Activated Carbon....Can you reuse?

[clhardy5]

Total newbie here..... Tanks been up and running for 3 months - seeded from an established tank.

I got a bag of Chemipure this week, and put it in my tank. Then I read that it is not necessary to run activated carbon all the time, and may not be that great for fairly new tanks....so....I took it out. My question is....can I save it and use it later? If so, how should it be stored? It was only in my tank for 1 day. Should I put it back in and leave it alone? What are the benefits from running carbon? Do corals and anemones do ok with it? The reason I ask, is when I originally put it in, both my zoa/plays and my anemone didn't look happy.....but that may just be because my hand was in the tank....

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Reef.]

I use it 24/7 some don’t use it at all, some only now and again.

it’s up to you which you choose, you will get many different answers on here, do your research and decide what is best for your tank.
I think it’s worth using all the time, it’ll catch toxins from the corals, any stray chemicals that may make it into the tank and keeps the water clear, if you do use it, make sure to rinse it first, I use old tank water on a water change.
I guess you could reuse it as it’s only 1 day old but I wouldn’t, it’s cheap enough to throw away, storing may cause bacteria to build in it etc not worth the risk.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

After a certain point you cannot reuse it. The reason being, activated carbon almost acts like a sponge and it absorbs whatever you’re using it to filter out. After a certain point it is basically “full” and can’t absorb anymore

 

[Billdogg]

I use carbon (not overpriced chemipure) 24/7/365 and have for over 30 years. Although I think I read someplace a long time ago that you could, indeed, "reactivate" it, it seemed like a whole lot of trouble considering just how long a 5g bucket of the stuff from BRS will last. I change it out about every 6 weeks or so, or sooner if one of the corals starts to look poorly.

 

[Pistondog]

Total newbie here..... Tanks been up and running for 3 months - seeded from an established tank.

I got a bag of Chemipure this week, and put it in my tank. Then I read that it is not necessary to run activated carbon all the time, and may not be that great for fairly new tanks....so....I took it out. My question is....can I save it and use it later? If so, how should it be stored? It was only in my tank for 1 day. Should I put it back in and leave it alone? What are the benefits from running carbon? Do corals and anemones do ok with it? The reason I ask, is when I originally put it in, both my zoa/plays and my anemone didn't look happy.....but that may just be because my hand was in the tank....

Any advice is appreciated.

Carbon pulls organic molecules out of the water of different sizes into its pores. The organics might be some fish waste, coral defensive toxins, or hand cream residue, if any.
If there is nothing in the water, it does nothing, except get wet.
Only in the tank for a day, put it back in and leave it for the length of time the ChemiPure blue instructions say, or a little longer in not much load, assuming the tank has cycled.
Not sure if true, but some sources say a biofilm forms on any gac after a few days, blocking its effectiveness.
I run brs rox in a reactor and change it monthly.
I think the reason for not running it in a new tank is to give the nitrifying bacteria a chance to eat without depriving them of what the gac might capture.