active carbon

Hello there everyone. I just added Active carbon ( i think thats what its called) to my overfow box (tank side of overflow) . I noticed that i am getting some brown hair alge growing on the acrylic where the bag is with carbon. Does anyone know why this is happening?

Danny

 

How long has the carbon been there? In a flow area such as that , it also works as a mechanical filter and may be retaining particles of organic debris, thus feeding the algae bloom there.

 

Fastlife Did the container the carbon come in state that it is phosphate free carbon?

 

I put it in on sunday evening. I thought that it would have the best flow in there. I never put that into account. Should i just put it in the return sump section of my wet/dry filter. There is also no light there. That might help with the alge problem.

Danny

 

fletch
Well i received it with the live rock that i purchased back in November. It was in a plastic bag. I have about 5 pounds of it, so i realy dont know. The place where i got it from said it was phosphate free.....who knows if he was telling me the truth.....

 

Welcome to 3 Reef, by the way, Danny!

I would go ahead and place it in the sump. You only need to run it for a few days.

I put a bag in my sump about once per month for 3 to 5 days. I use Black Diamond carbon, as recommend by others on this site, and it seems to work well. No algaie growth on the bag. ;D

 

[quote author=Fastlife link=board=General;num=1106078087;start=0#4 date=01/18/05 at 20:57:48]fletch
The place where i got it from said it was phosphate free.....who knows if he was telling me the truth.....[/quote]


Well if you are not sure that it is phosphate free I wouldn't use it but that is just me. :-/

 

Thanks birdlady , i was only planing on 3-4 days. Its the second time i use it . The last time was about 6 weeks ago. And that was for about 4 days. I will be putting it in the sump from now on.......

fletch
i think i am going to get rid of it and go with the one that birdlady said........

By the way Birdlady, do you know where i can get that carbon?

 

So the brown algae is growing on part of the acrylic overflow box, but not on the carbon bag itself? If that's the case I would suggest it is purely because the water flow if different where the algae is growing, probably lessened because the bag is restricting the flow.

John

 

Well the water flow is the same going to my wet/dry filter, it is also growing on the bag. I am going to take it out tomorrow night ,so i guess i can live with it till then?........... Its not going in till next month again( for 3 days) only.