How do you rinse your carbon

[CSS Reef]

I only dread one thing when maintaing my tank, not testing, water changes, cleaning glass, scraping coralline, maintaining ALK/CAL/MG.........ITs changing cabon


How does everyone rinse their carbon. Do you use tap which would be the easiest? I hate to think the carbon is absorbing all the stuff we dont want in tap before we put it in our tanks....


I get RO/DI in a bucket and swish the carbon in a mesh bag which is very messy as it turns the bucket and my hands black...... Pain in the ***! I hate this..


What carbon has the lowest dusting? Currently using AP Super Activated Carbon. I ahve also tried Black Diamond and had the same problem.

What methods can be used to ease this process......and what carbon so some of you that gives the least dusting?

[Toddrtrex]

I am sure that this isn't the best way, but it is what I do.

Fill up my bag with carbon, and run it under the bathtub faucet until it runs clear -- maybe 30-60 seconds.

I use Seachem's carbon.

[Craig Lambert]

I run it under tap water in a mesh bag for several minutes to thoroughly rinse it. Then I do a final rince with 1 G of RODI water.

[CSS Reef]

I realize this is the easiest way like I stated above, but the carbon is already absorbing all the stuff out of your tap right?

Dont want introduce any additional phosphate into my tank if I can help it. MY SPS will start to dull or brown.....

[Toddrtrex]

If rinsing your carbon under tap adds that much phosphate to your tank you've got some bad tap water.

I personally don't have any phosphate issues with my tanks, and my SPS all have pretty good color.

[Craig Lambert]

Originally posted by Toddrtrex
If rinsing your carbon under tap adds that much phosphate to your tank you've got some bad tap water.

I personally don't have any phosphate issues with my tanks, and my SPS all have pretty good color.

Agree. Also, A high quality reef carbon like Seachem, or two little fishies hydrocarbon will not leach phosphate into your saltwater.

[CSS Reef]

I will probably try this! Thanks.........

[virginiadiver69]

Do you use a fluidizer like the TLF phos reactor? If so...just fill it with your carbon and put the inlet hose in a bucket of RO/DI water and flush until it runs clear. Very simple and no black hands.

[CSS Reef]

I used to use a TLF reactor and did exactly that, but now since I am running Prodibio I am running the carbon passive (like Zeovit systems) and must wash by hand.

[Theexp]

I throw it in a net, then just run it under the faucet.

[CSS Reef]

So am I the only picky one who has been using RO/DI? Seems everyone uses the faucet.

[jmait769]

I change my carbon once every two weeks. I time it with a water change. I take an MJ that I use to pump the water out with and run the old water thru the reactor with the MJ cleaning the carbon.

Jay

[CSS Reef]

My question comes because I run my carbon passive now. NO reactor. Ill just use a faucet.

[ihopss]

I use my old saltwater to clean my carbon.

[woz9683]

How would running the carbon in a reactor effect the Prodibio system? It's not the same thing as ZEO so why apply the same rules?

If you don't want to run the reactor for whatever reason, just put it in a net like everyone else has suggested, but instead of the faucet, rinse it with a waterline from a powerhead in a bucket of RO. With all the fuss over using 0 TDS water for water changes, and keeping every possible contaminant away from the tank, why be careless on something so simple?

Personally, I'd just run it in a reactor, Prodibio or otherwise.

[tattooreef]

rinsing your carbon in the faucet will not harm anything i personally do it and have never had a problem with it considering you should be changing your carbon at very least every two weeks if not every week, it will never have time to leach anything back into the system. trust me i have almost a 600 gallon system with an 11 ft display and it has well over 50 acros a few lps and a few softies and nothing is harmed by this

[CSS Reef]

I know the Prodi is not exactly like ZEO. However I use this guideline, same as zeo with carbon because in a low nutrient environment the carbon in a reactor may be too agressive and cause RTN (no evidence of this). The Prodibio has really made an improvement in my colors, water clarity and skimmate. So I follow this just in case......

[bkoz]

I rinse mine in my RO waiste.

[NaH2Ofreak]

CSS, I use Prodi also and rinse my carbon with tap water. I also follow the zeo method as a guideline when running prodi. Both are bacteria based filtration philosophies so...why not. I use the reccommended amount of carbon and change monthly.

Dennis

[JM68]

Running your carbon under tap water is cutting it effectiveness in half right from the get go. The carbon absorbs all the bad stuff from your tap water ie. chlorine, silicates, phosphates, and other bad stuff before it even goes in your tank. So when it goes in your tank it has already exhausted some of its ability to take stuff out of your tank water. It can only absorb so much and once it has reached its limit it cant absorb anymore. It will last longer and be more effective if rinsed only in RO water before being put in the tank. I fill 5g bucket about 1/3 of the way with RO then rinse the carbon(in bag) in the bucket, when the water is black i pour it out and repeat with clean RO water. After about 3 rinses its clean enough to go in the tank.

[mille239]

got some data to back up those statements JM68? (i.e. cutting it's effictiveness in half right from the get go)

I understand it would pull some impurities out of the tap water, but for the short duration during rinsing I can't imagine it would be half used up.

[maroun.c]

shouldn't it be washed with warm water and then with cold to "activate" it before using it in the tank? I remember reading that somewhere.

[otiso777]

The relatively low temperatures that you're talking about wouldn't do anything to activate carbon. Activation occurs at a temperature of around 900 degrees C. Also I wouldn't worry about cutting the effectiveness of activated carbon by rinsing it in a small amount of tap water. The surface area of the carbon is so huge that the small amount of impurities in the rinse water would to little to decrease its effectiveness

[simmons797]

You'll be fine rinsing it under tap water, and in no way will this "cut it effectiveness in half". The concentrations of chlorine or phosphates in tap water is so low relative to the amount that the carbon can adsorb you're not going to notice a difference. Remember this stuff works in our tanks with much higher concentrations for a few weeks to a few months before it gets used up, a few minutes under low concentration tap water isn't going to make a noticeable difference.

maroun.c-The carbon is already activated so there is no need to rinse it under cold water, it will be the same temperature as the tank water after a few minutes anyway. Generally carbon adsorption increases as the temperature decreases so this may have been what you read (this is done more in air stripping applications not water).

[Chihuahua6]

I use high quality carbon and don't rinse at all.