# Chlorine/amine dissipation?



## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Does anyone know how long it takes the chlorine/chloramines to dissipate from water. I have been thinking of putting a reservoir in my closet, probably a 30 gallon plastic container, trash can or something. I would fill it once a week, or during the week as I use the water. Would a couple of days be enough to allow the nasties to leave my water, would occasional stirring, or a timed power head help. I would love to eliminate using dechlorinator. It is getting quite expensive, $10 for 500ml at my lFS, I know, cheaper on line but still need bigger orders or shipping costs

Thanks in advance


----------



## Adam (Oct 19, 2004)

The way I have understood it which is anything but scientific is this.

If a resivoir or water is aerated, chlorine will evaporate in a matter of 24-48 hours because it is fairly volitile.

Chloramine on the other hand is much more stabe... which is why its used, there is evidence that chlorine changes into carcenogenic compounds in the precense of certain organic compounds, so chloramine is used instead. The chloramine as I understand it can take up to a month to totally evaporate.

Most of the things I read pretty much said that filtering with anything except carbon does nothing to remove chlorine or chloramine. But Carbon will reduce 1-2 ppm of chlorine/mine to .1 ppm

So my first step would be checking with your local utility company and see which of the two products their using.

here is one of the sites I used to get some of my info.
http://www.gewater.com/library/tp/813_Chloramines_.jsp


----------



## gnatster (Mar 6, 2004)

What about running the water thru a carbon block first. You can pick up a filter and housing at your local big box hardware store.


----------



## Edward (May 25, 2004)

Hi,

activated carbon removes Chlorine Cl effectively at low flow rates.
But if you have Chloramine then the situation is different. Chloramine NH2Cl is a combination of ammonia NH3 and Chlorine Cl. The carbon removes the Chlorine Cl but not the ammonia NH3. The ammonia will not be filtered out.

Edward


----------



## Rob G (Oct 19, 2004)

Dennis, if your water company confirms that it only uses chlorine in the treatment process, you might want to consider this relatively inexpensive dry powder sodium thiosulfate, which is the active ingredient in most dechlorinators.http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/5688/cid/1598


----------



## aquaverde (Feb 9, 2004)

That's what I use. As long as the water company doesn't switch to chloramine without you're knowing it...
I've heard of that happening and costing someone all their fish.


----------



## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

Why risk your fish when you can simply be on the safe-side by using a good product such as Seachem Prime(removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia) $33 for 2liters at BigAls. 500 mL treats 5000 gallons!


----------



## richy (Nov 8, 2004)

here's a link from my local water district. according to this, chloramines will not dissipate no matter how long you let the water stand. the best method is to treat it to break the chemical bonds.

http://sfwater.org/detail.cfm/MSC_ID/51/MTO_ID/76/MC_ID/10/C_ID/2044/holdSession/1


----------



## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Well, I guess I should post an update I contacted me local water company and they informed me that they *only* treat with chlorine, so if you live in Easthampton Mass, there you go


----------



## pineapple (May 4, 2004)

> probably a 30 gallon plastic container, trash can or something


Depending on the thickness of the container walls, you can expect the 'can' to bow outward. Be careful it doesn't topple or split. I use a 20 US gallon trash can and when filled 80% full it certainly does bow significantly. Generally speaking, I let it sit in a bath tub just in case.

5 gallon plastic water bottles are useful - the bottles used in offices.

Andrew Cribb


----------



## cS (Jan 27, 2004)

dennis said:


> It is getting quite expensive, $10 for 500ml at my lFS, I know, cheaper on line but still need bigger orders or shipping costs


Big Al's Online has Seachem Prime most inexpensively. They will price match if you find it cheaper elsewhere as well. Shipping is based on dollar amount, not weight so go check it out if your water company decides to start adding chloramine.

I have the mammoth 4L bottle. Keeping cans of water around the house is just too much hassle, not to mention the filling problem. :lol:


----------



## jake (May 25, 2004)

I have two 45 gallon plastic barrels in the closet of the room where most of my tanks are. I have an air pump with two outflows in there, so one big airstone per barrel. Whichever barrel I'm going to use next, I have a heater attached to large, cheap airstone which weights it down in the tank. I only use a 50 watt heater, but by the time I'm ready to use the water, it's up to the same temp as my tanks. I submerse a 650gph water pump with about 10' of water line attached, at the end of which I installed a ball valve so after I turn the pump off remotely I can close the valve so I can set the hose on the floor for a minute without the water siphoning out. The pump is plugged into a remote control plug-in ( like a clapper, only with a remote. Hard to clap while busy changing water :wink: ). I python vac/wc then refill with the pre-heated, chlorine free water. When a barrel is empty I just pull the pump and heater out and plunk it into the other barrel, then refill with python after I've sucked some bleach water through it for awhile first, then a bit of water containing dechlorinator ( small 97 cent mop bucket from walmart is what I use for that). 

I got the remote control plugin from walmart for like 7 dollars, red tagged. I keep it in the closet so nobody bumps it and has my pump running with the valve closed. I also installed a cheap metal hose-hanger in the closet to place the water line on when not in use.

My city uses chlorine only as well, as I found out from the water dept. 

For the tanks downstairs, I didn't think setting up another set of holding tanks would be very cost effective, so I just use Prime for those.


----------

