Activated Carbon

Okay I have always heard not all carbons are created equal. I use Aqua-Tech activated carbon. I buy it from Wal-mart. Nothing else is offered in my area so if I want something different I have to order it. It is distributed by United Pet Group Inc. Anybody know if this stuff releases phosphates? There really needs to be a good carbon reference imo. Thanks

 

I know this might be hard to comment on...but I am going to bump this anyways

 

I don't know the quality of your carbon but I doubt it is the best. I use Bulk Reef Supply ROX0.8. Supposed to be very good and no phosphates released.

 

I use the same, very good stuff.

 

Will have to get some of this stuff the next time I load my reactor. I have the 2 lil fishies reactor. Should I use BRS' GFO or continue with the phosban 2 lil fishies recommends?

 

BRS' GFO is good stuff. I like it. Be careful with the ROX 0.8 carbon though. It's great carbon, but mine had a tendency to sneak out of my Phosban and get into my display tank. Try to make sure it stays in its place.

 

Thanks. There are so many mixed reviews on carbon I cant decide whether to spend the money to order the stuff or just keep the with the cheap stuff. Some say all carbon if rinsed properly with RODI water will NOT release phoshates. I dont know which is true and I am not trying to be cheap. Frugal would be a better statement.

 

I get the feeling part of the problem is, while we all know it takes out bad "stuff," we're not really able to effectively and objectively measure the stuff it takes out. If it's doing it's job, it just is. My gut says if you have no phosphate problem, the Walmart stuff is probably okay. If you're seeing phosphates, carbon is one place to look. The ROX does have the advantage of being compact... that alone made it great for my wife's 20g. I only have room for one reactor under the tank and I can use high density GFO and ROX together in a BRS reactor.

People have definitely done more expert testing on these things, but carbon is just harder than most things we use to evaluate.

 

First... not all carbon is made from the same material or made by the same process.... so there is a very wide range of GAC on the market for a very wide range of uses. As far as water purification there are mountains of info available... but sort of hard to determine what we need for our tanks.

I simply trust BRS, period. Don't know if they are the "best" but I do trust them. ROX .8 has a small and large pore structure that removes all sorts of things. Some carbon has small or large... ROX has both. If you want to be frugal... at least use their lignite based carbon. I doubt Walmart has carbon made from a quality source from a quality process.

Second... it is quite inefficient to run carbon and GFO together. Both have different flow requirments and both have different depletion rates. I don't know what Phosban is. Wether it is aluminum based or iron based. Some say aluminum based is bad for reef tanks so I stuck with iron based GFO.

GFO needs to be tumbled to keep it from sticking together. Carbon is too soft to be tumbled and it will disintigrate. GFO needs slow flow to just barely tumbble it.... carbon can take high flow, but it does not NEED high flow. You can run carbon and GFO in tandom in seperate reactors, but it is not good to run them in the same reactor. If you only have one, then switch back and forth... run GFO for 2-3 weeks... run a bit of carbon for a week.

 

my feelings are very similar

there are no hard and fast rules for the use of carbon
example - I cant say "use 100 grammes per 50 gallons and change it every 4 weeks"
that might work on some tanks , yet on other tanks it would not be enough and yet other tanks it could mean perfectly usable carbon is being discarded

as servillius states you cant measure what its taken out, and you cant see if its exhuasted

unlike other chemical media such as Purigen and Polyfilters - which have a colour change thats easy to observe and thus you know if they are exhuasted or not.

the general principle is - use what you need to maintain tank clarity and when you look down the lenght of your tank at a white piece of paper if the paper looks yellowish, its time to change the carbon
so QTY and frequency of change varies between tanks

My choice at present is Seachem Matrix , which is a pelleted form of Carbon and is more porous than many other brands, thus is more effective than some other brands I have used in a cannister (it does not compact as much as the stick type product previously used)

Matrix is also not phosphate rinsed and thus does not leach Phosphate at a later date, according the product specification on the web site

Steve