Question about Carbon

[Sam]

What does Carbon remove from reef aquarium?

 

I know it clears water (color) but what other bad/good stuff does it pull out?

 

Also how often does it needs to be changed from the tank (Meaning at what point it get saturated and possibly start releasing stuff back in the tank?)

[jason the filter freak]

Change it at least monthly, if you don't it begins to leach impurities back into the water.

[davjbeas]

Carbon will clean the water of polutants. it will also remove trace elements.

Once the carbon is full of polutants(1-2 weeks of use) it will still absorb trace elements.

Also products of coral warefare will be removed from the water with carbon(I heard this from somewhere else and am repeating it)

I rinse new carbon in RODI water before using in a filter(the carbon actually sizzles in rodi water)

 

I recommend using the magnum 350 canister filter. but a phosban or fluidised media filter will work as well.

 

 

David B.

[reefmontalvo]

Your gonna want to change your carbon in the reactor about once a month. As for it's purpose the carbon does remove the yellow tint in the water, but it also removes any orders and clarifies the water. Which in turn allows more light to penetrate to your corals. This is good and bad, too much clarity and you can burn your corals with metal halides too little and well your corals don't grow as fast. I use about a cup of carbon in my reactor and it dies just fine and I change it every month.

 

Also to add on to Dvvid's repsonse. I use a Kent Marine Phos-ban reactor cost about $50, with phospahate absorbing media. I haven't had any trouble.

Edited August 8, 2008 by reefmontalvo

[MisterTang]

Just went through some issues of this myself - DO NOT use the cheap aquarium carbon at Wal-Mart, as this will introduce algae-growing phosphates into your system. Sean at AQUACO helped me troubleshoot this issue, and was able to recommend a phosphate-free carbon that he uses, and it has helped to cut back on some of my nuisance algae growth. Also, run a PhosBan-like product. If you look up my thread in the dedicated tank forum, I included shots of a DIY "carbon thingie", and it has been incredibly effective at removing larger particulate matter, as well as 'scrubbing' the water.

[davelin315]

If I'm not mistaken, carbon absorbs a lot of stuff by bonding to it. It's got a lot of "free parking" for other electrons and so when it forms covalent bonds with it, it bonds them and takes them out of the water. Here's a website that tells the basics of why carbon works: http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/m...rheads/1.15.htm

 

As for why it leaches things back into the water, I'm not sure.

[Highland Reefer]

An Overview of Activated Carbon in the Marine Tank

 

By James R. Layton: http://www.hallman.org/filter/gac.html

[Sharkb8]

As the article says: "organic acids, phenolics, proteins, carbohydrates, hormones, and antibiotic compounds" add to that phytochemicals, big fancy hydrophobic and hydrophilic heterocyclics excreted by the livestock, etc. Carbon has been used for decades in organic synthetic chemistry and other laboratory applications and yet nobody can really ever predict what will adsorb/absorb to it and what will not and under which conditions (pH, temp, salt conc., etc). So its a big crap shoot. So it will pull out good stuff along with bad. But the long and short is, most of the stuff it pulls out (as far as we know) is bad stuff and what the skimmer doesn't take out, the carbon helps to eliminate. Plus, I think carbon helps to eliminate more dilute chemicals from the water which skimmers can sometimes miss because they are not present in high enough quantities, but that's just my opinion.

 

My two cents.

[Highland Reefer]

As the article says: "organic acids, phenolics, proteins, carbohydrates, hormones, and antibiotic compounds" add to that phytochemicals, big fancy hydrophobic and hydrophilic heterocyclics excreted by the livestock, etc. Carbon has been used for decades in organic synthetic chemistry and other laboratory applications and yet nobody can really ever predict what will adsorb/absorb to it and what will not and under which conditions (pH, temp, salt conc., etc). So its a big crap shoot. So it will pull out good stuff along with bad. But the long and short is, most of the stuff it pulls out (as far as we know) is bad stuff and what the skimmer doesn't take out, the carbon helps to eliminate. Plus, I think carbon helps to eliminate more dilute chemicals from the water which skimmers can sometimes miss because they are not present in high enough quantities, but that's just my opinion.

 

 

 

My two cents.

 

So, Does this Bio/organochemist use carbon?

 

If so how much per 100 g. & how often do you change it? And what type do you use? Curiosity kills the cat.

 

Edited August 8, 2008 by Highland Reefer

[Sam]

Good Info guys. Thanks

[dschflier]

What does Carbon remove from reef aquarium?

 

Carbon is most effective at removing organics. The larger the organic, the stronger the adsorptive force will be. As long as the carbon you are using has the proper size pore structure. Carbon also removes less solubable things easier then more soluable. Gelbstoff, which is the organic compund which turns aquarium water yellow is a very obvious thing you can see removed by many carbons. Still if you use the wrong type of carbon it will have minimal impact on removal. In the closed system of a reef aquarium carbon is excellent at removing the proteins often excreeted by coral warfare, as stated by davjbeas. It will also remove fish excreetion,as in slime and waste.

 

Many people have stated that carbons will remove trace elements. This may be true but I have never seen a study which has determined this. I have been looking because I am writing an article for my web site.

 

How often a carbon needs to be changed will vary based on may factors. A month seems to work because it is easy to remember. If you are having a major problem in your tank you may need to do it more often. I tend to look at my tank see how it looks and check the water parameters. If everything is staying constant I wont change it. If you are using a media reactor and have a basic sediment strainer or keep it out of a lot of sediment your carbon will last longer.

 

Using a media reactor will make your media much more effective. This is because, the primary way that Carbon cleans aquarium water is through Liquid phase adsorption which is a type of Physical adsorption. Liquid Phase adsorption is a relatively slow process and because of this it is important to be able to control the speed at which water runs through the carbon.

 

The type of carbon is also very important. The two primary carbon sold in the aquarium hobby are activated Bitumonous and Lignite carbon. I prefer Lignite because the pore size is more suitable for large organic compounds, which are common in the reef system. Bitumonous has a higher micro pore structure and lignite has a larger meso and macro pore structure.

 

I currently have Black diamond, Kent marine which are both biumonous and Reef choice which is a lignite carbon. I will be getting a couple of others and will be testing them over the coming year to see how they perform. My plan is to write a couple of articles detailing what I find.

 

It is also important as MisterTang said not to use cheap un-tested carbon. I would assume Most reputable names will not use Phophoric acid in the activation process of the carbon they sell. If you are not sure just put some carbon in a cup of RO water, stir it up and let it sit for a couple of days and then test it for Phosphates.

 

I hope this information is helpfull.

[Steve G]

This thread is extremely useful. Does anyone know if carbon becomes any less useful if it's been sitting on a shelf (shrink-wrapped) for years? I'm guessing not.

[Integral9]

This thread is extremely useful. Does anyone know if carbon becomes any less useful if it's been sitting on a shelf (shrink-wrapped) for years? I'm guessing not.

I'd say it'll be good for about the next 5700 years [1] so long as the packaging can hold up that long. If it gets exposed to the air / anything outside of it's environment it'll begin absorbing free-radicals.

 

[1]: carbon-14's half-life is 5,700 years.

Edited August 11, 2008 by Integral9

[treesprite]

good thread, thanks.

[sen5241b]

good thread, thanks.

 

 

Chemi-pure (which many people swear by) is actually carbon. The label says you only need to change it out after several months.

[davelin315]

Chemi-pure (which many people swear by) is actually carbon. The label says you only need to change it out after several months.

Haven't used it in a long time, but I think it's also got some resins as well.