Filtration

[Seaspriger]

How often should I replace the charcoal filter medium or can it just be rinsed and re-used.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Seaspriger.
Most of us do not have any carbon in our filters because it is usually not needed. It serves a function for removing medication after treating a disease or for controlling odors when something is wrong with the balance in a tank. Other than that they serve very little purpose. If you are having a problem that carbon can help with, replace it every few days. Maybe you could get away with weekly changes depending on what the contaminant is that you are dealing with and how much needs to be removed. The only way to rejuvenate charcoal is to heat it to very high temperatures in the absence of oxygen, which is how you make charcoal out of wood in the first place.
Rather than use charcoal, the common practice is to replace it in the filter with a biological filter medium. That provides a bit of insurance against having too little biological filtration while making good use of the space in the filter. I am using the product called Matrix right now because I got a nice big container of it online for a very good price. Most any of the other ceramic media available would work just as well but I already have at least a litre of this stuff on my shelf.

 

[Rafael Dilone]

Like oldman said carbon serves a small purpose. I have been using Chemi-Pure for the last 4 years and i love it. I wont use it on CO2 dosed systems but besides that i use chemi-pure instead of carbon. I have about 5 brand new bags of carbon from the all the filters i bought and came with one bag. I would just use it to remove medication as it is the most effective way to remove it. Its good to use in quarantine tanks with sick fish that have finished their treatment.

Here is a link describing chemi-pure. http/www.marvelousproducts.com/ChemiPure-Elite-10oz-p/chemi-pure-elite-11.74oz.htm
I got lucky and received 3 free chemi-pure's in december as doctors foster and smith christmas gift.

 

[OldMan47]

I am going to go one step further now. Carbon is a remover of pretty much just organic material and is quickly exhausted. The typical ion exchange resin that is the essence of Chemipure is a worse hazard to fish. Unfortunately, chemical removers work just fine for removing any ionic compound right up to the moment that the chemical exchange capacity is exhausted. At that time they go from efficient chemical removers to ineffective solids that are in the way in your filter. If you always get rid of the of ion exchange material before it is exhausted, things will be just fine. If you mess up once, the fact that the material has been removing all of your ammonia and nitrites means it has prevented proper development of the cycle in your filter. At that moment, when it is exhausted to ammonia, there will be a sudden flood of ammonia in the tank as if you had never bothered doing a cycle. The "exhausted to ammonia" reflects another insidious aspect of any ion exchange media. Because each contaminant in your water has its own different electronegativity, each chemical will take a turn exhausting the media to that particular chemical. After that only more strongly attracted ions will be adsorbed and the weaker attracted chemicals will be replaced by those which are more tightly bound. That means the chemicals with a weaker bond will be released back into your water. The fact that the ad says the particular media being sold has been exhausted to iron oxide in the ferric state means that some of the media's life is spent when you get it. I do not find that encouraging. It strikes me as a sales excuse for a manufacturing problem. It does however give us the hint that iron oxide is less tightly bound than phosphates and silicates.

 

[kerry wood]

I am going to go one step further now. Carbon is a remover of pretty much just organic material and is quickly exhausted. The typical ion exchange resin that is the essence of Chemipure is a worse hazard to fish. Unfortunately, chemical removers work just fine for removing any ionic compound right up to the moment that the moment that the chemical exchange capacity is exhausted. At that time they go from efficient chemical removers to ineffective solids that are in the way in your filter. If you always get rid of the of ion exchange material before it is exhausted, things will be just fine. If you mess up once, the fact that the material has been removing all of your ammonia and nitrites means it has prevented proper development of the cycle in your filter. At that moment, when it is exhausted to ammonia, there will be a sudden flood of ammonia in the tank as if you had never bothered doing a cycle. The "exhausted to ammonia" reflects another insidious aspect of any ion exchange media. Because each contaminant in your water has its own different electronegativity, each chemical will take a turn exhausting the media to that particular chemical. After that only more strongly attracted ions will be adsorbed and the weaker attracted chemicals will be replaced by those which are more tightly bound. That means the chemicals with a weaker bond will be released back into your water. The fact that the ad says the particular media being sold has been exhausted to iron oxide in the ferric state means that some of the media's life is spent when you get it. I do not find that encouraging. It strikes me as a sales excuse for a manufacturing problem. It does however give us the hint that iron oxide is less tightly bound than phosphates and silicates.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Kerry. I don't know how to copy like you did but I don't see your question.

 

[basil1]

I am going to go one step further now. Carbon is a remover of pretty much just organic material and is quickly exhausted. The typical ion exchange resin that is the essence of Chemipure is a worse hazard to fish. Unfortunately, chemical removers work just fine for removing any ionic compound right up to the moment that the moment that the chemical exchange capacity is exhausted. At that time they go from efficient chemical removers to ineffective solids that are in the way in your filter. If you always get rid of the of ion exchange material before it is exhausted, things will be just fine. If you mess up once, the fact that the material has been removing all of your ammonia and nitrites means it has prevented proper development of the cycle in your filter. At that moment, when it is exhausted to ammonia, there will be a sudden flood of ammonia in the tank as if you had never bothered doing a cycle. The "exhausted to ammonia" reflects another insidious aspect of any ion exchange media. Because each contaminant in your water has its own different electronegativity, each chemical will take a turn exhausting the media to that particular chemical. After that only more strongly attracted ions will be adsorbed and the weaker attracted chemicals will be replaced by those which are more tightly bound. That means the chemicals with a weaker bond will be released back into your water. The fact that the ad says the particular media being sold has been exhausted to iron oxide in the ferric state means that some of the media's life is spent when you get it. I do not find that encouraging. It strikes me as a sales excuse for a manufacturing problem. It does however give us the hint that iron oxide is less tightly bound than phosphates and silicates.

Hi as a newbi about to purchase a 64lit fishpod ( interpet) the pf 2 filter which comes as part of the kit I have been told people have had problems with it, not sure what but have been advised to go for the fluval u, can anyone shed any light on this and is the fluval a better filter, ta

 

[GShorty1981]

I just take the carbon out unless cycling meds out of the system