Stay away from Deep Blue Carbon

iiluisii · Feb 22, 2015

Do not use deep blue carbon here is what happened to me.

Last night I added some deep blue carbon and this morning it was leaching some type of metal maybe iron but who knows.

It did not affect my life stock but I won't chance it If I was you guys.

The rust looking pieces of carbon are magnetic and some of the carbon pieces inside the bottle are magnetic also.

I already replaced it with seachem matrix.

kacrocorals581 · Feb 22, 2015

wow how about that

iiluisii · Feb 22, 2015

I sent deep blue an email about it.

Fin · Feb 22, 2015

Check with a magnet to see if there are any magnetic particles in the carbon. This happened to me years ago with another kind of (cheap) carbon.

iiluisii · Feb 22, 2015

Yeap I did and it is magnetic the last picture shows a piece of carbon stuck on the magnet

Fin · Feb 23, 2015

Sorry, I guess I skipped over that in the OP and couldn't make out the pic. Weird that happens. My skimmer used to pull out some really rusty colored skimmate. That's how I noticed it.

iiluisii · Feb 23, 2015

The funny part about this is that the label says lab grade.

H2O · Feb 23, 2015

Kent carbon had the same problem then they did a official recall . deep blue need to do the same before they get sued

miyags · Feb 23, 2015

Thats just wrong!!!.In this hobby, they want to suck as much money out of you as possible.

Trey B · Feb 23, 2015

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Both of my tanks running the same carbon with the same issues

iiluisii · Feb 23, 2015

Deep blue has not answer yet it would be nice if they could see this thread. I belive they should recall this carbon. Also It would be nice If randy could get on this thread.

iiluisii · Feb 24, 2015

Here is deep blue answer. I wonder if they even gonna do a recall

iiluisii · Feb 24, 2015

Email

Dowtish · Feb 24, 2015

This is why I only use BRS Rox carbon. Even BRS's other lignite carbon requires so much rinsing I refuse to use it. Rox is more expensive but twice as effective so it really evens out in the end.

declanisadog · Feb 24, 2015

Wow...That's pretty scary. As Dowfish said, I feel it's worth the extra price to use the top shelf stuff now because I got tired of the dust in the lignite.

Mike J. · Feb 24, 2015

I've studied Randy Holmes-Farley's article in depth. Increased iron does spur growth in algae, okay. Then there's hypotheses on what affect it has on corals. Well, on "black reefs" iron has produced lots of algae growth and has killed all the corals.
Chemistry And The Aquarium: Iron: A Look At Organisms Other Than Macroalgae ? Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog
Black reefs: iron-induced phase shifts on coral reefs

ja4207 · Feb 24, 2015

Deep Blue Carbon has always done this. Stuff is garbage now, then and likely always will be. Ditch it for quality products like BRS Rox or Seachems.

Justinky · Feb 24, 2015

I bought Blue Lifes Carb FX Resinator when it first released and they sent me carbon ready to go other then needing to rinse, my mistake using it as it crashed my tank completely. All of my acropora RTN overnight, lost 2 fish, lost 2 S. Gigantea anemone, 2 Heteractis Magnifica and just recently lost a battle with my true blue S. Haddoni as it went through treatment twice and just never recovered. At first they blamed me for the crash and then a few days later called back and apologized saying it was their fault, they did tests on the carbon batch they sent me and it caused my pH to rise extremely fast (in their 10 minute test she said theirs went from around 8.2 to 9.4 or something).

Needless to say if I had an apex at the time I would have saved myself from the crash... They ended up mailing me two shipments of coral/fish but not enough for what I lost in total so I am still disappointed with the company. Since then I have invested in an apex and will probably never trust a new product in reefing again.

declanisadog · Feb 24, 2015

Justinky said:
I bought Blue Lifes Carb FX Resinator when it first released and they sent me carbon ready to go other then needing to rinse, my mistake using it as it crashed my tank completely. All of my acropora RTN overnight, lost 2 fish, lost 2 S. Gigantea anemone, 2 Heteractis Magnifica and just recently lost a battle with my true blue S. Haddoni as it went through treatment twice and just never recovered. At first they blamed me for the crash and then a few days later called back and apologized saying it was their fault, they did tests on the carbon batch they sent me and it caused my pH to rise extremely fast (in their 10 minute test she said theirs went from around 8.2 to 9.4 or something).

Needless to say if I had an apex at the time I would have saved myself from the crash... They ended up mailing me two shipments of coral/fish but not enough for what I lost in total so I am still disappointed with the company and after seeing this thread they obviously haven't changed. Since then I have invested in an apex and will probably never trust a new product in reefing again.

That's devastating. I guess them paying out of pocket for the destruction they cause costs less than actually changing their product. It sucks, but in the end it's all about their bottom line.