Hmm, been reading about Chloramines.
I guess first up I can confirm that my water company (Bristol Water) do NOT chloraminate their water, and so therefore I do not see the use of paying for dechlorinating products when I can evaporate the chlorine (but please if there are other things, I AM interested). It took me a 2 minute phone call to find that out, plus they are sending me a water chemistry report so I can assess other chemicals. You might wish to replicate my call if you use tap water whether treated or not.
From what I can gather, Chloramines are produced by adding Chlorine and Ammonia to water. It has the benefit of producing less toxic biproducts when it disinfects. It is not as good at killing virii or bacteria as free Chlorine, so what happens is Chlorine is added to drinking water to disinfect it, then Ammonia is added to convert it to Chloramine. So, it's not so effective at killing your bacterial as Chlorine, and if you have chloraminated tap water, your free Chlorine concentrations are likely to be lower.
Methods of treatment:
1. Distillation does not work effectively.
2. Reverse Osmosis (RO) is not well documented, but early results show it is next to useless for monochloramine (the kind we predominantly find in tap water) when using HR (CA) membranes. PA RO systems are thought to remove more, but Chloramines have a significantly lower oxidative potential than Hypochlorite or the hypochloride ion so they are going to be filtered out less than Chlorine would be. THF membranes have a tighter pore structure so should remove more (up to 90% in R&D lab conditions), but the exposure of THF RO membranes to chloramines in higher concentrations than 3ppm has not been explored that I can find and may damage the membrane. So for those using RO water, do you know if there are chloramines in the source, and do you know which mebrane they are using
3. The best non chemical intensive way of removing Chloramines from water by far, is by exposure to activated carbon. The finer the GAC particles the better. So were one to have chloraminated water whacking a fluval with a carbon filter in your resevoir tank/bucket is a good option.
4. Chemically. There are 2 options here, Sodium Thiosulphate and Hydroxymethanesulphonate. The former has the potential to screw with your pH. The latter (used in Amquel and possibly Ammo-Lock 2) doesn't seem to. I have not found a lot of solid info on the effects of the resulting biproducts or unused reagents, but there are questions here particluarly for fry, eggs, and larvae. Breeders beware. How a dechlor manufacturer knows how much of a reactant to put in to get rid of sufficient volumes of chlorine and chloramine, without knowing the water source, is clear: putting in loads of stuff to get rid of it at almost any acceptable level.
I will not be using dechlorinator in my local water supply, based on the info I have at present, but like I said if there are other factors at work I would very much like to investigate on our collective behalves.
Useful further reading/some sources:
http
/www.gewater.com/library/tp/813_Chloramines_.jsp
http/www.show.scot.nhs.uk/scieh/environm...Chloramines.pdf
http/ukdiscus.co.uk/chloramines.htm
I guess first up I can confirm that my water company (Bristol Water) do NOT chloraminate their water, and so therefore I do not see the use of paying for dechlorinating products when I can evaporate the chlorine (but please if there are other things, I AM interested). It took me a 2 minute phone call to find that out, plus they are sending me a water chemistry report so I can assess other chemicals. You might wish to replicate my call if you use tap water whether treated or not.
From what I can gather, Chloramines are produced by adding Chlorine and Ammonia to water. It has the benefit of producing less toxic biproducts when it disinfects. It is not as good at killing virii or bacteria as free Chlorine, so what happens is Chlorine is added to drinking water to disinfect it, then Ammonia is added to convert it to Chloramine. So, it's not so effective at killing your bacterial as Chlorine, and if you have chloraminated tap water, your free Chlorine concentrations are likely to be lower.
Methods of treatment:
1. Distillation does not work effectively.
2. Reverse Osmosis (RO) is not well documented, but early results show it is next to useless for monochloramine (the kind we predominantly find in tap water) when using HR (CA) membranes. PA RO systems are thought to remove more, but Chloramines have a significantly lower oxidative potential than Hypochlorite or the hypochloride ion so they are going to be filtered out less than Chlorine would be. THF membranes have a tighter pore structure so should remove more (up to 90% in R&D lab conditions), but the exposure of THF RO membranes to chloramines in higher concentrations than 3ppm has not been explored that I can find and may damage the membrane. So for those using RO water, do you know if there are chloramines in the source, and do you know which mebrane they are using
3. The best non chemical intensive way of removing Chloramines from water by far, is by exposure to activated carbon. The finer the GAC particles the better. So were one to have chloraminated water whacking a fluval with a carbon filter in your resevoir tank/bucket is a good option.
4. Chemically. There are 2 options here, Sodium Thiosulphate and Hydroxymethanesulphonate. The former has the potential to screw with your pH. The latter (used in Amquel and possibly Ammo-Lock 2) doesn't seem to. I have not found a lot of solid info on the effects of the resulting biproducts or unused reagents, but there are questions here particluarly for fry, eggs, and larvae. Breeders beware. How a dechlor manufacturer knows how much of a reactant to put in to get rid of sufficient volumes of chlorine and chloramine, without knowing the water source, is clear: putting in loads of stuff to get rid of it at almost any acceptable level.
I will not be using dechlorinator in my local water supply, based on the info I have at present, but like I said if there are other factors at work I would very much like to investigate on our collective behalves.
Useful further reading/some sources:
http
/www.gewater.com/library/tp/813_Chloramines_.jsphttp
/www.show.scot.nhs.uk/scieh/environm...Chloramines.pdfhttp
/ukdiscus.co.uk/chloramines.htm
Tastes right queer. Apparently good for you but I just don't want to armour plate me arteries...thank you! 
