Do you use activated carbon at all times, intermittently or never?

[DanyL]

Won't running in a reactor actually make it last shorter because more water is being pushed through the media and exhausting it faster....

They flow is fairly slow in a reactor, and its more evenly spread compared to a bag, this allows you to utilize more of the media which in turn makes it to last longer.

That’s at least the theory that made sense to me when I observed the differences after switching to a reactor.

 

[danimal1211]

From this article
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06442-5. It seems corals can meet their nutritional needs through inorganic N&P (which are measurable and well understood). To me until more is known, removing what DOCs I can through whatever methods I employ seems optimal.

 

[dstockwell]

24/7

 

[TWYOUNG]

I use activated carbon in my nano only, I have tangs (two HLLE rescues) in my 125 so no carbon there. Used to use it in my 70 but Im temporarily caring for a juv naso (2 inches) in there until my cousin gets his tank back in working order and can take the naso back and dont want him to get HLLE while I have him, that would be awful!! Especially since he is a healthy juv and those seem hard to come by these days with what Ive seen!! But to be honest I dont see much of a difference in the 70 when I had carbon and when I dont use carbon

I'm not sure the connection between carbon and HLLE is a proven fact. There seems to be some debate about that. I have a PB, WT and Yellow tang in my tank so I definitely keep it in mind. That said I use a small amount of high quality ROX 0.8 carbon, rinsed and tightly packed between multiple sponges in a reactor to minimize the likelihood of any particles escaping.

 

[TWYOUNG]

I’m not convinced does anything beneficial that I need. Water clarity? Ozone and Coral Snow. Odors? Ozone. Toxins? Ozone.

I'm not sure ozone and carbon would be interchangeable in terms of what they eliminate from the system. Even if they are few reefers seem interested in the expense and possible hazards associated with the use of ozone. I'm not against using it but but I'd definitely need someone experienced leading me through.

 

[TWYOUNG]

It could very possibly be stemmed by the early age of your system, or you simply didn’t notice the very slight tint because it does need some practice to be able to spot it the first few times, at least without filling a white bucket with water from the tank where it is more noticeable.

For me, my very first system started out with real live rocks, and been upgraded ever since - so I never really experienced a freshly cycled tank to compare.

Carbon still does have the ability to remove toxins and other unmeasurable things from the water even if clarity isn’t an issue - but I don’t know how you would tell wether it needs to be replaced or not without being able to do the water clarity test.

Edit: I’ve seen now that you’re using ozone. That explains everything tbh.

I'm not the one using ozone. I have filled white five gallon buckets with tank water and fresh sw and see no yellowing. My system is young,(18mo), but I have three large tangs and a big foxface in my 135g.

 

[rtparty]

I'm not sure ozone and carbon would be interchangeable in terms of what they eliminate from the system. Even if they are few reefers seem interested in the expense and possible hazards associated with the use of ozone. I'm not against using it but but I'd definitely need someone experienced leading me through.

Ozone is far more popular than you think and becoming even more popular with a lot of the big names now embracing it. The hazards are far overblown and often spread by misinformed or uneducated hobbyists.

Ozone and carbon provide many of the same benefits. Odors, toxins, yellowing pigments, just to name a few.

 

[DanyL]

I'm not the one using ozone. I have filled white five gallon buckets with tank water and fresh sw and see no yellowing. My system is young,(18mo), but I have three large tangs and a big foxface in my 135g.

I apologize, it seemed to me like it was implied you were using ozone in one of your previous replies and I just assumed it was the case.

I did not try to link yellowing to fish necessarily, but more to the different organisms we introduce with live rock, or otherwise introduce over the years with corals and other inhabitants we add to our tanks, as well as what these inhabitants produce by themselves.

For example the mucus and toxins produced by coralmorphs/corals/anemones/vermmited snails/etc, and even free-floating algae like phyto or just plankton in general, and other forms of organic matter.

It does not necessarily means that carbon would remove them from the water column either - it may even only influence the pigmentation they produce, or simply reduce them just enough when there are large quantities of them which some systems may have and others not, or not at all.

Personally I was also been able to observe a different behavior in my skimmer when either cutting large amounts of soft corals all at once, or using epoxy glue for example - with or without fresh carbon in the system.
LPS seem to affect this a lot less or not at all (type depended), and I did not observe this behavior with SPS at all.
Weirdly enough - in my current system it does not seem to bother my new skimmer at all.

P.S: Probably good to clarify that I’m a little drunk at this point, so I apologize in advance if everything I’ve just written here is full of typos or does not make any sense lol
But I hope it does and was written well enough to appropriately explain my point.

Anyway - Happy New Year everyone!

 

[ingchr1]

What are the yellowing compounds and is there a need to remove them for reasons other than visual appeal?

I'm not sure how one would notice. If one has strong ozone or something else to clarify the water - all good - carbon is not expensive. PS - IF you see yellowing - carbon will help.

There generally is a clear yellowing reduction when one looks appropriately. Side by side testing is useful to see it. That is what I did (photographically) with ozone and the effect is clear.

I like to use the bucket method.

