Chloramine and RO Systems

[south14]

Hello all,
Since my one frestwater tank has turned into 5 at total of around 250 gallons (with another 250 gallons worth of tanks sitting on the back porch that might need some fish in them too) AND since it's too cold to haul water from my mother-in-laws well, I am considering installing an RO system in order to save me some time and steps with water changes. I've been reading a lot about RO, in particular the effectiveness of RO systems at removing chloramine (my city water is treated with it). In general, most reviewers are satisfied that an RO system with a carbon pre-filter will remove the chloramine effectively. There is, however, some argument over the size of the carbon pre-filter that it most effective. I have several questions: 1) does micron size matter in the removal of chloramine, 2) do any of you have any experience with RO systems and chloramine removal that you can share, and 3) could you all make some RO brand recommendations? Any advice and/or opinion is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Lyn

[etheonut]

I will chime in for some of it:

Micron size will not matter for Chloramine removal.

R/O units should have no trouble removing chloramines.

Kevin

[mewickham]

Is your sole purpose in buying a reverse-osmosis unit to remove chloramines? If so, consider buying a bottle of Amquel. It will do the job and save you a couple hundred bucks.

Chloramine is a compound of ammonia and chlorine. Any dechlorinator will take care of the chlorine, but most then leave the ammonia sitting there-- which is the danger of chloramines in tap water. Amquel will neutralize the ammonia, too. It's cheap and it works. You can use a compatible (salicylate based) ammonia test kit to confirm that the ammonia is taken care of. (Ammonia kits using Nessler's reagent will give a false positive.)

I may be telling you something you already know, but using an RO unit will not only remove chloramines, it will remove a bunch of other dissolved substances, too. You may not want this! It will reduce general hardness, carbonate hardness, and more. Reef hobbyists use it to remove phosphates and nitrates. Depending on the fish you keep, you may need to add chemicals back in to reconstitute the RO water into something more normal for keeping fish.

[south14]

I've never heard of Amquel, so I'll check it out! Thanks for the lead. My goal is to remove the choramine out of our tap water so I can use it as aquarium water. I was thinking that RO was/is the only effective way of removing the chloramine. Thanks for the advice guys!

Lyn