Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V2 #383

• To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
• Subject: Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V2 #383
• From: Edziu Iskra <edziu at gate_cybernex.net>
• Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 22:12:36 -0500 (EST)
• In-Reply-To: <199612140437.XAA08789 at looney_actwin.com>

> From: nickedmunds at juno_com (Nick Edmunds)
> Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 20:38:06 PST
> Subject: Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V2 #382
> 
> >The Automatic Water changer works by the principle that chlorine is 
> >very unstable in water.  As the fine jet of water hits the surface, 
> >causing turbulence, the chlorine is broken down, no longer to be found 
> >present as chlorine. 
> >
> >This is nonsense.  To remove the elemental chlorine put in
> >water, you need a reducing agent.  Turbulence will do nothing.
> 
> I am no expert, but, having spoken to those who profess to be so, this
> theory isn't nonsense at all, but works.   Chlorine is unstable in water
> and the turbulence caused by the fine jet of water breaks it down (I did
> know what it breaks it down to, but I can't bother recalling).

Chlorine, being a pure element, cannot be broken down (short of splitting
the atom in a reactore.)  An atom of chlorine simply has no pieces.  It
is, however, in normal conditions, a gas, although some measure of
chlorine will stay dissolved in water, especially if the water doesn't
touch air.  When you spray a fine jet of water through the air, most of
the water in the jet actually contacts air at some point, and most of the
chlorine escapes into the air.

Of course, your municipal systm may be adding chloramine to the water,
instead, which is more stable in water (that's why they add it!)  I don't
know if the fine-jet approach really does much for liberating chloramine;
it may still linger in the tank for days before finally breaking down into
chlorine and gassing off.

                                       --  Edziu

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