Carbon Question: How often do you run it and how often do you change it?

[OwduaNM]

Carbon Poll: How often do you run it and how often do you change it?

What is Carbon Filtration?

"Commonly used in reef tanks, activated carbon is great for a whole variety of reasons, ranging for removal of general contaminants, dissolved organics, undesirable odors, yellowing pigments in the water, removing the build-up of toxins that corals and algae emit to fight each other, and much more. Other than manual removal via water changes, we would say the number one reason reefers use activated carbon is to remove yellowing pigments in the water. Water coloration is both a visual indicator of pollution building up in the water, but also make the corals drabber and can quickly reduce the overall power transfer from the light to the bottom of the tank by 30% or more. You may not think your water is yellow, but the best time to notice is actually when the lights are out the water should be crystal clear with near zero yellow tinting. Even better next time you do a water change fill up a bucket with a white bottom, and you'll see precisely how yellow water may be. It should be a crystal-clear with any color being present being a slight blue tint." - BulkReefSupply.com

So let's talk about it!

1. How often are you running carbon to filter your water?

2. How often are you replacing your carbon?

3. What size aquarium do you have?

4. Are you using a media reactor to filter your water through the carbon or some other method?

I run 24/7

Up until recently I was only changing every 3 months. I am moving to a monthly after learning that the carbon loses effectiveness fairly quickly.

I have multiple freshwater plus a 32.5 saltwater.

No media reactor. I have not reached that level in the hobby yet.

 

[TexanCanuck]

Here's a really good article that takes a more scientific approach to answering this question:

 

[TexanCanuck]

Carbon In The Reef Tank - Part 2 (Repost) | Melev's Reef

Richard Harker continues this topic in Part 2: Close-up of carbons tested in this two-part series. Clockwise from upper left-hand corner: Carbon from Lifegard, Hydrocarbon 2, carbon from ESV and carbon from Seachem.

www.melevsreef.com

The conclusion?

1) 3 tablespoons for every 50 gallons of total water volume
2) Only run it for 12 hours per week
3) change it every week
4) put the carbon in a reactor
5) flow rate through the reactor should not exceed 1x tank volume PER DAY

 

[TexanCanuck]

Here are the links to the original article

Part 1 - http://web.archive.org/web/20000918...om/fish2/aqfm/1998/may/features/1/default.asp

Part 2 - http://web.archive.org/web/20001205...m/fish2/aqfm/1998/june/features/1/default.asp

 

[James Emory]

I rarely use carbon and don't even stock it. Only buy when I need. I feed carbon is a double edge sword, it definitely removes organics and cleans the water up but along with that, there are unknown trace elements removed. If it can removed copper it must be capable of removing needed elements in trace amounts.

 

[DeputyDog95]

My tank is about 120g net volume.

I use a small Reef Octopus reactor.

I dose trace elements during the day, so I'm experimenting with running the carbon reactor for 12 hours, overnights. I'm going under the assumption that I'm at least giving the corals an opportunity to suck up those trace elements during the day when they're active before I start filtering them out with carbon at night.

I do have the reactor on my apex and it does run for 10 mins, every two hours during the day as well to keep the water inside from getting funky.

I figure there is probably no need to run it constantly, plus it will extend the life of the carbon as well as hopefully leave some of the trace elements in the tank that I'm continually adding.

 

[X-37B]

On my 120 I run 2/3 cup of rox 24/7.
I also dose DSR EZ Trace trace daily at 8ml.

 

[WiscoFishNut]

I run 50 grams of Rox Carbon & 100 grams of GFO 24/7 in a dual media reactor. I'm also dosing all for reef 3 times a day. I feel like its a good safety net..