Active Carbon Question...

So I do not run GFO or Carbon but I would like to. I'm wondering currently since I do not have much money or any reactors to attach to my 29g Biocube, can I simply use a fine mesh bag, fill it with active carbon, rinse the bag for dust particles, then place somewhere in the back of my tank? Either with water flowing through it or have the bag underwater where my overflow is?

 

i've seen people put a mesh bag full of activated carbon in their overflow before so i assume its fine, anywhere that has high flow and sees majority of the tank water passing it should be fine though, I'm not to familiar with GFO but am thinking about running it soon as well

 

+1 thanks for the fast reply! I'm looking at pictures and that's what it seems to be showing so I'll give it a shot. If everything in the tank dies I know it's not something to do next time!


Btw do you know what would be the middle bag? I know the bottom one is the big fine mesh net bag with active carbon and on top is just a filter floss, but any idea what the middle is? I'm guessing just a finer mesh net to catch detritus before it runs through the carbon. Filter floss, then a finer filter floss, then active carbon mesh bag?

 

Looks like I'm wrong, middle chamber is the active carbon and bottom chamber is GFO

Middle = Purigen 100 ml bag
Bottom = Chemi-Pure Elite

Wondering if I can just do it my own style since I do not have Chemi Pure Elite but I do have a box of Activated Carbon granules

 

That looks like either Phosgaurd - which is an aluminum based phosphate remover/ absorber ( 2 things with this product, 1 it leaches PO4 when exhausted, unlike GFO and 2 some soft corals such as Toadstools and leathers, occasionally react badly to the presence of the aluminum)

the other thing it could be is Purigen ( great product that does a similar job to carbon and then some IME)

 

It was purigin. looks like i should invest in this stuff but you think i should stay away from the chemi-pure elite(phosphate remover) i just feel like my phosphates are high because my macro grows like crazy and i'm still fighting a war with GHA and red grape macro algae, as well as that green micro algae film that covers my tank glass every week.

hate saying this but im still too new to know ways of creating water quality solutions to avoid these types of algae from growing out of control every week or two

 

Best to force water through it. While carbon and GFO can work passively, they don't work as efficiently when used passively. Basically, the power of them is in their surface area, their surfaces are full of little dimples and such providing lots of surface area to adsorb various molecules. If you don't force water through it though, the water can channel and never really contact large amount of available surface area, so, it will exhaust instantly and be fairly ineffective.

 

I definitely think you should run GFO, but I'm not convinced chemi-pure elite is a very effective means of running GFO. I keep hearing lots of people with cyano problems and when I ask about GFO and GAC, they say they are running chemi-pure elite. I know a lot of people swear by it and it may work well to a point, but GAC and GFO have different optimal flow rates and last varying amounts of time, so, mixing them together seems less than ideal. Also, GFO does work a bit better in a reactor, although, not critical, it just seems to me that with how much they charge for chemi-pure elite, you could by a good reactor, and high grade GAC and GFO and run them more efficiently independently.


Also BTW, the grape algae will need to be removed, I've never heard of anyone having much success against it via nutrient reduction. GFO should be pretty effective against GHA though.

 

What do you recomend doing without purchasing a reactor? I was considering just sticking one of those purigin bags against my overflow so water is forced to go through it at a decent rate. Just trying to make my water quality as pristine as possible without sucking away nutrients. I have a hydor slim-skim nano on the way as well, and just added a 5000k light to my fuge so I hope this starts to battle some of my algae problems

 

Sounds good. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure about the optimal flow rate for purigen. As long as water is forced through it should work okay though, if it is within the recommended flow rate. You can also add GAC and GFO with the same method. Generally you Don't exceed about 200gph with GFO though for example. GAC a little higher, but probably not over 400.