activated carbon
- Thread starter Tackett
- Start date
Well R Sanders, the photosynthetic stuff on it would die off, yes. But the critters that live in the nooks and crannies would probably reproduce well in a cannister. I don't understand the theory behind this myself... and honestly wouldn't advise it. But, then again, I don't advise running a cannister at all. There's no point if you already have a sump. Run carbon in the overflow or in the drainage bag.
Running carbon in a bag sitting in the sump or overflow doesnt do crap in my opinion. You have to have a good flow rate with good surface dispersion for it to do anything. However. You still need to dump the carbon after a few days of use. I quit using my carbon not to long ago, and now I have cyano algae everywhere. Wish I would have never done it. Ill probably just leave my canister running empty all the time and just toss a cartridge of carbon in it when I need it. Thats what I should have done in the first place instead of kicking it out the door.
Tackett, when's the last time you replaced your bulbs?
PC's should be tossed out for new bulbs every 6 months or so, Halides yearly. Their color temperature changes over time as the bulbs burn in. Cyanobacteria is one of the signs that you need to replace your bulbs in an established system.
Also.. cyanobacteria thrives in low light environments. It's possible that you had a small population of it growing in your cannister filter and you disturbed it when you took out the carbon... and it blew into the display.
PC's should be tossed out for new bulbs every 6 months or so, Halides yearly. Their color temperature changes over time as the bulbs burn in. Cyanobacteria is one of the signs that you need to replace your bulbs in an established system.
Also.. cyanobacteria thrives in low light environments. It's possible that you had a small population of it growing in your cannister filter and you disturbed it when you took out the carbon... and it blew into the display.
I just bought it so they are brand new bulbs. I do change my PC bulbs every 6 months. I write on them with a sharpee the date I bought them. Any longer and Ive found it contributes significantly to algae growth, but usually other nasty forms other than cyano. I dont think it came from the canister either because It was shut off before it was taken out of the tank. It probably formed due to the excess nutrients in the water column now that I havent run any carbon in the past 3 months. Used to run it the first week of every month for five days. Hard to tell where it came from, probably hanging out untill the nutrient content was right.
after reading this forum my thoughts on carbon have completely changed. ive been running carbon in my canister for like 2 months at a time then a change. 
. didnt realise it became ineffecitve so quickly. my question is..... can i place activated carbon in a holding device such as fishnet raise it off the ground a bit so critters cant get to it and then place it behind some liverock in the main display in a location of good flow?
sorry to hijack tackett
. didnt realise it became ineffecitve so quickly. my question is..... can i place activated carbon in a holding device such as fishnet raise it off the ground a bit so critters cant get to it and then place it behind some liverock in the main display in a location of good flow? sorry to hijack tackett
bboyin4lyf":21sy73hx said:
nah, its cool.
This is a topic thats very touchy with people it seems. Ive found that placing carbon in some kind of bag and throwing it in the sump somewhere doesnt do a freakin thing. Which was why i had a canister filter
. However. The reason I wrote this thread was that I had heard so many mixed things about running carbon 24/7 and intermittantly. Ive tried both and can say this:Running 24/7 and changing every two weeks (which was what I was doing.) takes a major **bleep**load of trace elements out of your system. My nasty algae growth was down to a minimum but on the other hand...so was my coraline.
With the carbon totally out of the tank I found that: A mass buildup of cyano took place (well not mass, but more than I want to deal with.) This tells me that carbon did a great job of pulling excess nutrients out of the water column. But that is the only nasty algae that grew however. My coraline growth has now greatly increased.
I also tried running it without changing it and got some nasty, nasty, nasty, NASTY hair algae growth after a few months. Which leads to the conclusion that it leaks phosphate and/or silicates after a while.
I tried throwing carbon in a bag and it neither slowed the growth of the coraline, nor slowed the growth of cyano. To say that it doesnt do ANYTHING is probably far off and I shouldnt say it. However I can say that it showed no noticable change in my teeny little unscientific experiment.
So these are just my observations, and like i said, have no scientific application. Just my experience.
hillbilly":1e76y12j said:
Well I guess that depends on how much crud (scientific term) is in the water.
I've always wondered exactly what carbon does take out of the water,,, you see all those elements listed on the IO bag,,,,, you gotta think some of them are being depleted when running carbon,,, but which ones? and by how much? Anyone know of a study where this was addressed?
I really don't know about "all the other crud" but as far as the Yellow from caulerpa and other algae it just stops working after about two days. I'm not the only one that has tried this.
I don't know why. Probably bacteria colonizing the GAC and making it usless but it will not work for removing the yellow from the water after two days.
If you're skeptical do it yourself. Store "yellow water" in a 32gallon trash can and try to clean it with GAC that has been run on a reef for two days. It doesn't do anything. Run fresh carbon and the yellow is gone in hours.
Proof enough for me.
Another thing to try would be copper. Copper sulfate is cheap. Run fresh carbon on contaminated water and then run used carbon on contaminated water. Same results. The 2 day old carbon does almost nothing. (don't add copper sulfate to your tank)
These tests need to be done on saltwater. Freshwater has vastly different results.
I don't know why. Probably bacteria colonizing the GAC and making it usless but it will not work for removing the yellow from the water after two days.
If you're skeptical do it yourself. Store "yellow water" in a 32gallon trash can and try to clean it with GAC that has been run on a reef for two days. It doesn't do anything. Run fresh carbon and the yellow is gone in hours.
Proof enough for me.
Another thing to try would be copper. Copper sulfate is cheap. Run fresh carbon on contaminated water and then run used carbon on contaminated water. Same results. The 2 day old carbon does almost nothing. (don't add copper sulfate to your tank)
These tests need to be done on saltwater. Freshwater has vastly different results.
Now now,, no need to take your ball home just because I'm lazy.
Anyway, I'm really more interested in the elements in saltwater being depleted by GAC rather than organic compounds.
Considering the number of SW hobbyists who seem to run carbon,,, it's not unreasonable to suppose that some smartarse with more time than me and a mass spectrometer (or whatever) might have done this already.
Anyway, I'm really more interested in the elements in saltwater being depleted by GAC rather than organic compounds.
Considering the number of SW hobbyists who seem to run carbon,,, it's not unreasonable to suppose that some smartarse with more time than me and a mass spectrometer (or whatever) might have done this already.
Yeah, I hear ya. I think the problem might be that the GAC companies have done this and it's not as effective as urban legend has it. I believe it's very good for chemical spills & the "yellow water" but does nothing for the 24/7 polishing, JMO.
I wasn't getting aggressive, it's just that I actually put some work into it. Wish I had the cash & time to do it right.
I wasn't getting aggressive, it's just that I actually put some work into it. Wish I had the cash & time to do it right.
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