed to the sunlight.
testing for the chloramine can be done using a swimming pool test kit as chloramine reacts the same as chlorine would in a pool test kit.

2/7/2007 9:33:09 AM

southwest MO

Since this is the compost tea board I assume you will be making Tea with the water in question. Simply aereate the water for a while before you put your ingredients in. With the amount of air thats required to make aerobic tea (staying aerobic through the whole process), you should gas the chloramine off rather quickly.

2/7/2007 9:58:27 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Ahhh....Chloramine isn't volatile like chlorine so you are correct; it won't gas off. Heat doesn't remove chloramine either - not even boiling it. Activated charcoal filters remove it. I have one installed in the refrigerator supply line but these are intended for low volume use ($20 - for ice cubes & cold water). There are whole house units which would work. It depends on the amount of tea you plan to brew.

All cartidge/charcoal filters have a "life expectancy" based on total gallons filtered. Glenn's idea of using a pool test kit at regular intervals will tell you when its time to replace the cartridge.

For folks who are still just getting chlorinated water, humic acid will negate the chlorine in minutes if you're pressed for time.

2/7/2007 10:02:09 AM

Indiana

Sodium Thiosulfate (used in aquariums) can remove chlorine (even the chlorine part of chloramine it then leaves ammonia which shouldnt hurt the tea. http://www.chemistrystore.com/sodium_thiosulfate.htm
it can be purchased here I would have to do some more research to find the correct dose.
Steve

2/7/2007 3:18:41 PM