Carbon: How often/much do you run carbon?

Originally Posted by Thinkin Reef

I run carbon 24/7 , and change 3 cups of it every 6 weeks roughly.It is amazing on Ozzie's tank. He tried carbon "the expensive stuff" , LOL i use cheap or what ever i can get , anyhow his acros started to die after he tried carbon! on a few occasions now .

I'll have to get him to reply so he can explain it .Very strange !

Thanks Andrew lol Yep i have chosen Never

The reason i have had bad luck with carbon not just once but twice. I have had RTN with my SPS corals thats why i will never touch that stuff again and i don't see the need for it as my water clarity is pretty clear and all my SPS are thriving. Had bad luck about 5 years ago with it and also i have had bad luck with it at the start of the year from it, which wiped out all my big colony's acros and i had to start almost from scratch. I will start a tank journal soon with my small little SPS corals .

I put down every month or so. I've found that my water clarity parameters are fine, but I do weekly water changes religiously. I usually do 15% a week. I want to get a reactor to run carbon more reguarly though, as I do see the benefits.

As for leaching, so carbon's do, but that's usually the cheap ****. I've read that some suppliers wash their carbon, but the wash contain's po4

Originally Posted by shmoliken

chris, so, are there any downside anything else that needs to accompany the carbon? could i attach a double ply mesh bag of tightly packed carbon and run the end of my discharge hose with all that flow through it? not as good or effective as a reactor, but cheaper.

You should rinse it well to get any dust off of it before adding it to you system and you should also pack it tightly in the bag or reactor so it dosent grind itself into dust. When you first add it you want to start off slow because it will clear the water drasticlly and that extra clearity can light shock your corals

The full flow from your over flow might be too much but if you hang the bag a few inches down stream from the outlet that should work

Originally Posted by Thinkin Reef

I run carbon 24/7 , and change 3 cups of it every 6 weeks roughly.It is amazing on Ozzie's tank. He tried carbon "the expensive stuff" , LOL i use cheap or what ever i can get , anyhow his acros started to die after he tried carbon! on a few occasions now .

I'll have to get him to reply so he can explain it .Very strange !

Hard to say what could have caused it but my guess would be light shock

thanks chris. will do this weekend. susan sez hi to u and barb, so do i

Tell her we said Hi back

Originally Posted by chris&barb

The ozone can react with bromide (i think) in the water and make something like bromate (again i think) which is like bleach. This talks all about ozone http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/rhf/index.php and specifically some of its dangers starting here. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/rhf/index.php#15

Any PO4 that could be left behind from the making of the carbon and leach into the aquarium would be small that it nothing to worry about.

In the report, It was targeting high dose which will cause ill effect. I tried carbon before Ozone, water clarity cannot be match, It is like fish fly in the air without water. It is also so much easier that i just set a timer to switch on/off without the need to do any carbon change. I think at short interval and low dose, it will not cause any ill impact to the tank. JMO

Yes but those compounds are still produced and could build up over time. A small amount of carbon on the effluent will easily remove these compounds and you would never have to worry about it.

Honestly, with the amount i feed into the tank, i'm sure it is not going to be a concern since it will be break down by Biological means with my vortech blowing directly at the life rock surface. Nevertheless, i will try to add some carbon together with my rowas.

In my opinion, controlling P is still my top pirority. As P is oftenly neglected and prohibiting growth in our tank.

I agree that controlling PO4 levels is something everyone should do but the amount of PO4 added from carbon (over the 30 days of use) is less then what is added in just one day from foods.

I should also add that if you do start to dd carbon do it slowly. Since you havent been using it, adding it now will clear your water more.

I feed my tank a DIY food mix. It's soaked in RO/DI water to strip it off nutrients. It's then soaked in vitamin's to put back in the good stuff. When I tested my food, I got no reading in the end for no3 and po4

Originally Posted by Jeff

In the report, It was targeting high dose which will cause ill effect. I tried carbon before Ozone, water clarity cannot be match, It is like fish fly in the air without water. It is also so much easier that i just set a timer to switch on/off without the need to do any carbon change. I think at short interval and low dose, it will not cause any ill impact to the tank. JMO

I was using ozone for only 2 months , raised redox from 300 to 400 slow and then stop working and redox is from 430-440 for around 6 months now ozone just help to raised redox to the desire number . Now my ozonizer which i pay big bucks is useless.

i used ozone also for a while until it shocked me. i removed it right after

Originally Posted by chris&barb

i used ozone also for a while until it shocked me. i removed it right after

what do you mean shocked you ; electricity;

Yes. Some how it shorted out and when i put my hand in the water ZAP!!!!