Two little fishes carbon

[aeroaustin]

Howdy,

I have to make this short.. I have to do with prep for session.

How long you use two little fishes carbon in the sump, two weeks top? or a month? I recalled that randy mentioned that 14 to 21 days to replaced the carbon with fine mesh bag?

I can't ensure remember if this correct?

good day!

[chatfouz]

??

are you talking about activated carbon, the black stuff?

if so then how often it needs to change will depend on your specific tank.

factors in how long or how often the carbon should be replaced,

the first part that is probably most important is understanding how it works. activated carbon is just that a lump of carbon. i believe most used is originated from wood that is burned at extreme heat without oxygen. (i really am not that great at chem so if i messed this up please say so.) that lump then when exposed to elements, air water etc it begins a chemical reaction. it has all these electrons it swaps around and bonds to all sorts of organic chemicals. this is why you really should never buy carbon that is exposed to air. always buy it sealed. so like those penguin filters where the carbon is just istting in the box, that carbon has been reacting from the time they shipped it from the plant. buy carbon that comes sealed in little bags or in those vacum sealed tubs. also keep in mind that the carbon get exhaused or used up when all the free sites on the carbon have been taken up by organic compounds. then that is when it needs to be replaced. on a side note about carbon keep in mind carbon only deals with some organic compounds. i really have to be honest im not sure which but i believe it will not react with nitrites, nitrates or even amounia, just with the organic waste of the animals so if you depend on carbon as the main filtration of your system realize what you try to accomplish, you are trying to absorb all the poop and biological waste before it turns to ammonia. the rest after that is up to biological filtration. zeolite a common chemical filtration used in freshwater tanks to absorb ammonia will not function in salt water. the salts present reverse the process so its no good in salt water tanks. it does nothing but grow bacteria.

back to carbon. there are a few factors that influence this need to replace the carbon.

-amount of carbon

if you use a lot of carbon it would not need to replace it so often because it has not exhausted yet. the idea is if you use 2x the amount than needed it takes 2x as long for all of it to be used.

-size of tank\ bioload

bigger tanks have a larger volume of water. this decreases the ppm or concentration the same volume of waste. basically this means it takes a lot more waste to build up to be noticable, also the carbon is going to last longer. the same is said for bioload. the more bioload the more carbon is needed. or the larger the bioload for small tanks the quicker the carbon gets used up because the concentration of waste is higher and increases faster

-brand of carbon

not all brands of carbon are equal. the biggest point is if the carbon is vacum sealed. if not then that carbon has been reacting and is already partly used up. its like buying used batteries, no idea how long they will last. not to over exaturate this reacting with air is a much slower and lesser process than water, so it will last a while but it has reacted some. some of my favorite brands are the aquaclear carbon packs. they are cheap, come presealed in nice little bags that are great for packing cansiters, piling in sumps, slipping into HOB filters, putting in internal filters, just so versitile.

-purpose of carbon

this basically is what do you want to do with the carbon. is it a part of a filtration system, used to skim off some discoloration, smells, or bits of waste or is it the main focal point of the filtration system. if it is the main point i would not suggest waiting more than a month to change it to be absolutly sure. if it is a side note dont worry so much.

this really is as much an art as science. you cant visually tell if the carbon is used up or not. "scientist" or "researchers" according to the web articles and company websites suggest that if you use little carbon for large bioload, or have a very large bioload with carbon being the focal point change every 2-4 weeks. if carbon is part of the filtration and a strong bioload 4-5 weeks. if carbon is something that you add just to kill some coloration, random chemicals or light bioload it will last well into 2 months.

best of luck! and if you were not talking about carbon... i apologize for rambling on in your thread.

[Joseph9123]

1 month.

-Joseph

[GKarshens]

To be devil's advocate some studies indicate that Carbon loses it's effectiveness after 3 days.

[chatfouz]

To be devil's advocate some studies indicate that Carbon loses it's effectiveness after 3 days.

really? honestly that doesnt sound too suprising but where was this? 3 days, shoo.. is that 3 days in water or 3 days in air? 3 anything?

[GKarshens]

I would try to find it for you but RC is not working. I will try to find it once it comes back on. 3 days in your water.