Aluminum Oxide Fluoride Reduction Filter Cartridge

Your city adds fluoride to the water, and you would rather choose how much of it your family drinks. A standard carbon filter will not do that. Fluoride is a small, dissolved ion, and it takes a media built for fluoride to pull it out of the water.

The Crystal Quest Aluminum Oxide Fluoride Reduction Filter Cartridge is that media in a drop-in cartridge. It is packed with granules of synthetic crystalline aluminum oxide, the fluoride media water treatment professionals call activated alumina. It is the mineral alternative to bone char: no animal-derived material, no salt and no regeneration, just a media bed that holds on to fluoride as your water passes through.

At a glance

• Targets inorganic fluoride in municipal water, with arsenic and lead also reduced
• Works by adsorption and chemical reaction, not ion exchange, so it needs no salt and no regeneration
• Mineral media, not bone char: synthetic aluminum oxide granules processed to keep fines to a minimum
• Four sizes, 0.5 to 6 GPM, for countertop, under-sink and whole house housings
• Chemistry disclosed: the pH and flow conditions that give the media its best performance are explained below

What you are looking at

Each cartridge is a column of tough, uniform aluminum oxide granules held in polyolefin inner and outer wraps and polyethylene netting, closed with polypropylene end caps and sealed with Buna-N gaskets. The granules are similar in size to ion exchange resin beads. They barely swell or shrink in water and keep pressure loss low, so the cartridge holds its shape and its flow through its service life. Each end cap has 1-micron pads behind its openings.

How an aluminum oxide fluoride filter works

Fluoride sticks to the surface

Aluminum oxide granules are full of internal surface, and that surface carries reactive sites with a strong attraction to fluoride. As water moves through the bed, fluoride ions are drawn onto those sites and bound there by a combination of adsorption and chemical reaction with the media. Because the removal does not depend on ion exchange, the cartridge does not need to be recharged with salt. When the sites are used up, the cartridge is spent and you replace it.

Why pH matters

Aluminum oxide does its best fluoride work in slightly acidic water, around pH 5.5. The media is stable from pH 4 to 10, but as pH rises, its surface becomes less attractive to fluoride and capacity falls. Most city water is near neutral or slightly alkaline, which is why fluoride media life varies so much from one home to the next.

Why flow matters

Fluoride removal on aluminum oxide is a contact-time reaction. Slower water gives each fluoride ion more time to find a site, and higher flow costs capacity. That is why every size carries its own rated flow, and why sizing up gives the media more time to work at the same tap flow.

Keep chlorine low

The media is rated for free chlorine up to 1 ppm. On chlorinated city water, use it in a system that also has a carbon or SMART stage.

What it reduces

Primary target: fluoride, specifically inorganic fluoride in municipal water. This is the fluoride form that city treatment adds and the form this media is built to capture.

Also reduced (named on Crystal Quest's product records; there is no separate capacity rating for these):

• Arsenic, which aluminum oxide also adsorbs
• Lead

Not designed to treat: bacteria and viruses, nitrate, hardness, or chlorine and chemical tastes as a dedicated stage. Use it only on microbiologically safe water.

Is it right for my water?

It is built for inorganic fluoride in municipal water. If your fluoride is organic or comes from a well or another natural source, talk to a Crystal Quest specialist before you choose a fluoride media.

Crystal Quest offers two fluoride media. Calcium GAC is bone char and is our standard fluoride cartridge. Aluminum oxide is the choice when you want a mineral media with no animal-derived material. The two cartridges are interchangeable, so either fits the same position. If you want fluoride reduction and broad chemical filtration in one cartridge, the SMART + Aluminum Oxide Fluoride Reduction Filter Cartridge combines both.

Why Crystal Quest

• The chemistry, explained. You know what the media is, how it captures fluoride and which conditions help or hurt it.
• A full fluoride lineup. Bone char, aluminum oxide and SMART combinations, so the media can match your water and your preferences.
• Full construction disclosure, from media to wraps to gaskets, in the Specifications tab.
• Over 1,000,000 people served since 1994. Crystal Quest builds under ISO 9001 quality management, has made water filtration in the USA for over 30 years and offers lifetime support by phone, email or chat.

Where it fits

• Countertop and under-sink systems that take the 2-7/8" x 9-3/4" size, as the fluoride stage alongside carbon or SMART stages.
• Whole house cartridge systems with slim 20" or Big Blue housings.

Choose the size printed on your current cartridge or in your order history: 2-7/8" x 9-3/4" (CQE-RC-04006), 2-7/8" x 20" (CQE-RC-04019), 4-5/8" x 9-3/4" (CQE-RC-04065) or 4-5/8" x 20" (CQE-RC-04068).

Common questions

Aluminum oxide fluoride filter cartridge specifications

Published ratings apply to the selected cartridge and listed conditions. Media life depends on incoming fluoride, pH, flow and usage.

Media and treatment