My tap water is sanitized with chloramine. I wanted to experiment and see how I could eliminate chlorine/chloramine from my municipal tap water.
I purchased a bottle of 25 test strips intended for home aquarium use. The product used was Lifegard brand Chlorine/Chloramine Test Strips from Pentair Aquatics. $17.99 retail, Part Number R440006
Chlorine/Chloramine Test Strips
Simple to use. Dip a strip in you water sample for 2 seconds, remove and wait ten seconds. Presence of chlorine/chloramine (test does not make a distinction) turns the test strip a progressively darker purple color. Compare test strip to color chart on bottle to determine chlorine or chloramine concentration. The scale on the bottle reads from .1 PPM to 10 PPM with 6 steps between. A zero PPM chlorine/chloramine reading is white or no change of color.
Here are the results of my test results:
1- Tap water, unfiltered: 3 PPM (I understand this is a typical concentration level) 2- Tap water, filtered with PUR faucet mounted carbon filter: ~.5 PPM 3- Tap water, filtered with 5 micron carbon water filter: ~.75 PPM 4- Tap Water, filtered with 5 micron carbon water filter & 1 campden tablet per 5 gallons: no reading 5- Tap water, unfiltered with 1/2 campden tablet per 5 gallons: no reading 6- Tap water, unfiltered with 1 campden tablet per 5 gallons: no reading
Note: I took readings 5 & 6 very quickly after adding the campden tablets.
Conclusion: Campden tablets are very effective at removing chloramine. You will probably use 1/2 a tablet per 5 gallons. Check with the supplier of water and ask about concentration levels of your water. I do not know of any side effect of over using campden tablets some, say 1 tablet per 5 gallons. Use your best judgment.
Campden tablets
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Campden tablets (potassium or sodium metabisulfite)[1] are a sulfur-based product that is used primarily in wine, cider and beer making to kill certain bacteria and to inhibit the growth of most wild yeast: this product is also used to eliminate both free chlorine, and the more stable form, chloramine, from water solutions (i.e., drinking water from municipal sources). Campden tablets allow the amateur brewer to easily measure small quantities of sodium metabisulfite, so it can be used to protect against wild yeast and bacteria without affecting flavour.
Typical use is one crushed Campden tablet per gallon of must or wort. This dosage contributes 67 ppm sulfur dioxide to the wort but the level of active sulfur dioxide diminishes rapidly as it reacts with chlorine and chloramine, and with aldehydes (particularly in wine). Therefore, the concentration of free sulfur dioxide is greatly diminished by the time the beer or wine is consumed. However, when used only for the purpose of dechlorinating tap water before brewing, one tablet will effectively treat 20 gallons of water.[2]
Campden tablets are also used towards the end of the fermentation process to halt the ferment before all the available sugars are converted by the yeast, hence controlling the amount of residual sweetness in the final product. This balancing between sweet, dry and tart flavors is part of the artistry of wine and cider making.
Campden tablets typically weigh 0.44 g each and 10 of these are equivalent to one level teaspoon of sodium metabisulfite. Other related substances are sodium/potassium sulfite/bisulfite. Further complicating the subject, each is also referred to interchangeably as –sulfites, and the 'bi' can be found as 'di'. In terms of usage, sodium thiosulfite is a closely related compound.
The name Campden tablet comes from the town of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, England, where the original solution was developed in the 1920s by the Fruit and Vegetable Preserving Research Station - now Campden BRI. The idea was then taken up by the Boots Co. who developed the tablet.
Campden tablets are also useful in decontamination and neutralization after exposure to tear gas.[citation needed]
The molar mass (commonly called molecular weight or MW) of potassium metabisulfite is 222 grams per mole, while the molecular weight of sodium metabisulfite is 190 g/mol.