Public Water & Chlorine Question...

Good Evening All,

I bet someone here can help me...

The following is the email response from our local water manager...

"We do disinfect the water in [town deleted]. We use 10% Liquid Sodium Hypochlorite at approximately 1.0 ppm. This generally gives the residents around a 0.5 ppm or less at their meter."

and to answer my dechlorination question...

"Aeration is effective, but possibly as effective would be to let the water stand or disipate for four or five days. I do not reccomend filtration as a chlorine removal method, however when we have to de-chlorinate we utilize sodium bisulfate in small dosages."

Anyone know if this additive will kill micro-organizisms if organic ferts and additives? If I added a aeration stone to the water cans, could the disipation process be accelerated to 24-48hrs?

This is for use with Ocean Forest soil.

Thoughts?

Thank folks...

"We do disinfect the water in [town deleted]. We use 10% Liquid Sodium Hypochlorite at approximately 1.0 ppm. This generally gives the residents around a 0.5 ppm or less at their meter."

I am not a scientist or chemical dude in any way, so here goes

Liquid Sodium Hypochlorite looks like chlorine to me, so you should be able to de-chlorinate your water by letting it set in a bucket for 24hrs, or with a few drops of de-chlorinator from your local fish store. drops from the fish store should not kill any micro-buddies







however when we have to de-chlorinate we utilize sodium bisulfate in small dosages

I'm not sure about this one, it really sounds like some dangerous shit to me........

Uses

• Household cleaners, Sani-Flush, for example (roughly 45%)
• Silver pickling
• To reduce alkalinity and pH in swimming pools
• In pet foods[1]
• As a preservative for soil and water samples in analytical laboratory analysis
• when NaHSO4 is added to potassium iodide it forms a black liquid of h20 sulfate and iodine

also used in photography lab solutions.................and looks kinda expensive............
I would stay away from this stuff.....................


I REPEAT , I am not a scientist or chemical dude in any way........


basically you need to write you water manager back and ask if they use chlorine or chloramine!!!!!!!

chlorine - let it set 24hrs., drops or R.O unit

chloramine - drops for chloramine or R.O. unit


hope this helps

r

Thanks!! Anyone else ever heard of this shit in their water? It hasn't affected any outdoor garden plants, but the organic Grow Power I use doesn't have any micro-beasties in it.

I'm off to Home Depot and Lowe's to look at filters for the primary water line into the house. The frig drinking water has a Brita inside for us humans to drink! But I don't think I like the sound of either chemical mentioned touching my body...let alone my cooking water.

No-one in the U.S.A. ( I can't speak for other countries) should be drinking their tap water. Its definately foul. 24 hours sitting out is not good enough. I go 3 days minimum. I don't know about sodium bisulfate (yet ) but I don't think using one chemical to clean up another is the way to go.

I'm no expert on tap water, but I'm pretty familiar with basic swimming pool water chemistry. Sodium thiosulfate is what is used in the pool industry to remove chlorine from water. Sodium bisulfate is used to lower pH/alkalinity. It's basically a dry acid. I've never heard of it being used for chlorine removal. Liquid Sodium Hypochlorite is bleach, the same stuff you use for laundry. It's probably 12% vs the 6% most consumer bleach products are made with.

HowardWCampbell said:

I'm no expert on tap water, but I'm pretty familiar with basic swimming pool water chemistry. Sodium thiosulfate is what is used in the pool industry to remove chlorine from water. Sodium bisulfate is used to lower pH/alkalinity. It's basically a dry acid. I've never heard of it being used for chlorine removal. Liquid Sodium Hypochlorite is bleach, the same stuff you use for laundry. It's probably 12% vs the 6% most consumer bleach products are made with.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Any expert info on how long it would take to disapate in aerated or still water at the ppm mentioned above? Three days?

if it is sodium.h(chlorine) 2 or 3 days of sitting out or aerate with an air pump then maybe 24 hours. chlorine is unstable and leaves solution quickly the smell will change when the chlorines gone or you could get a test kit. if your area switches to clorhamine(missspelled) which many counties are which is chlorine and amonia bonded together youll have more difficulty removing as it is stable in solution. in socal chloramine is used its bad for fish and plants and should be removed hope this is usefull.

Hello all.... I just copied & pasted the info below: provided by Seamaiden. She's the wiz when it comes to all things related to water / aquariums. So, here's some info that might help.
.
Seamaiden says " A quick tip, for breaking down chloramine, sodium thiosulfate is the active ingredient in dechlorinating products, and can be had in crystal form (which is HIGHLY concentrated) for a few dollars per pound. Get yourself a couple of pounds and you could be set for life. "
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Sounds like a good deal, I did not know it came in powder. Which I assume is probably better, since it does not have the extra stuff some brands of dechlorinator liquid have in them - like slim coat aid for fish.
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Thanks.... Seamaiden
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Keep it Real...Organic...

