Active carbon dissolved in tank

[cubs415]

Hey guys i just finished emergency cleaning my sump. I have a BRS dual media reactor running ROX and rubble rock. doing the daily checks of my filter media I noticed a black substance in my filer floss and in my skimmer. I immediately turned everything off and cleaned everything. my Chaeto reactor Black, skimmer Black, rocks in sump Black. had black in all pumps. I am basically lost and have no idea what is going on.

My tank 75 gallon mixed reef with 40 gallon sump.
salinity 1.025
PH. 8.2
nitrates 0.2 ppm
phosphates 0.02 ppm
10 dKH

I dose all for reef and vodka

I honestly have no idea what happened, Searching didn't bring up anything. if anyone has any insight it would be much appreciated. I am sorry I do not have any picture as I rushed to clean everything.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Assuming the black is GAC, I don't think it is an emergency issue. I intentionally dumped ROX into my sump to deal with an actual chemical emergency.

Perhaps it wasn't rinsed in advanced and was dusty for some reason (shaking in shipping, for example) or maybe the flow through the reactor was too strong, breaking up the GAC.

I always put something above the GAC to ensure it stayed in the reactor.

 

[sde1500]

Yea if it’s actually carbon I wouldn’t worry. Admittedly when I’m lazy I don’t rinse when swapping out carbon. Doesn’t cause an issue beyond temporary cloudiness.