kingjames Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 ok, so a week ago i cheaped out and bought some petco activated carbon, i guess i rushed and put it in without washing enough, but didnt notice any problems the first day or two, but about three days ago i notices my water was extremely cloudy, not taking much notice to this because i had moved some things around to get a fish out, but then as a few days went by ever thing in my tank from sps to leathers looked extremely pissed off, i did a water change two days ago and noticed no difference in cloudiness or coral apearance. yesterday the water was not as cloudy but still bad and while i was doing another WC i noticed a black flim on coral and rock, and sand, and then took a flashlight to my sump and noticed the water was totally black, i took carbon out thinking this could be the only cause and stayed up late filtering this stuff out with filter sock and filter pads, tank is finally starting to clear up, but coral still look extremely pissed, and one or two look like they might start declining, i have had my params checked by three different sources in the last three days and everything checks out ok, i have never had this happen before with carbon, could not find where, if any, had leaked out of filter sock, has anyone ever experienced this before, im scared that i will crash my tank if i do not get all of it out, and really stressed at the moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 don't worry too much about it. what you might try is using a turkey baster to blow off the dust if possible, and at the same time siphon water into a bucket that is going through a fine micron filter sock. also, change your filter socks as much as possible. I doubt that simply having carbon dust is going to kill anything. It might piss off a lot of your livestock, but I'd be more worried about drastic system changes to eliminate the dust than the dust itself. slowly remove it, via mechanical means if you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esacjack Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 +1 dont go too crazy with water changes and destabilize your system. I did the same thing accidentally with fresh carbon, fortunately for me this was in my nano tank with no overflow. I was able to use a coffee filter at the water line to skim the particulate off the water surface. I had to use a turkey baster to lightly blast the dust up into the filter, but eventually it cleared up. You'll likely notice corals slinging slime everywhere, this is their defense/cleansing mechanism. While it does cause minor tissue necrosis/loss, its not permanent so long as you resume your feeding cycle once the water clears. High protein feedings (not to be interpreted as FREQUENT feedings) will assist in getting the tissue back to where it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 Yup happend to me to and stopped using that crap. Too many fines and it was everywhere. Just spend the extra cash and get the 1lb of Lignite from BRS. It's like $20 bucks and works great or get the ROX which works even better but cost more... Yeah just blast everything with a turkey baster and you'll be fine bud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjames Posted April 24, 2013 Author Share Posted April 24, 2013 awsome guys, ya i have been constantly blowing everything off and have only changed about 15 gallons total so far out of around 55g total tank volume including sump, so not too drastic, and been, changing the sock and media once every couple of hours, but thanks guys for the feed back, eases my mind a bit, but yes i think carbon will be off the list and ill give the ROX or lignite, thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 Any tangs in the tank? There are lots of articles about activated carbon and lateral line erosion disease in them specifically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faron Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Any tangs in the tank? There are lots of articles about activated carbon and lateral line erosion disease in them specifically. I've read about that. I think I'm going to nix the carbon. I've been running without gfo for a few months now and everything seems fine. The closer to nature I can get it the better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Any tangs in the tank? There are lots of articles about activated carbon and lateral line erosion disease in them specifically. I've read about that. I think I'm going to nix the carbon. I've been running without gfo for a few months now and everything seems fine. The closer to nature I can get it the better! Don't misunderstand, I'm a strong believer in carbon and I don't know of anything more effective for dealing with major catastrophes in a tank. I'm just saying that those with tangs need to be aware of potential issues with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjames Posted April 25, 2013 Author Share Posted April 25, 2013 no tangs in the 55, i couldnt bring myself to confine them to that small of a tank, but yes have heard of carbon increasing the chances HLLE, but just a quick up date tank water seems to be pretty clear but the filter connected to my overflow, that i rinse out several times a day continues to get black, evertyhing still looks pissed but not as bad, I think that the dust had been smothering the coral for the first couple of days that it went unoticed , but i keep blowing everything off and tank seems to be getting better, 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Yup believe the story on fin erosion for tangs. When carbon dust got in the tank that's when i noticed my Yellow losing his dorsal fin. You could see the bone. After several months he healed but it left him disfigured. The fins regrew sort of, no bones showing, but he doesn't have the beautiful full fin anymore. As long as he's happy now, that's what counts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjames Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 so i officially lost my coral banded shrimp of three years, his shell was almost completly black, some corals are slightly coming back,almost all my sps, with the exception of a blue tip tenius, and a a few montis, bleached out or have lost all color, all zoas are still closed, my water is pretty clear and dont notice any thing on rocks or coral, but filters are still pulling black out, MAN!!! this is a hard lesson learned, and just when my tank was really thriving, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Capt. Obvious Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 wow...sorry man...that really sucks. I might have some monti frags here soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjames Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 thanks brotha, just dont understand, i remember back in the day throwing carbon in a filter without even rinsing it and never got results like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 sorry about your shimp. still holding out hope for your corals though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjames Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 thanks guys, it funny how attached you can get to a slimy thing sitting in a glass box, lol, ya i was wanting to tear the whole thing down the other day, but then i bucked up and started taking care of business, and filtering the s*** out, the filter keeps getting lighter and lighter so thats a good sign, nothing else seems to be dyiing though so hopefully everthing will bounce back throughout the next week or so, 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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