Re: Chloramine ??
Karl Hoover wrote:
> Our municipal authorities, in their questionably copious wisdom, are using
> chloramine, NH2Cl, as the disinfecting agent for the city water. Mind you,
> chloramine is the chlorination by-product, which in tiny concentrations,
> makes chlorinated swimming pools such effective places to simulate the
> consumption of large amounts of gin (judging by the appearance of one's eyes).
>
> My concern is that perhaps some plants I've been having trouble with, some of
> which by most other accounts are dead easy, are much more suspeciptible than
> usual to this toxin.
I don't know if chorlamine is killing your plants, but some of the tropical
rhododendrons I grow (grew) are sensative to it. Since I have a few in pots, I
have been buying purified water at the grocery store. I have seen messages on the
usenet (mostly from aquarium people) that products such as Marchlor and Amquell
work at removing it (from aquarium stores). Marchlor is supposed to leve disolved
amonia behind, and Amquel not. Also, someone recommmended using 1 drop per gallon
of 16% solution of sodium thiosulfate. I also remember someone recommending an
organic method of leaving a barrell of water sit for a week or so, with lots of
decaying organic matter in it. This was somehow supposed to use up the
chloramine. Some people have said that carbon filtration will remove cholramine,
and others have said it will not. I have also seen some people write that
chloramine removal by a filter can cause the filter to need to be replaced often.
I don't know if any of these methods works, or how much truth there is in them.
Perhaps one of the chemists on the list could comment.
