chlorine breakthrough carbon blocks

C

CTaylor

Active member
Is it expected for some total chlorine to be seen in water after passing through both an activated carbon cart and a second carbon block in my RODI? I orig though it should be zero.. but doing some reading I think I'm seeing it's expected to be 0.5 ppm if my tap going in has 3.0 or so. Is that right??

thanks
 
chlorine breakthrough carbon blocks

Unlikely unless you have very old prefilters. Chlorine is easy for carbon to remove.

What usually passes through is chloramines.



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ok.. so there is breakthrough of chloramine. so from it would be normal to detect some even after the double carbon carts (one being catalytic), right? Maybe I should use two catalytics? My chloramines can be 5 ppm. I did look at the data sheet for water in my city, but I think it's actually higher than the 3 ppm they claim (from a year ago I think).
**And is this residual chloramine absorbed by the RO or DI?

thanks!
 
that link so far is a great read... now I see others with my same issue.. Tank falling apart with no apparent cause, coincidentally the tap is very high in chloramines. That's me! lol I'm going to read the whole thing, hopefully today. Thanks for that!
I've talked to someone from another board using the chloramine monster, started using that, so that's in my mix of ideas (which might change as I read that thread)
 
chlorine breakthrough carbon blocks

I had major chloramine breakthrough for 5 years and found the figure out why my corals were dying. I just figured out it was chloramines!!! BRS Chloramine monster is my fix.

January 1st of this year I made it my mission to figure out why my tank was dying and to fix it. Got great feedback and figured it out: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2616894

9d1cf69d61666c83e20a561d2dd0e1c9.jpg



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125, did I message you on r***2r*** .com ? lol. I joined today after I saw a situation similar to yours :) and messaged that person (you)?
**Please tell me what exactly is your water treatment system? I will do it exactly -- after I read that other thread.
It looks like you have your
tap water go to
a sediment filter (the unit on it's own), this goes to your
pressure pump, this goes to your
Monster, this goes to your
other carbon carts? then this goes to your
RO, this goes to your
double DI? out of this is your
product water?

***very funny, I havent yet upgraded to a 120 tank yet 48x24x24 << same as your tank now :) , b/c I havent been able to figure out why my sps kept dying -- in cycles, probably related to changing my carts.

thanks!
 
CTaylor said:
125, did I message you on r***2r*** .com ? lol. I joined today after I saw a situation similar to yours :) and messaged that person (you)?
**Please tell me what exactly is your water treatment system? I will do it exactly -- after I read that other thread.
It looks like you have your
tap water go to
a sediment filter (the unit on it's own), this goes to your
pressure pump, this goes to your
Monster, this goes to your
other carbon carts? then this goes to your
RO, this goes to your
double DI? out of this is your
product water?

***very funny, I havent yet upgraded to a 120 tank yet 48x24x24 << same as your tank now :) , b/c I havent been able to figure out why my sps kept dying -- in cycles, probably related to changing my carts.

thanks!
Click to expand...

I think I have a username on reef2-ref but not really ever on there, thats probably why I didnt see your message.

So I have the following:
- BRS 6 stage w/water saver. This is installed with three universal carbon blocks which specalize in chloramine
- BRS Chloramine Monster. This is installed with the defalt Pentek CRFC20-BB filter
- BRS single canister unit. This is installed with a standard sediment filter
- Booster pump

Got some help from tkeracer619 and a few others from this forums. My stages go like this:

Sediment > Booster Pump > Chloramine Monster > Universal Carbon Block > Universal Carbon Block > Universal Carbon Block > RO > RO > DI > DI

You can swap out the BRS universal carbon blocks for another similar one such as the FX Chloraguard or Pentek Chlorplus... both are suppose to be great at removing chloramines... Ditch the GAC (catalyic carbon). Also, the chloramine monster alone is probably going to prevent any chloramine breakthrough.
 
125mph said:
Also, the chloramine monster alone is probably going to prevent any chloramine breakthrough.
Click to expand...

