To carbon or not?

I know alot of you run carbon in some way, I was wondering if I could just drop a bag into the fuge or those carbon bioballs? Or do you really need to have in a filter or reactor to see the real benefit?

How often should you replace the carbon?

My 90gal reef tank has has a 30gal fuge/sump and the tank has 120lbs of LR.

Thanks!

 

Good questions...

I put bag of carbon in filter sock in sump...

Usually change carbon about every other water change or so (3/4 weeks) ... have no idea if this is too often or not enough...:-/

 

If youre going to run carbon then having a reactor is the best thing but you can also run carbon passively by putting it in a bag or sock in your sump.

 

Thanks, I will try it in the sump for now but plan to add a reactor for it.

 

I run it in my sump as well - A bag of Carbon and 2 bags of chemi-pure. Might be a little redundant...but hey it works for me.

There is a lot of flow in my sump, so a lot of water comes in contact with the carbon over the course of a day.

 

Dropping a bag of carbon in the sump will do nothing. Water needs to pass through the carbon for it to be effective. We put our carbon in a specimen container with holes drilled on the bottom of it and hang it in the sump, directly under the skimmer output.

 

Good call Amcarrig.

I need to work on moving to a more direct flow area when i get home.
But i like that placement idea

 

PS...filter sock is on return line...

 

Thats how i plan on putting mine. Hanging it on the return line ,or putting it before the baffles or something. Forgot to tell him to do it like omard.

 

i use a carbon sponge in my sump.all water has to run through it.i change it every 2 wks.i know its time cause i can smell the water.good rule of thumb is one cup of carbon for every 55 gallons.my sponge is half inch thick by 4inches by 8 inches.i think regular carbon works better than my sponge so i'll be changing my set up later this yr.