Ohsogreen said:

Hello all.... I just copied & pasted the info below: provided by Seamaiden. She's the wiz when it comes to all things related to water / aquariums. So, here's some info that might help.
.
Seamaiden says " A quick tip, for breaking down chloramine, sodium thiosulfate is the active ingredient in dechlorinating products, and can be had in crystal form (which is HIGHLY concentrated) for a few dollars per pound. Get yourself a couple of pounds and you could be set for life. "
.
Keep it Real...Organic...

Click to expand...

To the best of my knowledge, sodium thiosulfate removes free chlorine, but not chloramines. Chloramines are a byproduct of free chlorine and ammonia, and need to be oxidized from the water. A high concentrate (about 33%) hydrogen peroxide is what is normally used to remove chloramines in swimming pools.

Sodium thiosulfate alone will remove the chlorine, but leave behind the ammonia. I do not know how harmful ammonia is to plants, but I wouldn't think it's good for them. Sodium thiosulfate solutions meant for the aquarium industry may have an additive to remove the ammonia as well, but I'm really not familiar with any of those type products.

I think the easiest thing to do would be let the water sit out for a couple days before using it for your plants. It's free, and you don't have to add any chemicals that way. If you buy a cheap pool test kit you can check it yourself. Just get a basic OTO test kit, and you'll be able to test for chlorine/chloramines as well as check the pH of your water. It will probably only cost $5-$7 and you'll know your plants are getting good water.

Years ago I used to breed Trpoical Fish for pet stores. Sodium Thiosulfate is the chemical I used to remove chlorinefrom new tank water. I had to use double the recomended dose, but it worked, the fish were very healthy.

AND.....

I would swear that I read something here in RIU just recently that described Sodium Thiosulfate as one of the ingriedients in a solution used to stress and thereby feminise seeds. So ST might be a good thing to use.

Personally, I don't do anything to my tap water. Someone told me years ago that the chlorine in tap water was good. It helps sterilize the seed. And since the seed always takes at least a day to crack, the chlorine has had a chance to evaporate out before it does any damage. If I were you I'd at least TRY just using room temp tap water before dumping a bunch of Chem's in.

Works for me....

h202 is the best way to remove chloramine as it to breaks down and leaves nothing bad behind i would not use s.thiosulfate in soil grows as build up would be a problem we dont want excess mineral salts in the soil.

I just leave my water containers open for 24-48 hours depending on the size of them.
I live in a soft water area though and you have to try to judge for yourself as water quality varies greatly from place to place.
My rule is if you can smell it,its no good

I just bought a new tankless water heater...AND an inline carbon water filter for the whole house. Whirlpool indicates the premium filter will remove chlorine. We'll see!

sitting in on this, curious if your inline carbon filter works out, how much did you spend on the online filter? and who/where do i call if I want to know whats in my tap water?

Have a seat and enjoy the discussion!

I bought the premium, whole-house inline water filter by Whirlpool...and their best carbon filter inserts...they make three or four different ones. The staff at Lowe's was pretty good at helping me pick out which one.

The filter unit and filters cost about $40 total.

I emailed my local water dept...told them I was new in town and wanted to know what/how they purified the local water in my zip code. I got a response within 2 days...see above.

-GreenSurfer

carbon should remove chlorine and chloramine and many other things like heavy metals smells colors medications etc... it is good stuff

Problematicaly, only catalytic carbon filtration, chemicals ( sodium thiosulphate), or deionization will remove chloramines. Chloramines will not dissipate in three days no matter how much aeration you can muster at home. More like three months. Chloramines are very stable and are used in increasing frequency throughout the US. Chloramines are also NOT removed by reverse osmosis as they pass through its pores. It is a dirty little secret unfortunately. For most homegrows in areas using chloramines, a distiller would be the beat choice, larger grows will benefit from a large r/o + catalytic carbon combo. Once the ammonia breaks free from the chlorine, the chlorine is free to kill beasties.

Chloramines should be of concern to aquarists because they are toxic to fish and reef organisms present in the aquarium. Chloramine use in the United States has significantly increased as a disinfectant over the last several years. More than thirty percent of all municipal water systems now use chloramine disinfectant for all or part of the year. Chloramines are produced by the addition of ammonia to water containing free chlorine at a pH of 7.0 or higher. The most abundant chloramine produced is monochloramine. All municipal water systems that serve twenty-five residences or more are required to file an annual report containing information on drinking water quality. This report will also indicate the use of chloramine or chlorine as a disinfectant.



High quality Chloramine carbon block filters and Catalytic Granular Activated Carbon CGAC made from Bituminous Coal are the most effective means of removing chloramines. The catalytic reduction capacity of all carbon filters is greatly reduced by chloramines as opposed to chlorine. This reduced capacity makes low capacity drinking water carbon filters almost useless for chloramine reduction. CGAC or Chloramine quality carbon block filters followed by RO and DI seems to be the best non-chemical intensive method of treating chloramines. We have put together an array of filters, which we consider to be the best solution for chloramine reduction.




Chloramine Filters


http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/rhf/feature/index.php






r

What about just using good ole distilled water to water the plants instead of messing with the possibilities of whats in the tap water?

This is what I've been leaning towards...or the 5-gallon purified refills at the grocery store for about a buck.