Ammonium in tap water

[Subarody]

Hello reef chemistry masters,

I started a 29g about a month ago which is currently cycling and I also started a 10 gallon quarantine tank. I was planning on adding 2 clowns to the quarantine and managing ammonia/nitrites/nitrates with frequent small water changes in addition to the foam/matrix media of the aqua clear 20 filter with a boost from Seachem Stability bacteria.

Here's the problem, I noticed my ammonia alert badge was in the alert stage from the beginning and I tested for ammonia using the Fluval mini master test kit I picked up to start. It showed about 0.6-1.2 ppm of ammonia. I completed a 100% water change a couple days ago and ammonia tested at 2.4ppm today. I used a batch of mixed up saltwater with a heater and pump from a new (and cleaned) Brute trash can. Thought I should test the brute trash can and sure enough ammonia tested for 1.2 ppm. I tested the tap water I used to mix and it also read 1.2ppm.

Where do I go from here??

Ideas I've had:
1. Dose Seachem prime every water change to dechlorinate and detoxify ammonia for 24-48 hours before cycled tank bacteria remove the ammonia. This doesn't help my QT which isn't cycled and doesn't ammonia convert into nitrite and then nitrate which will rise faster due to the increased ammonia load from the newly introduced water leading to more frequent water changes.
2. Buy rodi from my LFS - I haven't tested their water for ammonia but I'm assuming it's free from contaminants.
3. Buy my own RODI unit - not really in the tank budget at this point but likely one of my next big purchases. Does RODI actually remove ammonia or will that get through. I watched a BRS video on that subject that suggested specific media will remove ammonia but not an RODI unit will do it. I'm very unfamiliar with the media available and set up of RODI.
4. ???

Any thought you have on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Opus]

The DI will remove the ammonia. Before you get a RODI unit, you should get a water quality report from your water supplier, should be on their website, this of course is assuming you are not on well water. That will tell you what is in your water and more importantly, are they using chlorine or chloramines to treat the water. That will dictate the prefilters you use on your RODI unit.

You could look into getting poly-filters to help with absorbing the ammonia. They are my favorite filter media and I've been using them for 20+ years.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

What you are seeing is chloramines which shows up as ammonia on a ammonia test kit. If you buy water from your LFS test for ammonia. Another option is to buy distilled water

 

[Subarody]

Poly filters...interesting. Regarding chloramines this was taken from my city website about addition of ammoni
Ammonia - Ammonium Hydroxide - is used to combine with chlorine to form “Chloramine”. Chloramine maintains its disinfecting properties for a longer time than does free chlorine. This is particularly useful for long distribution mains and large storage reservoirs. The dosage of ammonia added to the water is 0.5mg/L to 1.0mg/L. The resulting concentration of chloramine in the treated water ranges from 1.8mg/L to 2.2mg/L. The use of this chemical is necessary to produce potable quality water.

Here is a water quality report from the city also found from their website:

https://www.lethbridge.ca/living-here/water-wastewater/Documents/12.%20WQS%20December%202019.pdf

Any more thoughts based on the water quality information? I see chloramines present which I assume relates to the ammonia I’m seeing. I have a tds meter and I read 200ppm from the tap which is consistent with the report.

 

[Opus]

If you end up buying a RODI system, you will best be served by getting one with a chloramine specific prefilter. The normal carbon blocks will break down chloramines but the chloramine specific ones do a better job. The prefilter breaks chloramine back down to ammonia which the DI will remove. A good RO membrane should get the tds down to 4 and then the DI will easily get it to 0.

 

[Subarody]

If you end up buying a RODI system, you will best be served by getting one with a chloramine specific prefilter. The normal carbon blocks will break down chloramines but the chloramine specific ones do a better job. The prefilter breaks chloramine back down to ammonia which the DI will remove. A good RO membrane should get the tds down to 4 and then the DI will easily get it to 0.

Thanks for the replies. Is there a good brand of RODI to look at? Two that are readily available are the spectrpure or aqua-fx.

would this work?

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[Opus]

Spectrapure is a good brand. I've never dealt with aquafx. If you are in a more populated area, you might be able to find a good deal on a used one. The housing is all generic. It is the filters you use that make the difference. You can get a good RO membrane for $40, the sediment filter for around $8 and the carbon filters will cost up to $15 or so depending on what you need. The chloramine ones cost more than the normal. Di refills run around $15. All those are USD prices. The RO membrane should last 5+ years if you don't have super high tds water which you don't. My tap tds is around 450 and it is 4 after my spectrapure RO membrane.

One other thing it is good to know is your water pressure. In the low 40s is as low as you want to go with closer to 80psi being ideal. If it is too low your system will not be as efficient and you might need a booster pump. My psi is around 60 and I still invested in a booster pump. Being in Canada your water will be a lot colder which should help with efficiency but will slow down production. I'm in Texas and in the summers I can fill up a 5gal jug in about an hour. In the winter it takes an hour and twenty minutes.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There are other reasons to avoid tap water besides chloramine. Copper is a big one, IMO.

 

[Subarody]

Thanks for the replies. Certainly many reasons to switch to RODI. Now I need to figure out how to convince my wife the RODI is necessary now instead of a year down the road

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks for the replies. Certainly many reasons to switch to RODI. Now I need to figure out how to convince my wife the RODI is necessary now instead of a year down the road

Certainly, that's always an issue. lol

Happy Reefing.

 

[Subarody]

Certainly, that's always an issue. lol

Happy Reefing.

It went well when I told her, haha "I knew I should have never let you start this tank" eyes rolling.

In any case I'm considering that 5 stage spectrapure with chloramine filter. Is this the best thread/forum to continue a discussion about RODI set up, waste water management, possibility of using water after the RO part for drinking water, etc or is the a better place for that discussion?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It went well when I told her, haha "I knew I should have never let you start this tank" eyes rolling.

In any case I'm considering that 5 stage spectrapure with chloramine filter. Is this the best thread/forum to continue a discussion about RODI set up, waste water management, possibility of using water after the RO part for drinking water, etc or is the a better place for that discussion?

THis location is fine.

FWIW, here's my RO/DI article and chloramine article that discuss some of these issues:

Chloramine and the Reef Aquarium - Reefkeeping.com

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

Reverse Osmosis/Deionization Systems to Purify Tap Water for Reef Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/rhf/index.htm

 

[Subarody]

Great articles! Thanks for the links. Is a manual flush on the RODI unit important? I'm thinking of getting the one linked earlier in the thread to deal with chloramines but it doesn't have a flush kit installed. I figure I can add the manual flush kit later if needed, or even additional stages. As I only have a 29 gallon (for now) I won't produce huge amounts of RODI water regularly. Is it better on the filters to fill a 30 gallon brute can and use that until empty or keep producing small amounts regularly? 4:1 waste:RODI water seems like a typical ratio. Is there a way to improve that without compromising filter life/function or is that unit/filter combination specific as I've seen some expensive units that claim 2:1 or even 1:1 ratios?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

In 20 years I never flushed my ro/di, but it may be more useful with harder water than I have. There is no magic way to reduce waste ratio, but there are ways to do it with specialized systems. Whether to consider it may depend on how limited water is in your community.