carbon...

hexus0 · 09-27-2005, 12:37 PM

hey guys.. i was talking with the owner of the LFS and he gave me some stuff to rid my red slime for good. It kinda looks like salt, he says it wont hurt any fish or corals. Its supposed to get rid of it all like in 3-4 days. He even dumped some in his tank to make a point..

But i thought the only way to rid of it was good water movement and good skimming. Anyways he told me to remove my Carbon sponge from my filter because the carbon will absorb the salt stuff. anyways it brought up an interesting question which i pose to you.

Carbon keeps the water "clean" looking correct? when i remove the stock filter out of my tank to hook up all the sump stuff. what would i put in place of a carbon sponge? can i just throw it in the sump? he gave me some stuff that works better than the sponge, they are little pellets and you put them in a sock... thanks in advance.

GraviT · 09-28-2005, 10:28 PM

I'm not sure what the salt looking stuff is, but there are a few cures on the market for cyanobacteria. Most of them are an antibiotic if I recall correctly. Good water movement and skimming most certainly help, but I have used Chemi-Clean twice when things got out of hand.

As for carbon, yes, it can help to polish the water and remove organic impurities. If you are hooking up a sump, I wouldn't bother with the carbon sponge. The 'little pellets' are probably granulated activated carbon that would go into a sock, then into a high flow area of your system. Some only use carbon once in a while, I personally run it 24x7.

inwall75 · 09-29-2005, 09:28 AM

I have no idea what the sand looking stuff is but would suspect chemi-clean or E.M. You don't want Carbon in with either of those. (Actually, I would make the argument that you don't want to use either of those but to each his own).

Almost all pelletized Carbon is Vapor-Phase Carbon as opposed to a Liquid-Phase Carbon. As a result, it is not intended to be submerged in water. You typically want carbon that is rough and looks like small gravel (I.e. granular).

Here's some more info http://www.3reef.com/forums/showthre...979#post314979