carbon dust causing HLLE in surgeon fish

[atxmandarin]

http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/content/activated-carbon-hlle-smoking-gun-found

[bige]

I read that too. We gotta get them off the dust. Its killing them.

[atxmandarin]

haha true enough

[George Monnat Jr]

I just found this article while surfing (then this thread by search). And this post. Crap, how did I miss it? And about 12 hours after loading up my new GAC reactor.

That study specifically mentions "lignite carbon" while others just say "GAC". I use the BRS ROX 0.8 which, "is a specialty carbon extruded into tiny, extremely hard pellets resulting in less dust and reducing the amount of fines released into the water." The article states:

Two public aquariums have reported acute outbreaks of HLLE in systems where carbon had been accidentally ground up and ejected into aquariums by mechanical filtration systems. It has also been reported that aquariums which use foam fractionators (protein skimmers) do not seem to develop HLLE as frequently, even when carbon is routinely used.

Since foam fractionators remove particulate organic carbon from water (including carbon fines), it was thought that this might be why these systems do not cause HLLE as readily. In addition, the hard pelleted carbon used in this study did not cause severe HLLE, while the soft, dusty carbon did. However, no carbon fines were seen in the histological examinations of the lesions of the study fish. This means that the dust causing the effect is either fleeting, the fines were too small for the histologist to see, or that there is some other factor associated with carbon use that causes HLLE in susceptible fishes.

Hopefully using BRS ROX and a skimmer will save my tang. Stupid real-life trade-offs...

Oh yea, and this:

[BBMarlin]

Ya, I quit tumbling carbon after I read that. My hippo has mild HLLE and it has not gone away completely although I've seen much improvement. I quit tumbling carbon over a year ago. I now only use carbon as needed, and only tumble it when I need to get something out of the water column rapidly.

-brett

[FarmerTy]

I just throw a bag of it in the sump once every couple months and then remove it 2 weeks later.

[George Monnat Jr]

Ya, I quit tumbling carbon after I read that. My hippo has mild HLLE and it has not gone away completely although I've seen much improvement. I quit tumbling carbon over a year ago. I now only use carbon as needed, and only tumble it when I need to get something out of the water column rapidly.

-brett

I'm glad yours recovered. I saw conflicting information on that. Both of these quotes are from the same article.

Won't recover: "Six months after the study was concluded, and the carbon was removed, the HLLE lesions remain on all originally affected fish"

Full Recovery Possible: "When the survey results were limited to professional public aquarists, 19% of the respondents found complete reversal of HLLE by discontinuing the use of carbon filtration."

[George Monnat Jr]

I just throw a bag of it in the sump once every couple months and then remove it 2 weeks later.

This article claims that "passive" is a lot less effective.

Article's conclusion:

Granular activated carbon is a valuable tool for the reef hobbyist. It can play a significant role in maintaining a healthy reef or saltwater aquarium. The hobby’s traditional approach to the use of carbon, however, has been misguided. Optimum use of carbon requires only periodic use. Slow circulation of water through small amounts of carbon will remove significant amounts of color. Passive use of carbon, as well as circulation through high-volume power filters should be avoided.

[victoly]

Just pack it in a BRS reactor between sponges. Problem solved!

[George Monnat Jr]

Just pack it in a BRS reactor between sponges. Problem solved!

That's what I'm doing. I found the article and thread about 12 hours after firing up my new BRS dual GFO & GAC RX. And yes, it was sponge-worthy as I used all four.

[victoly]

i changed my BRS reactor setup so I could control flow to each individually so I could tumble my GFO and keep my carbon flow relatively low. MJ1200 runs it perfectly.

[sifuentes31]

I read the same articles when my yellow tang lost his fins. I know it was fin erosion because he is very healthy and swimming and eating. I stopped using the carbon for about 3 weeks with no improvement. The tank was looking crappy so i started again with the carbon. He looks happy and eats everything i give so i'll just live with crew cut look for now.

[FarmerTy]

I just throw a bag of it in the sump once every couple months and then remove it 2 weeks later.

This article claims that "passive" is a lot less effective.

Article's conclusion:

Granular activated carbon is a valuable tool for the reef hobbyist. It can play a significant role in maintaining a healthy reef or saltwater aquarium. The hobby’s traditional approach to the use of carbon, however, has been misguided. Optimum use of carbon requires only periodic use. Slow circulation of water through small amounts of carbon will remove significant amounts of color. Passive use of carbon, as well as circulation through high-volume power filters should be avoided.

This is why I just throw a bag in the sump every couple months for 2 weeks and then remove. I put it in an area with some flow so that it is passive and not tumbling. No need for a reactor for the carbon to do what it needs to do, especially when your sump flow should supply enough flow to use it. At least that is the strategy I employ. May not work for everyone.

-Ty