Carbon: The easiest way to maintain fresh carbon in your reef?

Conrad Noto · Jul 10, 2020

I don't think I need it. 2-55watt UV and 200mg ozone per hour keeps water clear, but use 2 -2lb bag every 4 months. Habit I suppose. Plus first 2 bags bottom of sump always left in (9 years, totally encrusted) awesome, consistant bacterial bed.

Shawn_epicurious · Jul 10, 2020

revhtree said:
I currently run carbon in a reactor but I’m looking to make it easier to keep it fresh.

Same for me exactly

Cmooreinor · Jul 10, 2020

I run in a mesh bag in a filter cup.... seems to work great. Super easy to maintain.

PachecoBoston · Jul 10, 2020

NanoReefLovers said:
I have a BRS reactor that I have been using for over a year. I would change the carbon once a month ( I didn’t need to change it any more often). Then my tang started getting HLLE so I stopped using it and within a week he/she was looking back to full health with no trace of HLLE.

BRS just made a new video and stayed the running carbon in a mesh bag was almost as effective as a reactor, almost. Just a bit slower. Since I am so short on relestate in my sunp I pulled that to make room for different equipment to take its place. I will keep the reactor in storage in case it is ever needed.

because of the HLLE scare I am going to wait a bit before I run carbon and when I do it will be put in for a day they removes. I will use it to polish the water if needed or to help IF I ever need to remove a contaminate in the case of an emergency. I don’t ever want to I’ve run it again.

What hlle?

Jovany Coronado · Jul 10, 2020

I don’t run any carbon in any of my tanks.

Isabel’s Hobby · Jul 10, 2020

I only sometimes run carbon not always. I also tried a reactor ( spectra pure ) and I hated it after just 2-3 days it seem to be stuck and no movement even the output not much water came out more like a drizzle. It’s a double and i put carbon and gfo but it was more work keeping that thing working then anything ! so I dismounted that stupid thing and I m using mesh bags again IF I m running any. Right now I only run rowa phos
No carbon at all

ForrestGump · Jul 10, 2020

Do you have it in a bag or sitting on floss?

I do not.

salty150 · Jul 10, 2020

NanoReefLovers said:
I have a BRS reactor that I have been using for over a year. I would change the carbon once a month ( I didn’t need to change it any more often). Then my tang started getting HLLE so I stopped using it and within a week he/she was looking back to full health with no trace of HLLE.

Which carbon were you using...?

salty150 · Jul 10, 2020

andrewkw said:
Get one of those Nyos reactors and an extra canister (or 2) and then you can just fill up a couple and swap when needed.

Do you have one...?

They have terrible reviews on BRS...

chaoticreefer · Jul 10, 2020

My vote is kinda misleading. My vote was reactor, in which is true, but I use a mesh bag within the reactor too. I have been using Purit.

Flippers4pups · Jul 10, 2020

PachecoBoston said:
What hlle?

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I run occasionally. No set time or frequency, just depends on water color.

I use a two little fishes phosban reactor (shameless plug for Julian! Lol) running off a manifold. About as easy as it gets. Run it for a week and then dump it.

Small tanks, I can see doing only water changes to maintain water quality and not running GAC.

Jet915 · Jul 10, 2020

I run a carbon reactor with ROX. When I change my carbon about every month, the output from the reactor is high. Over the course of the month the output slows down to a trickle, Im assuming this means that my carbon is exhausted? Anyone know?

ravi197699 · Jul 10, 2020

I built my carbon reactor with tall MTC protein skimmer tube, it is 24 inch tall and 6 inch diameter, since reactor is 7 inch taller tank my sump I just leave the lid loose and feed the reactor from the bottom (1/2") and it comes out from top on the side ( 1") and drains into the sump, carbon is in mesh bag I bought from Lowes ( paint strainer) and when its time to change the carbon I simply remove the bag and add new carbon and put the bag in the reactor, during this reactor keeps running,

The_Skrimp · Jul 10, 2020

That’s funny. I just started running some in my tank. The way I’m doing it is in a mesh bag that I placed inside of my filter sock so sort of a combination of two of these options. I did it that way so it would get a lot of water passing through it but then It’ll also be easy to remove later without having to take out the filter sock.

jd371 · Jul 10, 2020

When I run it, it's in a mesh bag that goes into a reactor. The reason is sometimes I'll run Phosguard along with the carbon and if one of them exhausts ealier it's easier to just remove the mesh bag with either the carbon or Phosguard.

salty150 · Jul 10, 2020

Doesn't putting a mesh bag in a reactor negate the benefits of having a reactor...?

chaoticreefer · Jul 10, 2020

salty150 said:
Doesn't putting a mesh bag in a reactor negate the benefits of having a reactor...?

I don't see why it would. You don't want carbon to tumble (grinding and releasing dust into your system), the bag secures it even more. Plus its just easier to clean out. Carbon gets clog no matter what. The bag has bigger holes then the carbon's pores, so I don't see the bag slowing down the flow as much as the carbon. Since there's no way to go around (like in a sump or sock) the carbon in a reactor, the water has to go through the carbon.

Something to think about for those who do the sock thing, the flow dropping out of the overflow drain into a sock could be beating the heck out of carbon, in which in return can be releasing carbon dust into your system.

trmiv · Jul 10, 2020

Mesh bag in one of my filter cups is the easiest way. I used to run a reactor but I hated changing the carbon so I stopped using it. Much easier in a bag, and it seems to work the same.