Carbon replacement in canister

D

Delgard

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Sep 20, 2006
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I have 2 x Fluval 304s for my 125g tank. In the cannister are carbon "bags". I have gone to the available shops and all I can find are jugs of loose carbon (no bags).

Can I replace the bags of carbon in the cannister with loose carbon? I understand that I should soak the carbon before I put it in. But, I am scared to fill the canister basket with loose carbon and mess up the entire filter, or my tank.

Thanks,
Delgard
 
First of all, the carbon is not a necessary component to run a healthy aquarium and most setups do better without it. The carbon becomes dead in a few days to a week so that means you will have to keep replacing the carbon which can get expensive. Usually carbon is only used to pull medications out of the water or to absorb bad odors in the water. If the tank appears cloudy for some reason other then a bacteria bloom, the carbon can prove useful for a limited time. If you insist on using the carbon anyways, then I would look into putting the loose carbon in something like a media bag and then placing it inside the canister. Actually an unused ladies nylon stocking will work just as well.

Marinemom
 
You can buy media bags specifically for this purpose- i would not use without a bag it will just get everywhere and be a mess to replace.

As far as carbon only being active for a few days? I would like to get a reference to where that came from - Carbon filters are used for water filtration in many applications and typcal carbon filter life is several months.
 
The usefulness of carbon dies fairly quickly in an aquarium setting. Common knowlage.

Marinemom
 
Awesome, thanks. Especially the nylon stocking trick...if I do it at all, which I don't think so.

The issue is that I lost my very first fish (crisis!). I started looking about the tank for anything funny since the tests all say good and I noticed that I am suddenly getting algae on the gravel. and on the glass (a bit). Any ideas for me to do?

In the 304's, I have ceramics in the bottom, old carbon in the middle tray and sponges in the top. I have kept the sponges clean by washing them in tank water that I have removed (not to kill any biological filtrations) from the tank. After ten months, do the ceramics need changing? Would the algae be alleviated by water changes more often?

The algae is the big issue, if any...that I am seeing.
Delgard


P.S. I am getting a bit of the same thing (algae) in my 55g tank and it has one Fluval 304.
 
Do not change the ceramics in the canister. That is where all or most of the beneficial bacteria is that will keep your tank cycled. You can however, rinse them in tank water just like you do with the sponges. I have the same media of ceramics in my canisters for the last five years and I have not changed them. There is no need to do this unless they are falling apart or they have been contaminated in some way and it has some chemical on them that would hurt the aquarium and the fish in the tank.

The algae that you are seeing is probably normal. Algae is fueled by a few things. First, lighting. If this is not a planted tank I would decrease the amount of time that the lights are on. Algae needs a light source in order to grow. Second' feedings. How much are you feeding? Algae also likes to grow in nutrient rich water which is possible with overfeeding which unfortunately we are all guilty of. And then last, water changes. If the water is not changed on a frequent basis(I have seven aquariums and all recieve weekly water changes except for the discus tank which recieves five water changes a week due to the high maintenance of discus)algae can get out of control. By doing regular water changes, you will be in essence reducing the nutrients in the water which can and will starve off a lot of the algae due to no food source. Water changes will go a long way in reducing the amount of algae that is present in the water. Also Phoshates can also be a factor in the growth of algae. Sometimes tap water can be a high source of phoshates. See if you can test your tap water for phoshates. If it has a high level this can also be a source of where the algae is coming from.

Marinemom
 
Thanks Mom, I will better monitor the food and will start making water changes weekly on both tanks. I start with ten percent a week for a month and see for any change. I think the water is the culprit changing since I under-do that.

Cheers,
Del
 
I have never seen any evidence stating implicitly that the the usefulness of carbon is just a few days. Yes, it's span of effectiveness is diminished, the poorer your water quality is, and with what quality of carbon you use.

There are too many variables to make a decision it is common knowledge and stating it as if it is scientific fact. The trend on this site is to not use it. That does not make it fact, that you do not need it. It depends on what you want for water quality.

If you are satisfied with the quality of the water in your tanks, when you do not use it, then fine. You save some money and trouble.

There are parameters and tank conditions that standard home aquarist testing kits do not anaylize for. If you took a sample of your tank in what you consider good conditions, without carbon running, and had a full run of tests run on them; then ran carbon for 24-36 hours on that tank and sampled/tested again, there would be some significant changes in the results between those tests.

The deciding factor would be for what was removed/lowered, is it beneficial to your tank. Most of us do not carry it that far. The biggest thing that I notice, is a significant increase in water clarity.

Carbon is not old school or not used much. I know of hundreds if not thousands who use it constantly, with amazing results.
 
well said bob .. i'm not a carbon user either but would suggest that the general 'effectiveness' is more like weeks to a month and certainly more than days.
 
Well activated carbon does bond to water. So I can't really see how it can last for weeks to a month in a system where water is constantly poured over it.

I would guess that a good experiment would be to run 2 similar tanks, 1 with carbon, 1 without. Test the water after 1 week then move the used carbon into the tank without for another week. From there see how well it performs.

http://home.icpf.cas.cz/ivonez/Papers/CarbonGubbins.pdf

http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/ser...00113000016006933000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes
 
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