Should RO units remove Ammonia?

[JohnH]

I was testing the water out of my RO unit and it has an ammonia reading of 0.25. Should I be getting a reading on the water?

My RO unit has 3 stages: 5 Micron GAC Carbon Filter > 50 GPD CSM R/O Membrane >Purolite DI Resin Resin Filter Refill

[fishmosy]

Ammonia should be zero. Two suggestions:

1: retest as ammonia tests can be very sensitive to contaminants. For example if the test tube hasn't been rinsed properly between an ammonia test and another type of test, you can get false positives. Was the container you put the RO water into clean?

2: how old is your RO unit? It may be time to replace the filters and/or membrane.

Was the ammonia reading the only positive test from the RO water? Have you tested EC or TDS? They will give you the best indication of whether you may need to replace the membrane

[JohnH]

Everything is clean and I did a re-test with the same result. EC reads 001. The RO unit is only about 5 months old.

The date on my ammonia kit is 07/10 so it's about 3 years old. Perhaps the problem?

[fishmosy]

Everything points to the ammonia kit being the problem. Maybe get a new kit and test again.

[JohnH]

Yeah, it's looking that way. I'll see if I can grab a new one on the way home from work tomorrow and test everything again.

[JohnH]

My wife picked me up an Aquaone test kit today. I've never used this one before, only the API one. According to the Aquaone test kit, my ammonia is zero.

[KillieOrCory]

Magic :encouragement: