I've been an aquarium hobbyist for nearly two decades.... I deal with chloramines on a hate-hate basis every single day.
Chloramine is basically chlorine and ammonia bonded together.... Forgive me, I don't have much of a chemistry background to offer much beyond that. Anyhow, for fish, this means a LOT more badness than just simple chlorine. Chlorine will evaporate from water. A tub of water set out to aerate will lose its chlorine in a day or so. But chloramine does not evaporate. Worse, when you use a chemical (like "Prime", "Stress Coat", etc.) to break the chloramine bond to make it safe with your fish, you end up with free ammonia in the water! That's as bad as chloramine! So we have to use yet another chemical to neutralize that, or "age" the water in a large tub where you've already got a colony of nitrifying bacteria established....
A nightmare!
The fix? A good quality reverse osmosis unit, like those from http://www.airwaterice.com . I think airwaterice has a "whole house" unit, which would "fix" this problem with your showers, as well. The downside is that a whole house RO unit is exorbitantly expensive, and the "waste" water from it would be immense. So if you're conscious about not "wasting" water, this route might not please yah. On a many-fish-tank level, this is the only "right" or "best" way to go, but then we only need just a little unit to give us some fifty or hundred gallons per day, once every week.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 05:38 pm (UTC)I've been an aquarium hobbyist for nearly two decades.... I deal with chloramines on a hate-hate basis every single day.
Chloramine is basically chlorine and ammonia bonded together.... Forgive me, I don't have much of a chemistry background to offer much beyond that. Anyhow, for fish, this means a LOT more badness than just simple chlorine. Chlorine will evaporate from water. A tub of water set out to aerate will lose its chlorine in a day or so. But chloramine does not evaporate. Worse, when you use a chemical (like "Prime", "Stress Coat", etc.) to break the chloramine bond to make it safe with your fish, you end up with free ammonia in the water! That's as bad as chloramine! So we have to use yet another chemical to neutralize that, or "age" the water in a large tub where you've already got a colony of nitrifying bacteria established....
A nightmare!
The fix? A good quality reverse osmosis unit, like those from http://www.airwaterice.com . I think airwaterice has a "whole house" unit, which would "fix" this problem with your showers, as well. The downside is that a whole house RO unit is exorbitantly expensive, and the "waste" water from it would be immense. So if you're conscious about not "wasting" water, this route might not please yah. On a many-fish-tank level, this is the only "right" or "best" way to go, but then we only need just a little unit to give us some fifty or hundred gallons per day, once every week.