Carbon Filter Revisited

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 3:53 pm

I'm time limited at this point. I have all the parts, I just need to hook the finished product up. My job is working me 12 hour days 6 days a week for the next 3 weeks.

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:44 pm

badflash wrote:I'm time limited at this point. I have all the parts, I just need to hook the finished product up. My job is working me 12 hour days 6 days a week for the next 3 weeks.

understandable ,
i am on the same boat

everything is here but no spare time to do it.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 1:05 pm

OK, my system is on line and so far is 100% positive.
The final system is a pre-filter and 2 carbon block filters. The 1st block is designed specifically for chloramines. The flow out of the drip system is 1 gallon per hour. I'm using a 1 GPH drip emitter for irrigation to control the flow. The filters are supposed to be good for 15000 gallons, so this should be 4 years or so a 1 gallon per hour.

The tests shows 0 chlorine, choloramine and ammonia. I can't explain the ammonia and will test again later.

The drip goes into a 30 gallon rubbermaid garbage can. I drilled it and put in a bulkhead connector and the overflow goes to my 300 gallon pond. This allows me to use the can for water changes as I have a pump and a 50' hose hooped to it in the can.

Newjohn · Post by **Newjohn** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 3:53 pm

The irrigation emitters are a great things.
They also work for regulating the air for sponge filters.

John

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:01 pm

Sounds great badflash, please keep us informed about the system. Some of us might want to upgrade in the future.

Post by **Mustafa** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:17 am

badflash wrote: The tests shows 0 chlorine, choloramine and ammonia. I can't explain the ammonia and will test again later.

Are you testing the water in your storage container or the water that comes directly out of the carbon filter hose? I'm just asking because your storage container, if it has been around for a while, is probably cycled with nitrifying bacteria that will almost immediately turn the ammonia into nitrate. Another possibility is that the chloramine molecules might actually get "stuck" to the carbon without being broken apart into chlorine and ammonia. Either way, I would not worry to much about the ammonia if your water changes are not huge (i.e. 40% and up).

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 2:15 am

The water came directly from the filter. There seems to be other problems with the water though that I have been unable to diagnose. Even though there was nothing detectible in the water, the tanks I added the water too had serious issues and one grow-out tank for my albino clarkii lost its cycle. I lost most of the young in that tank.

I've discontinued the experiment until I can fighure this out.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 4:33 pm

I have just put a Poly-Bio-Marine Kold Ster-Il in service. So far, so good. My tap water tests out at 1 ppm chloramine going in, 0 ppm going out. It also test 0 for nitrates, nitrites, phosphates and copper. Flow rate is 3 GPM +, so this is pretty much garden hose flow rates. Startup cost is $335, a bit steep.

To test I set up a 2.5 gallon tank with a cycled filter and added the water straight from the filter. I added some snails, a couple of cajun dwarfs and a few scuds, and a bunch of copepods. After 1 hour all is well. I'll give it a few days and report back.

Replacement filters are rated at 5000 gallons and run around $70. That is around 1.4 cents a gallon. More than what a water conditioner runs, but it does not leave the bound chemicals in the water. The true test will be if I can raise daphnia again. I have not been able to raise any since the town switched to chloramines.

Newjohn · Post by **Newjohn** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 5:01 pm

Poly-Bio-Marine Kold Ster-Il

Now that is a mouth full.

Is this a R/O filter ? or just a High Tech Cartridge Filter ?

John

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 6:02 pm

It is a high tech cartrige filter. It has 3 stages. A pre-filter, a Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) filter, resin for heavy metal removal. They also change colors as they get used up, so you can see when you need to change them.

I'm using about 90 gallons a week, so a 5000 gallon filter should last me about a year. That works out to about $1.50 a week.

The critters in the test tanks are still doing OK.

Newjohn · Post by **Newjohn** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 6:31 pm

It is good to hear that the critters are still doing fine.

This will be good information for Hobbyist that have the dreaded
Chloramines in there water.

That works out to about $1.50 a week.

Not a bad price, for the safety of your critters.

John

Cactus Bastard · Post by **Cactus Bastard** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 5:07 pm

Do you have any theories about what was going wrong with your original setup?

Perhaps the filter that was supposed to be removing the chloramine was not doing it's job? If your well water has high levels of iron, maybe the filter was "too busy" getting rid of the iron to completely remove the chloramines? Maybe the chemical process involved an intermediate step; that could explain why you tested negative for chloramines, yet also ammonia? Or do you think there was something else altogether being leached into your water?

I hope your Poly-Bio-Marine Kold Ster-Il works well for you, but I really liked the cost efficiency of your original filtration system.
I've been collecting the parts for a similar setup, so I'll be performing some experiments of my own once I've got a couple more tanks setup.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:22 pm

It was town water & no iron. The water tested 0 for chlorine, chloramines, and ammonia, but I did not test for other stuff. That may have been what did them in. 24 hours now and my test tank is working fine.

Post by **Mustafa** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:31 pm

badflash wrote: The true test will be if I can raise daphnia again. I have not been able to raise any since the town switched to chloramines.

I'm pretty sure chloramines in the water don't have anything to do with the ability to raise daphnia. So, that may not be a good test of anything really. There might be something else in your water that affects them. I raise daphnia without a problem here in San Diego (Daphnia magna). I just fill up a bucket with tap water, use Prime to dechlor the water and throw the daphnia in there a few minutes later. They thrive and reproduce without a problem and we have chloramines in our tap water.

When I was in New York City the lack of minerals and the presence of sodium hydroxide and 2+ ppm of phosphate in our tap water was much more of a problem. It was a miracle that I raised any shrimp at all in that kind of water.

Having said that, NYC water is the extreme exception and not the rule. The vast majority of tap water sources out there should be more than sufficient to raise shrimp (and daphnia) once the water is dechlorinated and tank has been cycled and "seasoned."

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 4:20 am

I agree with you about it not being chloramines, but what ever it is, Amquel+ and Prime do not take it out to the point that I can raise any species of daphnia or moina. I had no issues before the switch. The switch here was not a simple change of chemicals. They put in a new water supply from Poughkeepsie. Prior to this we used wells from along the Wappingers Creek.

I am sure there is something besides chloramines at cause here as I have been unable to detect chloramines with either filter. The new filter has more capability to remove other things like hydrocarbons, so it may make a difference. After 2 days the crays and scuds are doing fine and last night I did a 10% water change on the 300 gallon pool. All looks good so far.

As you pointed out, conditioning products bind, they do not remove. The filter removes contaminants. I'm hoping that what ever it takes out will allow me to grow daphnia from aged water again.