cmontgomery
Member
I have never run active carbon on any of my tanks. I just wanted to see how many people do and why.
Active Carbon
- Thread starter cmontgomery
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cmontgomery
Member
Not sure how to edit the poll. Also why do you run the carbon?
Barcochris
Active Member
I use carbon for a week once a month. then I remove it.
cmontgomery
Member
I hate to be a pain, but What I am realy trying to find out is what is the gain in using the active carbon? Thanks everyone for participating.
Carbon operates by chemical filtration. It is an excellent way to strip many Dissolved Organic Compounds that yellow the water and/or make your tank stink. It can also be useful at removing some excess heavy metals, aleopathic chemicals (chemical warfare), etc.
A lot of people leave their carbon in too long and it becomes a biofilter like Boomer said. Using smaller amounts of carbon and leaving it in your tank for a short period of time is better than using a lot of carbon and leaving it in for a long time. Make sure you rinse it well prior to use. Preferably, soak it in RO/DI water for 24 hours prior to use.
A lot of people leave their carbon in too long and it becomes a biofilter like Boomer said. Using smaller amounts of carbon and leaving it in your tank for a short period of time is better than using a lot of carbon and leaving it in for a long time. Make sure you rinse it well prior to use. Preferably, soak it in RO/DI water for 24 hours prior to use.
cmontgomery
Member
If you have no sump, do you float it or do you need to use a canister filter?
cmontgomery
Member
good stuff, thanks
Interesting approach Boomer (i.e. not BoomerD). It actually makes sense if you are using a lot of Carbon at once to stretch out it's life.
How did you crush it? Did you find any problems with waterflow characteristics when you did this or were you running it in a fluidized manner?
How did you crush it? Did you find any problems with waterflow characteristics when you did this or were you running it in a fluidized manner?
Last edited:
Boomer
Reef Sanctuary's Mr. Wizard
I figured I would get the "crushed" question 
Once it has made one cycle remove (it should be in a be in a mess bag), put the bag under running water and crush the carbon as best you can with just your hands or beat on it with your fists as you tumble it. This will beak some of the GAC and produce new surface areas. I use to do this for a couple of min. rinse and then put back in. This will also remove allot of the crude in the GAC that has coated the surface.
Flow dynamics , no, it should not effect it at all . Most GAC is just granular. However, doing this with something like SeaChem Labs Matrix may not be a good thing as one of its characteristics is flow dynamics as it a round "bead" shaped GAC.
My method of choice is only one. A powered canister filter and only a Eheim. It has what I will call a "positive flow" filter. Meaning, water only enters in from the bottom and must go out only from the top. Many of the newer types the water enters and leaves from the top. These types often have "self-propagated" by-passes. If the media gets plugged the water just passes around it , often with little flow lose ( i.e.. Hagen Fluval). In the Eheim the flow will slow down and maybe even come to a complete stop, if left unattended, as water is forced to go through the media. It does not have these channeled "side-walls" like others, where water runs down the channeled side-walls to the bottom and the up through the media to the top of exit or vise-versa. You could also make your own canister with PVC and jsut get a small pump.
Eheim
Fluval
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Once it has made one cycle remove (it should be in a be in a mess bag), put the bag under running water and crush the carbon as best you can with just your hands or beat on it with your fists as you tumble it. This will beak some of the GAC and produce new surface areas. I use to do this for a couple of min. rinse and then put back in. This will also remove allot of the crude in the GAC that has coated the surface.
Flow dynamics , no, it should not effect it at all . Most GAC is just granular. However, doing this with something like SeaChem Labs Matrix may not be a good thing as one of its characteristics is flow dynamics as it a round "bead" shaped GAC.
My method of choice is only one. A powered canister filter and only a Eheim. It has what I will call a "positive flow" filter. Meaning, water only enters in from the bottom and must go out only from the top. Many of the newer types the water enters and leaves from the top. These types often have "self-propagated" by-passes. If the media gets plugged the water just passes around it , often with little flow lose ( i.e.. Hagen Fluval). In the Eheim the flow will slow down and maybe even come to a complete stop, if left unattended, as water is forced to go through the media. It does not have these channeled "side-walls" like others, where water runs down the channeled side-walls to the bottom and the up through the media to the top of exit or vise-versa. You could also make your own canister with PVC and jsut get a small pump.
Eheim
Fluval
BoomerD
Well-Known Member
Eheim makes a great canister. Tough to beat that German engineering. I've had pretty good luck with the Magnum 350 and HOT canisters for the same reason. water gets forced thru the carbon from the inside-out, and rarely forms by-pass channels. Not worth much for anything like biological filtration, (o.k. for micron filtration) and since I only would run it for about a week, I think it performed to my expectations.