>> I was reading on a data sheet that the monster has a break through of 0.5 ppm total chlorine with a tap water input of 2-3 ppm. That seems high to me. Is that actually what it is? Because you just suggested it actually has 0 ppm breakthrough. And if it takes out all the chloramine, then is the purpose of the triple carbons just icing on the cake, and not actually "needed"? So you might be just fine with just the monster, even with your tap water?

**Is it better for the booster pump to go after all the carbon blocks? If thats no good, then why do you have it after the sediment filter and not before?

Thanks.. I'm starting to work on my own configuration and try to fit it under my sink still! ... Likely to be just like yours since we have the same chloramine tap water.
 
chlorine breakthrough carbon blocks

The extra carbons are icing. I already had a 6 stage system so might as well use it. If I were to do it all over again I might go with a 4 stage system ...

There should be no breakthrough though!of high chloramine. Something negotiable might pass. Even with the small carts, the breakthrough happens after many gallons. Check out BRS video on testing carbon blocks which shows when they were getting a breakthrough.

I put my booster pump after sediment so the argument takes out the large particles that could damage the booster pump. You can use a strainer instead. BRS also recommended this... the spectra people recommend the booster pump go just before RO (after all the carbon prefilters) . Bucket also said the same. Who knows!!!


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125mph,
have you tested the total chlorine? I"m going to get a hanna low range tester. Hopefully that vid will show the max tolerance for breakthrough.
**if spectrapure says that then it is probably correct. I've read that higher pressure before the carbon cart will decrease its effectiveness. I dont think it would 'drain' the cart before it because it's a pressure pump not a flow pump (?)

**>>>How often do you end up having to change any of your carts?
BTW I have found that I should change out my DI cart as soon as is as any significant color changing i see through the chamber. Even before it hits 1 ppm TDS.

thanks!
 
Logic tells me that if you place the booster after the prefilters, you still get the boosted pressure in the prefilters too... otherwise there would be an air void. So I think the only way to get high contact in the carbon is by turning off the booster pump.

However, the monster is a beast and even with the booster it dies a great job.


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125,
what is your line pressure going into the carbon (if you know), or before the RO? Mine is 50-55 without my pump. I have it at 80 psi with the pump. My ro gets a higher reject rate with it at 80 psi. But I dont want to wear out the carbon carts either. I'll do whatever you do pretty much.
**If there is breakthrough of CH2NH2, is that absorbed by the RO or DI? this might have been answered, sorry... I"m rushing to get out of my apt :)
 
My line pressure going in is probably about 45-50.. without the booster, I get about 40 at the RO. with the booster, I get 80 PSI at the RO.. doing the exact lineup I posted above.
 
125, I like your style lol. I "had to" use 20'' canisters once and it did create some peace of mind. I hope that your current set up serves you well over the long run!
 
Pressure going through the blocks is irrelevant in terms of contact time.

1.5gpm @ 80psi has the same contact time as 1.5gpm @40psi

The only reason I run the booster pump before the carbon block is to minimize any carbon fines that go through it and I don't really like the pulsing the pump produces. The canisters smooth them out.

These carts are rated between 2 and 4gpm. A 75gpd RODI @ 4:1 that actually produces 75gpd is flowing around .25gpm. You have roughly 8 to 16 times the contact time than the charts show. You should not be getting breakthrough at all. I haven't and have been running one for almost 2 years on a 180gpd setup.
 
I'm worried about my RO cart now. I'm assuming it had CL hit it with break through the carbon carts. If that's the case, is my RO no good now, even if it has a decent TDS output? I THINK it could be better... but its at 9 out, with about 180 going in. At one point it was at 3-4 (last week,which I cant figure out why). But it's consistent now at 9. I got it in Sept 2016. Should I throw it out and start all fresh? SOOO much money being spent to fix this, but I want to get rid of any possible bad players in my RO DI.
thanks!
 
It doesn't take long to ruin one with chloramines. Since it doesn't break down the clock starts ticking as soon as you use the unit and doesn't stop until you fix the breakthrough. It could very well be trash. If you replace it get the spectrapure 99% membrane. I have dual 99% and with 250 in I get 1 out of the membrane. DI money saver!
 
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