what carbon to use for reef

[emmanuel]

what is the best carbon to get for a reef tank

[jlt23]

I'm using Seachem's Matrix in a Phosban reactor. Don't know if it's the best, but that's what I'm using.

[918ReefCpl]

We've been using both the Kent Marine and also the Marineland Black Diamond for 6 + months w/o any ill effects...

[twon8]

best is the rox .8 from twopartsolution.

[DB06]

I second the Rox 0.8

[hahnmeister]

I use ESV... minimal amount of wrinsing required.

[DarG]

I've been using the two part solution carbon. Not the expensive rox. The cheaper one they sell. It seems to work great, far better results in terms of color removal and clarity than the Kent Marine that I had used for years. I dont use much and I only use it occassionally for a day or maybe two so I passed on the more expensive rox.

[emmanuel]

thanks for the replies Iam placing an order with marine depot I was about to try the esv for the first time gotta see if they carry rox

[murraycamp]

Rox 0.8 is only available here:

http://www.twopartsolution.com/index...ex&cPath=74_38

[DrBegalke]

rox sounds great as described, would be nice if there were other vendors/info about it though. the pdf link on their site doesn't work.

black diamond and seachem matrix are two that are readily available and commonly used.

black magic super activated from AP is a liginite based carbon and probably has one of the best effectiveness/cost ratios out there.

i also like using chemipure elite, which i believe is a type of carbon and GFO combined.

[cgh38]

black diamond here.

[DrBegalke]

From "Granular Activated Carbon In The Reef Tank: Fact, Folklore And Its Effectiveness In Removing Gelbstoff — Part One" by R. Harker:

[hahnmeister]

Too bad ESV and the two-part types arent on that... I wonder what they would be.

Another thing I would like to bring up as far as 'water clarity' concerns go is 'what about purigen!!??'. This is something beyond carbon that I think is pretty great for cleaning the water... and its rechargable.

[sjm817]

hahn, ESV is on the chart. I've always wanted to try it since I like ESV products. I'll stick with Black Diamond. F&S has a great price on it. $15.19 for the big 3.65L size.

[twon8]

i just got a 5 gallon container of the rox, and it is different from any other carbon i have ever used. it is in pellet form, but tiny pellets, much smaller than i expected. i am looking forward to running it.

[DarG]

I've read the article and seen the chart. The Two Part's cheaper carbon is a lignite carbon and the 3 lignites on the chart are all very effective.

What is the deal with the rox ? Its more expensive but what type of carbon is it and why is it supposed to be so good?
What would be the benefit of using it over a cheaper lignite for somebody who only uses carbon once in a while?

[humbugy]

i use marineland black diamond

[Lacy]

In setting up my tank, I wanted to clarify the water as much as possible so I bought some Chemi-Pure (It was a good deal). When I rinsed it as instructed ("rinse lightly"), it turned my hands black with the amount of particles that came off of it (very fine and act like dye - my hands turned almost black). I rinsed for :15 min and still was getting particles. I bought this two months ago at a frag swap (from a vendor). Does it have a shelf life? Did I get a bad batch? The Boyd Enterprises site is down so no answers there.

[DarG]

Sounds like it may have been bumped around some and some of the carbon was pulverized. All you can do is rinse until it stops leaching the black colored water, or most of it. You can place the bag into a smaller micron rated bag if you have one and that would trap the particles.

I run my carbon in a home made PVC cansister thing. About a 9" long piece of 2" diameter PVC with a threaded "cap" (actually a couple of reducers taking the 2" down to 1/2" female threads) on each end that accepts male threaded 90" barbs. The top cap is not glued. I just sandwich some carbon between two chunks of filter floss and feed it with a small powerhead that probably pushes 100 GPH through the filter. It's probably not as good as a true reactor but it provides zero bypass, forced flow through the carbon. If you wanted to set something up like this for the chemipure, you could still use it and not worry about losing carbon particles into the tank, the floss would catch it. I would leave it in the bag so you could change out the floss frequently to keep it from becoming a nitrate colony. Costs maybe 5 bucks to build plus the powerhead. I think it's alot better than just putting a bag in the sump. I just pump a couple of gallons of RO/DI water through it first to rinse the carbon then drop it in the sump with the power head for a day or so maybe once a month or when I feel that there is some color to the water of the clarity is not perfect. Works great.