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Chlorine filter uses copper in the media.... will this be okay?
My husband picked up a shower filter for me to put inline with the hose so I don't have to fill buckets for offgassing every day. When I looked up what the filter media is it says it uses, "clorgon and kdf". KDF is a mixture of copper and zinc. I've read elsewhere that copper isn't so much a problem if the water is just flowing through it once, that it becomes much more of a problem when it sits in the tank, but I wasn't sure if this was okay to use since it's basically ultra fine particles of it that the water passes through to remove chlorine.
P.S. I know they make inline hose filters, which are actually what I asked him to get. Does anyone know what the filtration media used in those are? I plan on getting one of those next, just wondering if this would be okay in the meantime.
Thanks!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Miguel Afonso on
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It all comes down to how much copper ends up in the water. Copper is lethal to tilapia at concentrations above 1.5 ppm, and toxic to invertebrates at much lower levels. Zinc is toxic at levels of about 25ppm. Probably good idea just to skip that filter to be safe. May not be a problem. Rain water is good if collected of non toxic surface - make sure to add chunk of limestone in tank to harden a little.
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Permalink Reply by Rachel on
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Since, I posted that, I've been using the filter with no problems, though I should probably be careful to do water changes so there isn't accumulation of the copper/zinc.
I would love to just use rainwater, but I live in Phoenix. I collect rainwater, but it isn't anywhere near enough (it's so dry and hot that I'm losing about an inch a day right now to evaporation and we've gotten about 5 inches of rain at my house for all of 2011. On a side note, one of the things that really drew me to aquaponics was the claims that it uses so much less water than traditional gardening, that's absolutely not been my experience. Maybe in a greenhouse, but out here you can't have a greenhouse unless you have cooling systems in place (which either use lots of power or a little power and a fair bit of water).
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I have an open air system and have definately seen the benefits of not using much water, but then again I am in the tropics and I have only filled my system once. My in ground crops still get watered regularly with a soaker hose. In summer I have a hoop house with 50% aluminet (refelective shade cloth). How much surface area of water do you have exposed to the air? What type of system have you setup? What is your average summer water temperature? What volume tank are you using?
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It's an IBC with 1/3 as grow bed on top of the other 2/3 as tank, so there's about 150 gallons of water in the tank. The summer water temp is about 94˚. It's not as much the surface area of the water (about 13 sq ft) it evaporates from the hydroton, which soaks it up in the flood cycle and is lost in the drain/in-between cycle. I run for about 20 on 40 off. I have other 'ponds' with no grow bed or growing media that only lose about an inch every 3 or 4 days, which is still a large volume of water to lose.
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Hell Fire!!! That is hot. I would recommend getting the water temperature down. The easiest way to do this would be to create an underground heat exchange mechanism. If you go about 3 feet into the earth you will encounter cooler temperatures. Lay down 1/2" or smaller steel pipe and zig zag to create heat exchange radiator. Pump water through the radiator. Also if you have larger volume of water, it is more likely to hold its thermal mass. By getting the temperature of the water down you will slow down evaporation. Also shade and insulate you tanks. During summer it is probably best to shade the area with aluminet, dont use black shade cloth. Being aroud trees helps as they add a little humidity to the surrounding air which will slow dow evaporation. Can't speak for the hydroton, if you suspect it is part of the problem run an experiment side by side with a jar of 3/4" gravel and hydroton and see which one drys out faster
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Oh yeah, use blingy reflective materials to cool surfaces.
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