Pic 1: new saltwater vs tank water

Pic 2: new saltwater vs tank water after ozone

(the tank water in both pictures are on the right.

 

[Digimes]

24/7 in the overflow but I don't change it on a normal schedule so unsure how much good it does sometimes...

 

[Miami Reef]

What are the yellowing compounds and is there a need to remove them for reasons other than visual appeal?

Probably tannins and other yellowing organic compounds. The tank just looks so much more crisp when I use ozone.

I haven’t used ozone in a week. Here’s a comparison I just did. I use activated carbon 24/7 in addition to weekly ozone, but there’s yellowing after a week.

Right is tank water. Left is new saltwater.

 

[rtparty]

Probably tannins and other yellowing organic compounds. The tank just looks so much more crisp when I use ozone.

I haven’t used ozone in a week. Here’s a comparison I just did. I use activated carbon 24/7 in addition to weekly ozone, but there’s yellowing after a week.

Right is tank water. Left is new saltwater.

The yellowing also blocks light and changes PAR to a degree

 

[ThaBeast]

I'm with @rtparty on this. I run ozone 2 hrs a night and a big UV instead of carbon. My ORP stays around 400-420, the controller is set to cut ozone if ORP goes above 450. My system is young, so I may increase ozone time in the future

 

[ingchr1]

Those that do run it 24/7, how do you determine the ideal time replace it?

1. Time based?
2. Degraded water clarity?
3. Water analysis?

I would think the goal would be to not waste it (throw out good) and to not be running expired.

 

[ingchr1]

I should be doing a water change next week. I know my water is discolored compared to new, to what extent not sure. Will do the bucket comparison and post. I have not run carbon in probably a couple of years, and it will be three weeks since my last water change.

Probably tannins and other yellowing organic compounds. The tank just looks so much more crisp when I use ozone.

I haven’t used ozone in a week. Here’s a comparison I just did. I use activated carbon 24/7 in addition to weekly ozone, but there’s yellowing after a week.

Right is tank water. Left is new saltwater.

 

[Miami Reef]

I should be doing a water change next week. I know my water is discolored compared to new, to what extent not sure. Will do the bucket comparison and post. I have not run carbon in probably a couple of years, and it will be three weeks since my last water change.

Tag me in the results.

 

[TWYOUNG]

I apologize, it seemed to me like it was implied you were using ozone in one of your previous replies and I just assumed it was the case.

I did not try to link yellowing to fish necessarily, but more to the different organisms we introduce with live rock, or otherwise introduce over the years with corals and other inhabitants we add to our tanks, as well as what these inhabitants produce by themselves.

For example the mucus and toxins produced by coralmorphs/corals/anemones/vermmited snails/etc, and even free-floating algae like phyto or just plankton in general, and other forms of organic matter.

It does not necessarily means that carbon would remove them from the water column either - it may even only influence the pigmentation they produce, or simply reduce them just enough when there are large quantities of them which some systems may have and others not, or not at all.

Personally I was also been able to observe a different behavior in my skimmer when either cutting large amounts of soft corals all at once, or using epoxy glue for example - with or without fresh carbon in the system.
LPS seem to affect this a lot less or not at all (type depended), and I did not observe this behavior with SPS at all.
Weirdly enough - in my current system it does not seem to bother my new skimmer at all.

P.S: Probably good to clarify that I’m a little drunk at this point, so I apologize in advance if everything I’ve just written here is full of typos or does not make any sense lol
But I hope it does and was written well enough to appropriately explain my point.

Anyway - Happy New Year everyone!

No worries! Go ahead and get back to your New Years partying lol!

 

[jason2459]

I'm not sure the connection between carbon and HLLE is a proven fact. There seems to be some debate about that. I have a PB, WT and Yellow tang in my tank so I definitely keep it in mind. That said I use a small amount of high quality ROX 0.8 carbon, rinsed and tightly packed between multiple sponges in a reactor to minimize the likelihood of any particles escaping.

Proven? I don't think so either. Lots of articles, discussions, and anecdotal evidence. I have experienced the anecdotal part.

I always ran acid washed lignite or ROX. All of my tangs but one were ok. My yellow belly hippo developed HLLE pretty bad. I stopped using GAC and it stopped spreading and luckily eventually over time mostly healed. I think there may be a spot in the black area still and the dorsal fin is still deformed.

 

[Reef.]

I like to use the bucket method.

Pic 1: new saltwater vs tank water

Pic 2: new saltwater vs tank water after ozone

(the tank water in both pictures are on the right.

How often are you doing a water change? It doesn’t look like you vacuum the sand either…my water change buckets look far worse, yours could be mistaken for the fresh salt water.

 

[Miami Reef]

How often are you doing a water change? It doesn’t look like you vacuum the sand either…my water change buckets look far worse, yours could be mistaken for the fresh salt water.

I change 15% weekly.

My tank is about 90% bare bottom. I have some sand on both ends of the tank that seem to spawn no matter how much I try to siphon it out. It comes from under the rocks.

I just leave it now, but there is no excess detritus.


I try to keep my tank very pristine. Ozone, 100um filter socks changed 2x/week, activated carbon, and skimmer.