Running carbon

T

TCU Reefer

That would work. There's quite a few reefers that run canisters and power filters strictly for carbon. The idea is to have water actively passing through the carbon to be effective.

I have a bag of carbon in an Aquaclear 70 power filter on my 29g. I just put the carbon in a mesh bag and dropped it in. You can use panty hose as well. Just cut a piece, tie off one end, dump in your carbon and tie it off.

You can use a phosban reactor if you wanted but it's not entirely necessary.
 
Sorry to kind of take over but i have had a question about carbon before to and never got it anwsered. I have heard that if you have coral it is not good to run carbon all this time. They say to just put it in for a couple of days. I dont even see a reason for running it i have very clear water. Is it necessary and if not why would you even run it?
 
Try reading this article. http://www.pets-warehouse.com/carbon.htm

Rick, myself and a few others run carbon all the time now.
 
@Jacjr14 wrote:
Sorry to kind of take over but i have had a question about carbon before to and never got it anwsered. I have heard that if you have coral it is not good to run carbon all this time. They say to just put it in for a couple of days. I dont even see a reason for running it i have very clear water. Is it necessary and if not why would you even run it? said:
With all the good that carbon does and all it will prevent in the way by removing things that might get in the water, from things dieing, coral warfare, excess organics, accidental poisoning by kids toys, why wouldn't you run carbon 24/7. I have never ever heard of anyone losing anything or anything detrimental ever happening from using carbon 24/7.
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Can't carbon be mixed with Phosban or any other phosphate sponge in the same reactor? Then there would be no need for a dedicated reactor.
 
Rick said:
I am also running carbon 24/7. I have 2 phosban reactors ( just purchased a 3rd), one with carbon and one with phosban. I have never had any problems since using it. I started using carbon because I have a mixed reef that is slowly turning into an sps dominated tank. The leathers in my tank were sloughing off mucus that were killing the sps. Since using the carbon, I no longer have any issues with it.
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@Tremelle wrote:
Can't carbon be mixed with Phosban or any other phosphate sponge in the same reactor? Then there would be no need for a dedicated reactor. said:
Yes, you can. However, the phosban might still be good long after the carbon is all used up. Once the carbon stops absorbing, it can be come a nitrate factory if left running too long. I prefer to run them separately.
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I run mine in a canister filter with a couple of bags of Chemi-Pure.
I have the canister filter throttled back a bit to slow down the flow thru the media. If I was guessing, I'd say around 50-75 gal per hour flow.
 
I made a diy container from an empty old DI cartridge. I can change it out in 5 minutes. I t'd off the line coming back from my chiller, it runs through it about 50 gph I am guessing. I can see the flow slow down and then I change out the carbon, about every two - three weeks.
 
If you run the carbon full time in a phosban reactor--how often do most people change it out? Rick says every 2-3 weeks, is that what most people do? We used to just run it for 3-4 days a month, but after seeing this and reading Julien Sprungs new book--we're thinking of running it full time.


Gigi
 
@jfkammer wrote:
If you run the carbon full time in a phosban reactor--how often do most people change it out? Rick says every 2-3 weeks said:
That is the one problem I see with running carbon and phosban together in the same reactor. The carbon would used up far sooner than the phosban. And I can not see taking apart the phosban reactor to just change the carbon out. And I can not see leaving carbon in the reactor as long as it takes for the phosban to to be used up.
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Yes, we will have 2 reactors--one for phosban and 1 for carbon. Just wondering consensus on how often to change carbon if you run it all the time.


Gigi
 
I do not think that would be a problem as you are only running a small amount of the overall water past the carbon at any one time. If you are doing regular water changes that should replace any trace elements lost (I think)
 
@extinguishfire wrote:
One question I have is running it all the time what about the trace elements that carbons takes out? said:
What about the trace elements that your skimmer probably removes? Anyone I ever have known that has been around awhile and in the business, lectured at MACNAs have pretty much all agreed, carbon does alot more good to the water quality of an aqaurium than anything it could ever do negatively.
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