How much carbon

I have a canister filter that I thought about filling with carbon. How much would I need to use for a 55g tank with a another 20g in the sump? Can I fill it with as much carbon as it can hold or should I use some of the filter pads that came with it? Also would it be better to take the water from the sump and return it to the sump, or from the dt and return to the sump, or from the dt and the back to the dt?
I just wanted to see if it makes a difference. Some people run carbon and others say they dont. I have seen successful tanks both ways but figured I would see if there is a difference in my tank.

Any help in this "scientific" experiment would be appreciated.

 

Hi fishy, most carbon products will give info on how much of their product to use. If you go with say...Chemi-pure elite (I highly recommend) they have pre-packaged amounts and tell you one pouch for X amount of water. Just remember to subtract rock, substrate and anything in the sump that dis-places water when figuring out you total water volume.

 

I did this for a time before I bought a phosban reactor. I used Chemi-pure elite and it worked great. I went from my sump after skimmer back into my sump return section. Switching to a phosban reactor was the best though. Saves money on carbon, easy to clean, and you can see when it needs replaced.

 

Thanks unclejed, thats kind of humerous to me(your username) as I dont have any uncles, so saying unclejed made me chuuckle. Is there anything else I could put in there that would be beneficial for my tank?

 

You will want to be careful using it in a canister filter as the flow rate may be too high and grind the carbon to dust. Carbon like GFO and other products works best at low flows so you get good contact time and the grains don't grind against each other.

 

My one of my nieces gave the nick name referring to Jed Clampet from the Beverly hillbillies. I always act like I don't have money but really do, in her opinion. I am on the conservative side and try to be a good steward of my money, anyway, you could add something like Purigem that would be before the carbon in the filter to slow down the water to address Rats concern about contact time but it is up to you.