‘TomToo’ very recently — as in a few minutes ago — asked about chlorine testing and which chlorine test he should use:

“Saw your chlorine sale announcement and have a question. The water in our beach house stinks really bad of chlorine when we first get there and we want to test to make sure it’s safe to use but you have free and total chlorine strips. How do you know which to use?”

Thanks for your inquiry, TomToo, and believe us when we say others share your confusion when it comes to knowing which type of chlorine they need to test for.

Lucky for you, though, we have simple answer if your concern deals only with worrying about having too much chlorine in the water. You should test for total chlorine.

The USEPA set the Maximum Contaminant Level for chlorine in drinking water at 4 ppm (parts per million) and that number takes into account ALL of the chlorine in a water sample, meaning both free and combined chlorine.

Moral of the story?

If you need to know the FULL amount of chlorine in a drinking water sample, testing for total chlorine makes the most sense.

We took a quick look at Hanna Instrument’s main web site ( http://www.hannainst.com ) and saw that they have a link to their Madagascar branch ( http://www.hannaservice.it ) listed on the main page. We followed that link and it took us to a page targeted towards customers from Africa and the Balkans.

From there we went to the Contacts page ( http://www.hannaservice.it/?rt=index/contacts ) where we found the contact information for a number of Hanna’s offices in the region.

We hope this information proves useful for you, Ony!

Chlorine test kits for United States residents

On our own stores we carry a number of chlorine test strips and DPD test tablets for both free and total chlorine concentration testing.

Whether in your drinking water as a preventative measure against potentially harmful organic contaminants or in the swimming pool guarding against bacteria and waterborne diseases proper levels of chlorine must get maintained to keep us safe.

Without regular testing we will not KNOW if we have the correct amount of chlorine present. Too little chlorine puts our health at risk and too much can put our health at risk as well as cause us to spend money unnecessarily on chemicals.

If you’d like to get a quick lesson on the different types of chlorine found in water (i.e. free chlorine, total chlorine and combined chlorine), we posted an article called What is the Difference Between Total Residual Chlorine and Free Chlorine? that covers the topic very well (in our humble opinion).

Also, and as always, please feel free to Contact Us with any water testing questions you may have. We also invite anyone with news of free or discounted water testing announcements to contact us so we can help spread the word.

Chloramines? What are chloramines? Take a look at this earlier Water Testing Blog entry on Free Chlorine, Combined Chlorine and Total Chlorine and get a quick education on the topic!

Whether created as a byproduct of disinfection via free chlorine or the intended disinfectant in a water system, most people do NOT like the taste and odor of chloramines in their water.

Thankfully Pentek has come out with a product called the Pentek ChlorPlus 10 Chloramine Removal Water Filter Cartridge that fits in standard 10″ (x 2.5″) filter housings used in filter sytems produced by companies such as Pentek (obviously!), US Filter (recently acquired by Pentek!), Cuno, Filterite, Keystone, US Water, Water Resources, Harmsco, and many other popular brands of water filtration systems. If your system uses a standard 10″ x 2.5″ housing, the Pentek ChlorPlus 10 ought to fit just fine!

Having said that last bit, please check the dimensions of your current filter and/or housing before ordering this product!

Looking for a 10″ replacement filter with NSF Certification? The Pentek ChlorPlus 10 uses a component tested certified to NSF Standard 42.

What does the Pentek ChlorPlus 10 remove/reduce? Using 1 micron carbon block technology this product (255416-43) should seriously reduce chloramine concentrations in drinking water and in doing so remove the (offensive) taste and odor associated with chlorine while also helping to pull out unwanted sediment, if present.

Many people have the wrong idea about how much maintenance and testing a healthy aquarium requires. Notice we said, “healthy.”

An UNhealthy aquarium requires next to no maintenance. Simply add water to the tank, throw in some fish, wait for fish to die, scoop up dead fish, re-stock tank with live fish, and repeat the last two steps until common sense kicks in.

Eventually people catch on to the fact that an aquarium needs more attention than just adding fish and dumping in food once in a while. It takes some people longer than others to figure that out, true, but we can discuss that topic another time. For right now let’s stick to the topic at-hand: Testing Aquarium Water so that your fish don’t keep going belly up.

