what carbon is reef worthy?

[beerbaron]

title says it all. i tried to do a search but i came up with a billion posts.
thanks for the info.
BB

 

[Anonymous]

this is a few years old but might be useful:
http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm ... efault.asp

 

[LA-Lawman]

I use Chemi-pure and Hydrocarbon 2 by two little fishies...

good stuff. no phosphate leaching and very pourus and active.... relatively long life.

When i use carbon i change it every week. I dont like the idea of accumaliting sources of nutrients.


hth

 

[Anonymous]

But, you said "when I use carbon", which infers that you don't use it all the time. I think that's another key point that bb may want to delve more deeply into.

If you've got good foam fractionation, and you're utilizing a DSB and refugia, you ought to be able to stay away from running carbon for the most part.

Also, really pay attention to brands, because what lawman brought up is a very important point--activated carbons are known to leech phosphorous (I have only recently learned this and it's answered some puzzling questions).

 

[LA-Lawman]

I only use carbon when doing equipment maintenance... such as taking the skimmer down for cleaning, replacing my micron sock, or when i have done a water change and kncoked some detritus into the water....

I have a 4-5" DSB and 120lbs of LR in a 90g. I have a total system turnover of about 1300gph.

I run it passivly. I have a bafffle system in my sump that allows me to run it, and maintain it easily.

I also run a phosphate sponge continuously. I use the Two little fishies PhosBan.. it doesnt leach phosphates.

There are two types of phosphate to be concerned with. Organic and in-organic. In organic PO4 is released by detritus and carbon..( all of which was orgainc at one time) this you can test with a test kit.

the organic stuff is a little harder to test for. this is tied up in molecules in the organisms and fish that are living. Algaes use this from first before the other. (when the animal has died immediatly and is starting to decay)

Green hair algae is the big problem with this. It grows and dies fast. grows when it has food and then outgrows its food source. Some of it dies, then some decide to use alternate food such as fdetritus. It is hairy because it traps the detrritus and decaying matter and converts it to food. So not only does it photsynthisis (spelling) it uses what i call a crap generator

so if you can control the phosphate and nitrate in your tank you can control the nuisance algaes. Now remember that algae is a good sign it shows you have the basic building blocks of life avail in your tank. the idea is to get the complex stuff to grow to outcompete the simpler algaes.....

but if you get a problem with green hair.... siphon all of the crap from the algae then scrape it off. then control the PO4 and NO3

I think i had too much chemistry. i shouldnt be able to remember this stuff


hth

 

[beerbaron]

Thanks guys, yeah i know some of the basics of carbon, i know it removes good stuff as well, so i only use it part of the time ~25%. and i know some kinds leach phosphates. im just not sure which ones do and dont. and i dont wanna pay $30 for something i can get cheaper. the last stuff i got was crapola. not sure about leaching, but it was impossible to get all of the dust off. i could leave it in the sink under running h2o for an hour, and stuff would still come out of it.
thanks for the info
BB

 

[danmhippo]

I used to use carbon 24/7/365. I was running skimmerless, fully caulerpa stocked system (main display and sump). Without using carbon 24/7, the water will yellow even under 20000K MH.

However, the other all caulerpa tank I setup that employed a big'ol skimmer, water clarity remained good without using carbon at all.

If I need to use carbon for temporary fix, I would use chemipure. If I need long term use, I would overkill the system using a big bag of them (2-5lb). I would find cheapest one's on the market but first test them for PO4 before I commit into buying them. The cheapest one's usually are the non-branded at my LFS.

 

[Anonymous]

I run carbon pretty much all the time. I use 'Black Diamond' but I have no personal preference. I throw about a fist sized mesh bag in my filter path and change it once a month or so.

 

[MattM]

We have tested a few. We have found TLF Hydrocarbon, Kent, and Marineland Black Diamond to be completly phosphate free.

Of these three, the Hydrocarbon is by far the "loosest". It is very crumbly and dusty, which actually means it works better. In a simple test, 4 hours with Hydrocarbon had the same yellow-removing effect as 4 days with another "harder" pellet-like carbon.