Yesterday's poll looked at the use/frequency of using GFO. Thought it might be interesting to see who uses GAC on their frequency.
I have a reactor and carbon on standby for whenever I do anything in my tank that I feel warrants the use of a little carbon, such as fragging my leather coral. I do weekly water changes so I feel like running carbon in addition to that would be a waste of money.
I have a bag of carbon in the sump. I just started to use it and it seems to work well. Will change every two weeks. I’ve looked into a reactor but for the price, a bag stuffed in the sump works.
Always, I rinse it well to reduce HLLE risk (dust is a leading cause as we have learned). I also like it as a buffer for any nasties that get in!
BRS reactor running 24/7. Change it out monthly or so. Probably not frequently enough but hey... what are you gonna do?
I do a water change every weekend. When I do, I'll run some carbon in a hang on the back filter for a day just to clear the water up as I have no mechanical filtration running normally.
I run it all the time I change it every 4 weeks. I have four bags of it in my filters so every two weeks two bags are changed.
That is great to know thanks for that little tip. I always rinse first but didn’t knot it can cause hille
I have a reactor on the shelf also. I run some in a bag sometimes . Could never really see any difference .
I keep a bag of GAC in the sump right next to the the return pump intake 24/7 and change it every 4 weeks. Are there any theories that using GAC causes problems?
I've read a few articles linking HLLE in tangs with excessive carbon use. No other problems im familiar with
Theoretically, GAC can cause corals to be burned by excessive lighting if the use of GAC causes the tank water to become far cleaner and less yellow than before use of GAC.
I run GAC 24/7. It reduces the risk of me coming in contact with something possibly harmful being released by my inhabitants and at the same time, if I were to introduce any harmful chemicals when working in the tank, GAC has me covered.
I've had issues in the past that made my tanks a little too nutrient poor, so now I only flip the reactors on for a few days a month.
For the people who do not use it all the time. Does the water in the reactors become stagnant if sitting for too long?
Activated carbon was one of the causes of your nutrient poor tank? At times, I've had a second reactor on my tank to run GFO (no longer using GFO, though), during the times it was offline with no media in it, I just kept a slow flow running through the reactor off my manifold. I wouldn't want to let it sit with stagnant water in it.