Powerflush Of Central Heating System

[fry_lover]

I had a "powerflush" of the central heating system in my flat a few days ago, where chemicals go into the combination boiler and circulate around the central heating sysem to clean out any sludge build up and other cr*p, it's supposed to make the central heating more efficient and generally gives the boiler a clean out. My landlord got it arranged after it was recommended by the boiler manufacturer.

It has made a nice difference to the speed at which the water comes out of the taps (faster now)

But........

For the last 24hrs now i have readings of about 0.25 nitrite in the tap-water, i check every month or so just out of curiosity and never any nitrite reading.

Ammonia is the same as always, just below 0.1 mg/l (i have chloramine in the tap water) and nitrate is the same (about 10-15 mg/l), pH is also the same (about 7.8)

Is it just a coincidence, or is the work on the boiler possibly to blame for nitrite suddenly appearing?

I can't imagine it affecting the quality of the water from the mains, but then again, how comes the water comes out the taps faster now?

I am confused.....

 

[rhostog]

Interesting post - I've got this procedure booked in for our system later this year, and was wondering if it might cause any problems for the fish. Does the cold water supply you're using to fill the tank actually come straight from the mains, not via a cold water tank in the loft? Are you using a mixer tap - perhaps some water from the hot water system is getting mixed in with your water? With a combi boiler, I guess you don't have a hot water tank like we do - I don't use water from the hot tap because I know there's muck in the hot water system, so when I'm doing a water change, I add water from the kettle to bring the temperature up.

Like you, we've got chloramines in the tap water, but I never have any ammonia reading - but we do have a nitrite reading from the tapwater. I do small frequent water changes to minimise the effect on the fish. Have you looked at the published data for your water supply - it should be available on the internet, and might show whether your water company think your tapwater should contain ammonia and/or nitrites. It might just be coincidence I guess if they've done something to the water since you last tested?

If it is just stuff stirred up by the flush, hopefully it will settle down again in a day or two.

I'd be really interested if you manage to find out what's going on - please let me know if you find a solution!

 

[fry_lover]

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

No mixer tap and the cold water comes direct from mains.

The most recent report i can get from my water company is 2007 and the Nitrite MAX during the yearly samples was 0.2 and the average was something like 0.02 (basically nothing really, would come up as 0.0 on most test kits)

I hope it settles down in a day or two, i read your thread on nitrites in tap-water, have you checked your water company's stats? What did it say for annual nitrite average, most of the UK seems to be about 0.02 or 0.03 i think (which i dont have a problem with)

I will let you know of anything i find out!

 

[rhostog]

...
I hope it settles down in a day or two, i read your thread on nitrites in tap-water, have you checked your water company's stats? What did it say for annual nitrite average, most of the UK seems to be about 0.02 or 0.03 i think (which i dont have a problem with)

Yes - my water company admit that my local supply contains an average of 0.1 nitrite and a max of 0.2. My own readings on the tapwater seem to be about 0.2, but those shades of pink on my Nutrafin test aren't easy to distinguish and I think I'm probably over-cautious - it could well be 0.1. Could be your supply is hitting its yearly max - no obvious reason for it - they usually blame too much or too little rain...

Hope it sorts itself out soon. I'll be testing frantically when my heating system gets done!

 

[fry_lover]

Ok it's now 4 days after i had the treatment on my boiler and my Nitrite level from the tap is still coming out in the 0.25 region.

I have phoned the Powerflush company and they are getting back to me Monday

I have phoned Thames Water and somenoe from the water quality department will phone me on Mon or Tue.

I am aware the legal limit in tapwater is 0.5, but i've never had anything above 0.0 (on a test kit before), expect one day over a year ago when it got to about 0.2 then back to undeteactable the next day.

Just had a thought, my folks live up the road, maybe i should test their tapwater, see if i get 0.25 there?

