# How long does Chloramine take to evaporate from the water?



## Merriallynchian (Apr 25, 2017)

How long does Chloramine take to evaporate from the water?

ON Wikipedia it said " Chloramine, like chlorine, can be removed by boiling and aging. However, time required to remove chloramine is much longer than that of chlorine. The time required to remove half of the chloramine (half-life) from 10 gallons of water by boiling is 26.6 hours, whereas the half-life of free chlorine in boiling 10 gallons of water is only 1.8 hours.[25]" 

Ok this is nice to know but the water will not be boiling water reservoir for the ATO system or when it goes in the fish tank. 

Some people have said days, other weeks, others months, other say undetermined.

Has anyone found any real information about how long it takes to remove these chlormines? 

Thanks.


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## jantruter (Dec 5, 2016)

I dont have a definate answer for you but in a 1000l storage tank with 2 airstones it takes 3 days at room temp for all traces of chlorine and chloramine to dissapear hope that helps.

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## Merriallynchian (Apr 25, 2017)

jantruter said:


> I dont have a definate answer for you but in a 1000l storage tank with 2 airstones it takes 3 days at room temp for all traces of chlorine and chloramine to dissapear hope that helps.
> 
> Sent from my LG-H870 using Tapatalk


I think the water utility usually puts either chlorine or chloramines but not both?


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## jantruter (Dec 5, 2016)

Im in South Africa and our municipality is not the most trustworty they use whatever is cheapest at the time sometimes the water smells like bleach and other times it comes out the tap yellow so you never know what to expect from them that is why I use 1000L tanks to pre treat my water before it gets anywhere near my fish 
Citric acid also works nicely for removing chlorine and chloramine but using that you need to get your ph in line with what you want, so I dont use it unless its an emergency. #thirdworldproblems

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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I would advise against relaying on evaporation of Chloramine as a way to remove it. If this is for an​ automated water top up or changer the best way to go about things is by filtering the water through special carbon or automatically dosing a dechlorinator. Relying on evaporation would most likely prove risky since concentrations vary thought the year usually.

If you really want to find out you could always but a super low concentration total chlorine test kit and do some tests on your own.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Dman911 (Nov 24, 2016)

I feel if its an auto top off the amount of chlorine/chloramine is negligible. How many people treat the water they top their tanks off with? I don't know anyone who will treat a gallon or 2 going into an aquarium to top off the water. This of course is relative to the size of aquarium but so is evaporation. The amount of water used to top off a tank due to evaporation does not even remotely come close to enough chlorine/chloramine to be of any concern whatsoever. You can find the concentration from your local water supply report and then calculate the amount of water per day or week based on water removed from you ATO then take that amount and divide by the ratio of tank water to introduced water. 50 gal tank say 2 gal used in auto top off a week gives you a 25 to1 ratio. take the numbers from your water report and do the math. That's my opinion but I think sometimes people are over cautious which is a good thing but some thing need to be taken with a grain of salt and this is one of those things.

Dan


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Dman911 said:


> I feel if its an auto top off the amount of chlorine/chloramine is negligible. How many people treat the water they top their tanks off with? I don't know anyone who will treat a gallon or 2 going into an aquarium to top off the water. This of course is relative to the size of aquarium but so is evaporation. The amount of water used to top off a tank due to evaporation does not even remotely come close to enough chlorine/chloramine to be of any concern whatsoever. You can find the concentration from your local water supply report and then calculate the amount of water per day or week based on water removed from you ATO then take that amount and divide by the ratio of tank water to introduced water. 50 gal tank say 2 gal used in auto top off a week gives you a 25 to1 ratio. take the numbers from your water report and do the math. That's my opinion but I think sometimes people are over cautious which is a good thing but some thing need to be taken with a grain of salt and this is one of those things.
> 
> Dan


I think you'd be surprised how low of a concentration of Chloramine is considered bad. I dechlorinate even a cup of water if I'm topping up. Here's a really good article about the concentrations and how they impact salt water fish: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/rhf/feature/. There's no reason for freshwater fish to be any less sensitive. Not dechlorinating, especially when dealing with Chloramine is just cruel to the fish.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Dman911 (Nov 24, 2016)

Harry Muscle said:


> I think you'd be surprised how low of a concentration of Chloramine is considered bad. I dechlorinate even a cup of water if I'm topping up. Here's a really good article about the concentrations and how they impact salt water fish: Chloramine and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com. There's no reason for freshwater fish to be any less sensitive. Not dechlorinating, especially when dealing with Chloramine is just cruel to the fish.
> 
> Thanks,
> Harry


There is absolutely a big difference between the sensitivity in general between saltwater and freshwater fish. We are talking auto top off here using a regulated water source not super high concentrations to begin with and then diluted massively by the ratio of tank water to top off water... Sorry but I totally disagree here.

Dan


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

I'm with Dan on this one. For the small amount being added, the concentrations aren't high enough to matter on an established tank. 

I know you're supposed to top off with RO to avoid increasing GH/KH, but since my evaporation is so low, I only have to top off once between water changes. I used to treat top off water at work, but I stopped over a year ago... And my CRS are still thriving in that tank.


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