Re: [Killietalk] Wouldnt agree with...

[Wright Huntley <whuntley at verizon_net>]

"Riverside Pet Supply" <thebiologist at charter_net> wrote:

> "Ammonia is very hard to remove from water, but carbon filtration
> will do it."
>
>
> Nothing agitation cannot remove, however carbon removing ammonia?
> This has been discussed to death, but never seen it removed in my
> system's using plain carbon, under city pressure. An addition of
> zeolite does the trick for a awhile. Markus

Marcus,

Ammonia is only very weakly grabbed by activated carbon, so requires 
lots of contact time (slow trickle) through a finely granulated and 
compressed block to work at all. I have never gotten the LFS lumps to do 
a thing to it, for example. There are different qualities and 
granulation, but with the right ones, I think I have gotten it to work. 
Try slow flow through a freshly-opened "taste and odor" filter, and see 
if it is removed.

My vague impression, without ever doing controlled tests, is that 
chlorine is grabbed much better than ammonia, and that the combination 
(chloramines) may be filtered better, too.

The final factor is: are you trying to remove ammonium or ammonia? I 
suspect, again without tests, that pH can play a big role if they are 
removed differently by aeration. Again, low pH may keep agitation from 
removing much ammonia, while overnight could be just fine at a pH of 7.5 
or above. [I think the ammonium ion must gain an electron to become 
gaseous ammonia and the electrons may become more scarce as ammonia is 
removed.]

Wright


--
Wright Huntley - Rt. 001 Box K36, Bishop CA 93514 - whuntley at verizon_net
                      760 872-3995

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