Adding extra charcoal to Penguin 200?

J

JPA

AC Members
Dec 14, 2009
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As you can tell from my previous thread, I am about to add a piece of mopani driftwood into my tank, and although I have boiled/soaked it, I am expecting to have a lot of tannins to remove.

I also know that activated charcoal should remove the orange tint from the water. However, it is far too expensive for me to be adding entirely new filter cartridges to my penguin.

Is it possible to buy a jar of loose activated charcoal and somehow introduce it to the penguin 200 filter? If so, how would I go about doing that?

Thanks!!!
 
The filter has slot in front of the filter pad that will hold a small media cartridge. They sell those online for a few bucks. If you don't go that route I guess you could put some charcoal in a coarse media bag and insert it in that space. Just be carefull not to impede the biowheel or the water flow.
 
I used to use loose carbon in all my bio-wheel filters. The reason was not only the cost of the filter carts. but more because of the small amount of carbon they place in said carts. I'm a Chem major and lets be honest. In an avg. sized tank that 2-6 grams of carbon they use is only doing anything for 2-7 days depending on tank size and bio-load. ALL carbon as limit as to how much it can extract from the water, once that carbon is full it basically becomes a Bio filter itself. Just as said above me use a filter bag that is not going to impede water flow and make sure that bio-wheel still turns !!

As a side note I did a small experment with carbon last month as a personal interest lab with my prof. The best carbon per gallon ratio in a proper stocked tank is 7-8 grams per gallon of water and that should hold up for 25-45 days.

Matt
-Dendrochirus-

Edit - Also Tannins ahve anti-bacterial and anti fungal properties as well as promoting fertility in some fish. Just food for thought.
 
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depending on the fish in the tank i just wouldnt worry about it. most community fish are SA anyway and love blackwater tanks.. a 50% water change every week (which ya should do anyway) will get rid of the tannins soon enough
 
Dendrochirus said:
I used to use loose carbon in all my bio-wheel filters. The reason was not only the cost of the filter carts. but more because of the small amount of carbon they place in said carts. I'm a Chem major and lets be honest. In an avg. sized tank that 2-6 grams of carbon they use is only doing anything for 2-7 days depending on tank size and bio-load. ALL carbon as limit as to how much it can extract from the water, once that carbon is full it basically becomes a Bio filter itself. Just as said above me use a filter bag that is not going to impede water flow and make sure that bio-wheel still turns !!

As a side note I did a small experment with carbon last month as a personal interest lab with my prof. The best carbon per gallon ratio in a proper stocked tank is 7-8 grams per gallon of water and that should hold up for 25-45 days.

Matt
-Dendrochirus-

Edit - Also Tannins ahve anti-bacterial and anti fungal properties as well as promoting fertility in some fish. Just food for thought.
Click to expand...

I wonder how many grams of carbon are in a tbsp. I just filled a media bag with 5 tbsp of Black Diamond for my 55g tank. I don't have a scale, yet.
 
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