Chloramines

[rubyduby]

Hi everyone...Been a long time. Actually I think it was three hurricanes ago...I've had a lot of challenges but seem to remain upright (most of the time) Anyway, here is my dilemma:
My pond used to be vibrant. All of my plants did really well. About nine months ago my water company started using chloramines instead of just chlorine in the system. I added a Boogie Blue Plus to my auto-fill hose but I did not notice a change. Tomorrow I am having a carbon filter installed professionally to take out all of the chloramines. Has anyone else noticed a difference in their pond health since the change? (I have heard that most of Florida has switched to chloramines)

 

[j.w]

Sad that happened! Glad I have my own well.
Good to see you back

 

[Mmathis]

I started my first pond a little over 10 years ago. I barely knew the basics…….and had never heard of chloramines. Then I bought and quarantined some nicer goldfish. I couldn’t keep the ammonia levels down in the QT, and I couldn’t understand WHY they stayed so consistently high. I had a mature filter and was doing frequent water changes……... So I retested my source water for more than just chlorine . After that I kept a filter on the faucet I used for the pond. Actually, I never had a problem in the POND itself (large water volume and low fish count), and probably wouldn’t have noticed the difference in the water until my water-to-fish ratio changed in the QT. Filters do help to filter out the chloramines!

 

[SarahT]

Hi everyone...Been a long time. Actually I think it was three hurricanes ago...I've had a lot of challenges but seem to remain upright (most of the time) Anyway, here is my dilemma:
My pond used to be vibrant. All of my plants did really well. About nine months ago my water company started using chloramines instead of just chlorine in the system. I added a Boogie Blue Plus to my auto-fill hose but I did not notice a change. Tomorrow I am having a carbon filter installed professionally to take out all of the chloramines. Has anyone else noticed a difference in their pond health since the change? (I have heard that most of Florida has switched to chloramines)

SO GOOD to see you back. Dang hurricanes. My town is usually chloramines, but I think they sometimes switch to chlorine (why? the ways of government are mysterious!) for a short period of time. I don't keep track closely enough to track any difference; I've always thought any worsening was due to me being a slacker and/or Florida heat and/or hurricanes. I'll start keeping a better eye on it and see.

 

[Phaewryn]

Seachem Prime will solve that. You can use it as often as necessary but it should only be necessary every time you top off the water.
https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-Prime-Fresh-Saltwater-Conditioner/dp/B0002568S6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1

 

[hammer]

try to harvest rain water, it's worth it to put a cistern in if you have the space and they can be simple, a 24" diameter pipe 20 or 30 feet long and cap both ends. you can use a float on a pump to fill your water feature from that. upfront cost is high for the pipe and digging the hole but still cheaper than a well and you're not running a big well pump..... 20' of 2' diameter pipe is about 465 gallons of water.

For every 100 square feet of roof nets 60 gallons of water per inch of rain. I capture 800 square feet and rain here is typically 1/2 inch a storm, so i get about 480 gallons per rain event and it's sent via canals to into my stream that feeds my pond. The design I have allows me to slowly release the roof water into the canals and streams by not using gutters on the roof and instead i built basins beneath the eve.

Gutters are a real problem to deal with because they are what is consider 'point source'. They are canals on the edge of the roof, sent to at least a 10' vertical drop accelerating the volume of water generating high volume and high velocity and the stone required to dissipate that energy is outlandish. I have a couple valleys on my roof but they hit a porch roof and it helps dissipate that energy before falling as a sheet of water into my basins. those basins are 100' away from the pond which filters the 1st flush of roof water through river cobble and aerates by cascading over 2 sets of falls.

I do top off with city water, I don't have plants or fish, but it definitely impacts the bead filter and water properties. city water sucks, I wish I had a well. our subzero fridge has a very nice cartridge filter on it and as a double bonus the water storage area is cooled so we get filtered and cold water from it lol. City water sucks.