Coupla things....
David - I would check whether the chlorine is getting removed at the flow rates you are talking. I love the idea and activated carbon is a great way to filter a number of nasty compounds - if you fill a bucket with water and drop in the activated carbon it will remove the chlorine pretty quick but not immediately and it wears out depending on the amount of dissolved contaminants in the water.
Second - there is a huge difference in activated carbons - the cheaper activated charcoal products are extremely variable - I have seen it work well or poorly, often by the same manufacturere depending on batch. The best stuff, activated carbon from cocunut shells will hold several times it's weight in dissolved solids but is way too expensive for this application.
Next - Sodium Thiosulfate at a very low drip rate will take a lot of chlorine out very cheaply - you can get it by the gallon for peanuts from a chemical supply company. Money saving tip - Woolite has a little in it to keep clothes from fading in the gentle cycle....
I'm betting you could add an inline dispenser pretty cheap?????
WRT Zeolyte - nice product! It is basically a chemical sponge for nitrogen compounds like ammonia. The theory behind your filter if i am getting it right is: Activated carbon to remove dissolved contaminants and detach the CL from the NH2CL Chloramine molecule leaving after a boring step or two - ammonia which will be trace and not hurt those nitrogen fixing microbes in your soil - N to the grass, H2+ a little oxygen and ya get that wet stuff is how it breaks down. The filter you describe makes great sense for a garden pond - fish are real sensitive to ammonia, hence the first party rule of "No peeing in my koi pond" (actually that is number two - my pool is the first no-no) around here. With your yard I am willing to bet you a cookie that if you get rid of the chlorine (which is killing the nitrogen fixing bacteria) the leftover ammonia from the chloramine is nothin but food.
Chlorine is the real problem for microbes.
I'm not trying to be contrary - just helpful - i think sodium thiosulfate will do the trick better for what you are after. I am fairly sure there are attachments to drip this stuff into the line????? Carbon filtration would help the dissolved contaminants deemed 'OK' for us to drink (ughhh)
For a test kit, there are $10 test kits at any pet shop with reagents fro chlorine and chloramine (ammonia too but I would not be concerned)...
BTW- most municipalities use chloramine in summer to deal with algal blooms and chlorine during the cold months (which we don't have here
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I think you'll have more success breaking the CL out with thiosulfate as long as that lovely egg smell doesn't bug ya.
I know EXACTLY what you mean about a rain versus a watering and it makes ya think.... I am certain chlorine is part of the equation but another is purity... I recently read over Rowlett's water contamination report and we have 'excellent' (cough cough) water.... there were quite a few herbicide residues listed - while 'trace' I am sure they ain't helping.... More than that though - tap water around here has a lot of dissolved mineral content - especially in summertime when the reservoirs are evaporating fast. Your tap water is hard and alkaline with lots of dissolved minerals, rain water has no dissolved mineral content and tends to be acidic with (I think) Nitric acid from air pollution around here - so basically it dissolves a whole lot more 'stuff' that gets carried into the root zone. That was the least scientific description i ever gave about anything, forgive me! but hopefully makes sense - Pure water dissolves everything whereas hard water (heavy calcium carbonate) tends not to so rain gets trace minerals to the roots better.
OK, i promise to go get a life and make my next response short
I am completely willing to let you experiment and tell us when ya hit the magic combination - then learn from your toe stubbins
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Make me do the guinea pig work on the next Tim Allen project (ur, ur).