shelf live carbon cartridges and tests?

W

Wat2Go

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Feb 23, 2007
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I got a 29gallon (for free!) with ALL supplies (filters, heater, decorations etc) from someone's granddad. He kept EVERYTHING, so now I am wondering what the shelf live of all this stuff is. I threw away all the flakes, but I got cartridges from 2002 (in plastic) and tests from 2004. Throw away?

L.
 
The cartidges should be good if kept dry, and the test kits have an expiration date. You sure the date is not that?

Gratz on the tank BTW! ;)
 
Carbon will adsorb chemicals out of the air too, so if they haven't been kept sealed, they might not be good anymore. If they were in closed containers or bags, I'd use them.
 
This tank, oh man. Found a listing on one of my yahoo groups. Someone giving away a 29gallon will all supplies. So I immediately jumped and asked if I could please have it. Went to pick it up the same evening and the woman gave me about 5 huge boxes with supplies and told me she inherited the tank from her grand dad and tried to set it up, but "the fish kept dying and her heart wasn't in it..". I opened the boxes and found this amazing stuff. Antique filters (I couldn't figure out how to work them), carefully wrapped air stones and tubes, all booklets from all supplies, metal thermometers (I guess it was ok to put metal in a tank at the time (lol), 2 heaters, various nets, maybe 20 plastic plants, cartridges, a huge variation in flakes etc etc, and some handwritten notes from her granddad. He must have been into fish keeping big time! I returned the hand written notes...and plan to send the woman some pictures once this tank is completely set up!

I will throw away the cartridges...I guess I can't assume they have been kept air tightly sealed for 5 years...

L.
 
What a good deal you got!
 
Amonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH tests (all API) with sell date 2004. Cartridge bags had small slices in them so if air compromises them.... I did throw all away.
 
In response to your question, each reagent bottle has a Lot # printed on
the bottle. The last four digits are the month and year of manufacture.
Example: Lot # 28A0102. This is a pH reagent manufactured in January of
2002. Pond Care Wide Range pH, Ammonia, High Range pH, Nitrate,
Phosphate, Copper, Calcium and GH all last for three years. Nitrite and
KH will last for four years. Freshwater pH(low range) and Pond Care Salt
Level will last for five years. I would not trust these kits after they
have expired.
 
I wake up at four in the morning thinking: if air compromises carbon cartridges, how do you deal with that once you have opened the packet??? There is three in a bag...So am I just going to assume air doesn't compromise it THAT quickly?
Didn't really matter for the cartridges that came in the boxes, they were way
over the sell date, but it does matter if you do not want to change cartridges every two to four weeks but only use them to take out medication from the water...


L.
 
PURE carbon can be 'recharged' simply by placing out in the sun for a few days. If the carbon is treated and/or in with otehr material I woudn't know about that.
 
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