EDIT: my parents tap-water is also coming out at 0.25 as well, so it must be the general level in the area rigt now. I know its not life threatening to my fish, but i'm not happy about it

 

[CLOSSIE]

Hi chaps, just thought I would share my wisdom (if I ever had any)
Your central heating and tap water supply work off different sets of pipes. Having your central heating system flushed should therefore have absolutley no effect on water flow rates out of your hot and cold taps. Now! I would suggest that perhaps the engineer turned the mains water supply off to do the flush and when he turned it back on he opened the mains a little more giving you increased pressure......as for the increase in nitrates-----I have no wisdom for that one. Good luck

 

[fry_lover]

Hi chaps, just thought I would share my wisdom (if I ever had any)
Your central heating and tap water supply work off different sets of pipes. Having your central heating system flushed should therefore have absolutley no effect on water flow rates out of your hot and cold taps. Now! I would suggest that perhaps the engineer turned the mains water supply off to do the flush and when he turned it back on he opened the mains a little more giving you increased pressure......as for the increase in nitrates-----I have no wisdom for that one. Good luck

Thanks for the feedback, yeh i have established the work they did has nothing to do with the water from mains (in terms of nitrite), i was just being a little paranoid!

My tap-water still has 0.25 (ish) nitrite and i have two seperate concerns/complaints logged with my water company, they are writing to me apparently.

 

[rhostog]

Hi fry_lover - sorry to hear you're still getting nitrite problems. I really sympathise!

If it's something you need to live with, the advice I was given seems to work. I do 10% water changes twice a week - you might get away with less, as my tank is still quite new and I have very messy platys and lots of plants which shed bits of leaf. The filter will cope with the small amounts of nitrites being added from the tapwater, though I've found it's much slower than I expected - that last little faint trace still takes 2 or 3 days to clear. Large water changes are best avoided if possible. It will be interesting to see what the Thames Water person says, though I wouldn't be optimistic based on my experiences with Anglian Water... but perhaps they can explain why the water has changed and whether it's a temporary blip or long-term change. Good luck!

 

[fry_lover]

Hi fry_lover - sorry to hear you're still getting nitrite problems. I really sympathise!

If it's something you need to live with, the advice I was given seems to work. I do 10% water changes twice a week - you might get away with less, as my tank is still quite new and I have very messy platys and lots of plants which shed bits of leaf. The filter will cope with the small amounts of nitrites being added from the tapwater, though I've found it's much slower than I expected - that last little faint trace still takes 2 or 3 days to clear. Large water changes are best avoided if possible. It will be interesting to see what the Thames Water person says, though I wouldn't be optimistic based on my experiences with Anglian Water... but perhaps they can explain why the water has changed and whether it's a temporary blip or long-term change. Good luck!

Thank you, i actually did a 50% water change on my small fry tank today (Convicts), as the tap water was reading 0.25 mg/l i wasn't overly concerned with the effect a 50% change would have on the convicts as there is a very mature (but small, fluval 1) filter in there.

The fry tank was 0.0 nitrite reading before the water change, and one hour after the 50% water change with water reading 0.25 nitrite it was right down to 0.0 like before when i tested it, so possibly the tapwater isn't as high as 0.25... but saying that i've also left filters off by accident overnight in bigger tanks, had about 0.25 or slightly higher the next morning in nitrite, turned filters back on and within an hour or two nitrite gone back to 0.0

I think very mature filters deal with small amount of nitrite very quickly actually, or they do in my experience

Thanks for your support with this anyway!

 

[rhostog]

You give me hope - one day my filter WILL be mature enough to chomp through that nitrite in hours rather than days! I thought after nearly 4 months, it should be doing better than this; I've had no problems at all with ammonia, even after adding fish or very messy gravel-vacs (helpful daughter!), so don't think there's anything wrong, just have to give it time... Until then, I guess I'll just have to keep up with the small water changes... oh well, the garden gets well watered...

Good luck with the water authority!

 

[peter22UK]

if your hot water comes straight through the heatings system then quite possibly!