API Test Kit for Ammonia, Nitrate & Nitrite

Liquid Test Kit for Ammonia, Nitrate & Nitrite

Liquid Test Kit for General Hardness & Carbonate Hardness

Test Kit for Monitoring Copper in Water

Test Kit for Monitoring Iron in Water

Test Kit for Monitoring Phosphates in Water

As you can see from the above test kits, you will have to test for a number different water parameters if you want to keep your fish healthy, happy and alive. Thankfully most aquarium test kits these days come with easy-to-follow instructions and the average person can complete the testing in just a few minutes.

Which water parameters matter most? Hard to say, but many pond and aquarium experts agree that a person ought to keep a close eye on the following water quality parameters if they hope to have clean, healthy water for their fish to live in:

• Ammonia Levels — As disgusting as it sounds to us, fish live in their own waste products, one of which is ammonia. Excessive amounts of ammonia result in respiratory problems for fish and if left untreated the fish will eventually stop breathing and die.
• Chlorine/Chloramines Levels — Extremely toxic to fish and pretty much all aquatic life even in small amounts. When adding fresh water to an aquarium, always make sure to test for and remove any and all traces of chlorine and chloramines.
• Nitrite Levels — When ammonia breaks down it forms nitrites, another very toxic compound which can cause respiratory distress in, and eventually the death of, fish.
• pH Levels — It ought to come as no surprise that fish don’t want to swim around in extremely acidic or basic water any more than you would want someone pouring hydrochloric acid or concentrated lye onto your skin. One thing to remember, though, about pH: Not all fish prefer the exact same pH so when choosing your fish, read up on their preferred water conditions — or risk killing some of your fish slowly and painfully.

SONORA – The State Water Resources Control Board says in a proposed order that the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board disregarded excessive chlorine being discharged into Woods Creek from a Sonora sewage treatment plant and also inappropriately increased the amount of chlorine that Sonora and Jamestown government agencies were allowed to discharge into the creek.

The proposed order the state board issued this week would require the regional board to revise its pollution permit for the treatment plant that serves the two cities to bring chlorine discharges within legal limits.

Woods Creek flows into Don Pedro Reservoir, a popular fishing area and a tributary to the Tuolumne River. The order points out that even extremely low concentrations of chlorine are damaging to fish populations. ( source )

Government regulations restrict the amount of chlorine (both free AND total) that a company or water treatment facility may pump back onto the environment because even in low concentrations, chlorine has the ability to inflict serious harm on an ecosystem.

Testing for Chlorine:

• Liquid Test Kits: Companies such as Taylor, Lamotte and others manufactures test kits which make of use liquid reagents.
• Test Strips: Many companies manufacture test strips which measure chlorine levels as low as 0.05 ppm (see SenSafe Free Chlorine & Total Chlorine) and as high as 5,000 ppm (see Water Check Ultra High II Free Chlorine).

• Chlorine Meters: For people with color blindness or simply the desire NOT to have to interpret color changes on the pads of test strips or in liquid samples, chlorine testing meters take all the guesswork out of testing free & total chlorine levels in water samples. Almost all chlorine testing meters use DPD Reagents in the form of liquids, tablets, powders or reagentstrips.

Total Chlorine Test Strips

Free Chlorine and Combined Chlorine both work well as sanitizers and disinfectants, though both do have several noteworthy drawbacks. You will find a few listed below:

Health Concerns: Chlorine can make you very ill if ingested in too great a quantity. Also, those who have recently undergone chemotherapy or other cancer treatment procedures may want to consult with their physician about the possibility of chlorine interfering with the medications they take.

Aesthetic Concerns: Chlorine tends to make water smell and taste like a swimming pool. The last time you accidentally swallowed pool water, you probably thought or said, “Yuck. This tastes nasty.” Therefore, water treatment companies of all shapes and sizes, varieties and forms manufacture and sell a number of different devices that remove chlorine (and many other unwanted contaminants) from drinking water.

For more information on easy-to-use chlorine testing products as well as ways to remove chlorine from drinking water, please visit our Chlorine Testing archives.

SenSafe^TM Free Chlorine Water Check

For additional information on chlorine levels in your local water supply, call your local Health Department. For detailed information on guidelines pertaining to the use of chlorine in drinking water, visit the USEPA’s website.