Quick Question about Carbon

[washowi]

So you think I should run one? Or is a waste of $ if I have no problems with the tank? Is it costly? Where does it hook up at? questions, questions, .........

Todd

[goodfortune]

I've been of the opinion that UV is overkill at best, but the quote from Spanky has me thinking...

- Michael

[dme330i]

Originally Posted by washowi

So you think I should run one? Or is a waste of $ if I have no problems with the tank? Is it costly? Where does it hook up at? questions, questions, .........

Todd

I definitely don't think it's a waste of money. I think the question is, do you really want to spend the money, considering the potential improvements.

Your systems look great to me already. Nonetheless, you're a big dog reefer so I know you've got extra cash burning a hole in your pocket.

[washowi]

Jon, I love ya man....Come over and help me figure out how to hook one up and I will take you golfing after here at Bradshaw Farm.

Todd

[Ray1214]

Hey what about the carbon dude. I kinda play golf. (If you count hitting that little ball and cussing a lot)

Ray

[goodfortune]

Where's Tom Wyatt?

- Michael

[dme330i]

Here's an interesting thread where several have reported improved water clarity when running UV.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...y&pagenumber=3

[tdwyatt]

I run high quality carbon (Calgon granular carbon) at 1 teaspoonful for every 10 gallons of total circulating water volume split between two bags, and I change one of the bags every other two weeks (half I change at the first of the month, the other half at mid month.) By using this method, you always have fresh carbon available, and you don't suddenly have a large drop in either trace elements or other essential substances that carbon might adsorb.

To pretreat and prepare the carbon for use: put the amount you want to use in a quart jar and add enough RO/DI water to the carbon to cover it by about twice the volume of the carbon, then put a lid on it and shake gently or swirl, then immediately vent the bottle (don't wait long, it will degass to some extent, sometimes violently if agitated too long without venting the closed container), decant the water out, add fresh RO/DI WATER to the remaining carbon granules, and repeat until the water is clean. This will clean the powder out of the granules without wasting the adsorptive capacity of the carbon on tap water's additives. Regardless of what folks say, I see dust in even high priced carbon. Using it in a reactor may be counterproductive, as the carbon granules are most often a little friable, and will break up to some extent if you have them in a fluidized reactor. This results in the fragments ending up in the tank, saturating over time, then going into equilibrium where some of the substances sequestered in the carbon may become available as the carbon elutriates some of these substances. If you use a media chamber, best to line it with a media sock or control the flow so that the carbon is not tumbled in the bottom of the media chamber.

I run carbon 24/7 along with regular water changes to maintain trace element levels from the ASW (10% system vol every 2 weeks). I've been doing this for about 10 years in this manner, and prior to that with batch changes about once every 2 months or so. I like the concept of purigen and the other resin adsorptive substance, but have not used it in the systems to date, as I have not seen the need to fix something that isn't broken, and I have the references to back up carbon use (that I dont have for these substances).

BTW, I don't use UV either, as the few months I used UV tended to slow Acroporiid growth rates in the system for specimens with rapid growth rates (measured by staghorn coral growth in cm/month linear growth rates). If your system is a semi open (to the sea) system or you use NSW for water changes, I HIGHLY recommend the use of UV, as it kills potential pathogens and parasitic organisms coming in from the sea. Although it is true that closed systems have much higher bacterial populations depending on trophic conditions in the system, many corals farm and concentrate bacteria in the mucus, and the presence of coral mucus acts as a food source for some of these populations, both pelagic and benthic, and actually drives the speciation, in the sand beds in particular, to the advantage of the stony corals (see 1980 to 1990 studies performed by Yuri Sorokin related to speciation of periphytonic communities and benthic speciation related to coral health and population densities.) I have not used UV water treatments since 1995 or so, maybe there are advances in the use of these devices, but I have not seen much to document this other than references from folks with semi open systems and their absolute need to prevent the introduction of potential pathogens and parasites into such systems. High population densities of bacteria are not necessarily adverse to good coral growths, and are not necessarily pathogenic by any means. They may be beneficial, and although I have no data to back up the comments, reductions of bacterial pops may actually be detrimental to captive coral propagation.

Keep in mind that this is ponly my experiences with these conditions, YMMV

A few carbon filtratiion references:

http://www.calgoncarbon.com/

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=40398


HTH

[ASpec]

I picked up some Purigen based on comments which came about from this thread. Great stuff. My water looks great. I'll no longer be using carbon, Purigen replaced it. It was a debate between Purigen and Chemi-Pure... I'd still like to try Chemi-Pure but the Purigen is working great.

[tdwyatt]

yup, I like purigen, but try buying enough Purigen to treat around 800 or so gallons oc circulation a month...


It ain't cheap, not like carbon is.

[wasabi]

purigen is fine for larger organics,but it does not remove harmful elements or chemicals...carbon is a better mechanical filter. from what i understand running both would be the way to go.carbon does remove some trace elelments and desireables also.if you figure replacememnt costs purigen can be recharged and is cheaper in the long run...

[Mafiaman]

Skimming removes large protiens
Matrix Carbon removes middle range elements
Purigens removes the smallest of elements.

The proper use of all three would yeld the best benifits.

[Mafiaman]

By the way, ALL carbon has some phosphates even the most expensive stuff. (per Brian Baker seachem rep)

[Loverotties]

I'm going to try Purigen from what people say.I bought a 250ml bottle to try on my 50.Hope thats a good size to try.

[robsmith32]

Way i look at it, purigen gets organics and some mechanical, noted by crud build up.
carbon takes out the chemical as well as crud.
skimming takes out what it can before the above.
UV helps to change the phosphate the carbon leaches out to something skimmer can take out, Have to have pretty good water quality already for the UV to function.


Of course, this is my view of it, and I'm NO expert. and in this reference, NO isn't for Normal output.