Sydney Water - Ceramic Water Filters

[kings79]

Hi I'm new here and wanted to ask a water question. If I use a Ceramic water filter which is predominantly for filtering out Fluoride but also filters out the following;
The pore structure of the ceramic material enables sufficient contact time with the AquaMetix® core to improve taste and odour as well as reducing fluoride, chlorine, chloramine, volatile organic compounds, MTBE, lead, mercury, asbestos, arsenic, and pharmaceutical compounds.

Contaminant Reduction Rates

Pathogenic bacteria >99.9999% Cholera, Typhoid, Salmonella, Coli, Fecal Coliform (ALcontrol Laboratories)

Parasitic Cysts = 100% Cryptosporidium Parvum, Giardia Lamblia (ALcontrol Laboratories)

Sediment = 100% to 0.5 micron absolute (IBR Laboratories)

Chloramines >99% ANSI/NSF Standard 42 (Pace Analytical)

Chlorine >99% ANSI/NSF Standard 42 (Pace Analytical)

Fluoride >97% All types—Fluorosilicic acid/hydrofluorosilicate, sodium fluorosilicate, and sodium fluoride (Envirotek)

Lead >99% ANSI/NSF Standard 53 (Envirotek)

VOC’s >98% ANSI/NSF Standard 53 (Envirotek)

THM’s >98% Reduction (Envirotek)

Metals >98% Aluminium, Iron, Mercury, Nickel & Zinc (ANSI/NSF)

Standard 53 (Envirotek)

Glyphosate >99.9% (Envirotek)

Pharmaceutical Compounds >95% ANSI/NSF Standard 401 (Envirotek) Acetaminophen, Progesterone, Ibuprofen, Naproxen Sodium

Herbicides >99%

Nitrates >92%

So if I use this to make an IPA for example where I want the salts in the water profile is this filter going to filter out these too?

Water is from Erskinville Sydney.

Thanks

 

[Coalminer]

Filter your water first then add the necessary salts

 

[MHB]

AquaMetix is just a Carbon filter block surrounded by a porous ceramic particulate filter.
If you look up what a carbon filter does you should get a better idea how it will affect your water, it wont be taking out Calcium Salts which are the main group we want to add. Assume you get pretty much all of what is in your local water of these through the filter. You will need to study up what's in your water then add what you need.

A brewer using a filter would be mainly looking to get rid of Chlorine (in any form) as it will form some nasty flavours in the beer. There are several threads on what's in various local water, visit Sydney Waters website... then have a play around with one of the water apps Bru'n Water is well regarded, but Google Brewing Water Calculator and you will find heaps.

Or get lazy and just add 100ppm of Calcium in the form of Chloride or Sulphate or better a blend of the two. Remember Chloride has a mellowing effect and Sulphate tends to make the hops harsher and more prominent, Sulphate is favored in IPA's Chloride in softer flavoured beers.
Mark

 

[kings79]

AquaMetix is just a Carbon filter block surrounded by a porous ceramic particulate filter.
If you look up what a carbon filter does you should get a better idea how it will affect your water, it wont be taking out Calcium Salts which are the main group we want to add. Assume you get pretty much all of what is in your local water of these through the filter. You will need to study up what's in your water then add what you need.

A brewer using a filter would be mainly looking to get rid of Chlorine (in any form) as it will form some nasty flavours in the beer. There are several threads on what's in various local water, visit Sydney Waters website... then have a play around with one of the water apps Bru'n Water is well regarded, but Google Brewing Water Calculator and you will find heaps.

Or get lazy and just add 100ppm of Calcium in the form of Chloride or Sulphate or better a blend of the two. Remember Chloride has a mellowing effect and Sulphate tends to make the hops harsher and more prominent, Sulphate is favored in IPA's Chloride in softer flavoured beers.
Mark

Thanks MHB, yeah I have the water report for Sydney and have added it to my profile in Beerfather. So I have the water pretty dialed in.
1. Is Sydney water particularly chlorinated?
2. Does my filter filter out Chlorine?

 

[MHB]

Yes As per your OP

Remember that they don't last forever, the Carbon eventually saturates with Chlorine, generally around the time the ceramic blocks up...
Mark

 

[kings79]

Yes As per your OP
View attachment 117339
Remember that they don't last forever, the Carbon eventually saturates with Chlorine, generally around the time the ceramic blocks up...
Mark

So that means it pretty much gets rid of it all?

Cheers MHB

 

[MHB]

More than (>) 99%, close enough to all for government work.
Just remember that they aren't a very big filter so have limited capacity, probably say how long/much water they can process on the packaging, then they get saturated.
After that no the don't work any more.
Mark

 

[kings79]

Roger that.

Very helpful. Thank you MHB

 

[starcmr]

I had a solution, it had a granulated activated charcoal center but was fragile. The company has been around the longest.

You should also throw a monolithic dome into the mix if you're looking at just the filter, they have kits including a prefilter sock or just parts. I think they were a missionary group that started making their own filters.

Best ceramic water filter

 

[jgriffin]

To Hijack the thread a little.
What's peoples thoughts on those caravan type inline water filters for Sydney water, just to knock the chlorine out?
Inline Caravan RV Camper Water Filter Granule Coconut Carbon Filter | Shield Water Filter

 

[peteru]

As Mark says, Chlorine and Chloramine are the two things that will ruin your beer in a flash. Luckily they are very, very easy and quick to get rid of. Get all of your mash and sparge water into a vessel and treat it with either ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) or sodium metabisulphite. I prefer ascorbic acid - it works in seconds. In my case, I'm on Ryde water in Sydney and 1g for about 35L of water is more than sufficient, even after heavy rain when the water is treated with higher than usual dosage.

For a more thorough discussion of this topic, take a look at: De-chlorination substance

 

[jgriffin]

Thanks, picked up some ascorbic acid from Chemist Warehouse.