How often do you run carbon?

Hey so I was talking to a friend of mine who used to own a fish store, and he said that he only runs carbon every so often. What is every one else opinion on that??

 

Im a 24/7 at present BoBo65
I used to run a small QTY for a week, and then remove it, and then 2 or 3 weeks later run more

these days I use a larger amount , leave it for 1 month and then discard and replace

I am aware of the potential negatives such as
Carbon leaches when exhausted
Carbon potentially removes beneficial things in addition to impurities

but I am not convinced the potential disadvantages , outweigh the advantages
of maintaining water clarity and water quality that I believe Carbon gives me

Steve

 

+1

FWIW, I've run carbon 24/7 for years and have never experienced any of the potential negatives. Just use a good reef-grade carbon.

 

+2 the only time I notice negatives is when I don't run it .


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Is carbon that beneficial? What changes so you notice from times that you do not run carbon on your setup?

To be honest, i have never given carbon a chance because I am satisfied with my water's clarity, but I could be wrong and have greater room on improving it and maybe I just don't know it yet.

 

I just installed a reactor from BRS and filled it with their ROX after months of just having regular carbon in a bag in a sump baffle.Im anxious to see some results!

 

There is still a lot of unknowns and a lot of research occurring. Carbon and skimming are similar, but also have some important differences.

They both remove organics from the water column. This is important because this removes nutrients, as well as toxins and such, which are bound to organic molecules. These would otherwise accumulate in your system leading to long term detrimental effects. GAC may actually be more than skimming, but is more expensive than skimming as it does not last long and constantly needs to be replaced. So, skimming removes a lot of gunk from the water and carbon helps polish it off.

There are also some differences in the types of organics removed via skimming vs carbon. And skimming can remove pelagic bacteria, but not benthic bacteria, whereas carbon, when removed exports benthic bacteria which quickly colonized its surface.


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Nice, thank you.

 

I run carbon 24\7 for organic removal it also helps remove some acids so it may help keep pH up and keep it more steady.

 

Guess I'm an outlier.

I only run carbon for ~4 days, once per month.