Running carbon.

[JPergamo]

I recently took my gfo/carbon mix offline and absolutely love the results. I currently have a mixed reef, a 180 that is only sparsely populated with small coral. Corals have gone from pale and not growing well to being much healthier and happy looking, also coloring up better.
My question is: do most of you guys run carbon nonstop? Only once in a while when needed? Do you think carbon will strip the water of nutrients that the corals need or use? I just miss the crystal clear water i had, but am loving my current response from corals.

 

[mtraylor]

Well I run carbon 24/7 and I run GFO 24/7. My corals are vibrant and pop and I have no issues. I have carbon and GFO from bulkreef supply. I have used all levels of both but now I solely use the rox 0.8 carbon and the high capacity GFO. They just work better and last longer and oh they rinse easily.

 

[mtraylor]

Oh BTW I have a mixed reef 255 custom. I feed twice a day.

 

[JPergamo]

Well I run carbon 24/7 and I run GFO 24/7. My corals are vibrant and pop and I have no issues. I have carbon and GFO from bulkreef supply. I have used all levels of both but now I solely use the rox 0.8 carbon and the high capacity GFO. They just work better and last longer and oh they rinse easily.

I used brs as well. I feel like i just over skimmed and fed too sparingly. I would always get readings of 0 phos and 0 nitrate so i wanted to try something.

 

[wkscott]

I run carbon 24/7. It removes odors, color, soft coral toxins and only a small amount of other organics. I only change it every 4 weeks and it probably exhausts or plugs up the first week.

 

[mtraylor]

Well I have never seen 0 on my phosphates. They stay around 0.04 to 0.1 if I forget to check my phosphates often. I change my carbon once every 2 to 4 weeks as well.

0 phosphates is an issue. You can bleach corals out and they will loose color. You need to manage your phosphates a little looser than you are now.

FYI
My aquarium is 255g, and I do not perform many large water changes. Maybe 2 to 3 a year. That is about it. Of course there is water being replaced every day and with skimming etc.

 

[JPergamo]

Yea, i was happy at the 0s on my hanna checker for a long time but realized nothing was really thriving so i wanted to try a different approach. I was so hell bent against nutrients i think it did more harm than good for my particular system. I think im going to add my carbon only back online and see how it responds.

 

[Charterreefer]

How much carbon do you use? You might want to try using half of whatever you are using and see how that goes. If you have it in a reactor you can also put the pump on a timer and run it 12 hours on 12 hours off.

 

[mtraylor]

Yea, i was happy at the 0s on my hanna checker for a long time but realized nothing was really thriving so i wanted to try a different approach. I was so hell bent against nutrients i think it did more harm than good for my particular system. I think im going to add my carbon only back online and see how it responds.

Yeah your system is pretty clean. You know where things need to be, so I think you are on the right track. I never used GFO until my bioload increased. Oh and I liked SPS.