Young Frankenstein
I sniff ozone and relax.
All carbons are loaded with phosphates, some less than others but all have them. I am interested to know the different methods used to clean carbon, rising, boiling etc.
Carbon cleaning question.
- Thread starter Young Frankenstein
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ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
Carbon is loaded with phosphates? That would make my carbon/GFO reactor counter productive. I'll have to test this out in a bucket with my Hanna checker. All I do is rinse my carbon in RO/DI.
OP
OP
Young Frankenstein
I sniff ozone and relax.
please let us know what you find
ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
please let us know what you find
I will. Everything I found on Google is older information. I could see if it had trace amounts but I can't imagine it's loaded with phosphates.
This test I found was using a lot of un-rinsed carbon in a little water (with a TDS of 2) and only a trace amount showing up on a test.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_4/V4I2/carbon/artcarbon_comparisons.htm
I'd be willing to bet if you put the same volume of fish food in the same volume of water as the test used the PO4 reading would be much higher.
Honestly I have never heard this before but I'll check it out for myself and let you know!
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OP
OP
Young Frankenstein
I sniff ozone and relax.
After rinsing carbon with RO, let the carbon sit in salt water overnight and test tomorrow.
ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
Reactivating carbon takes equipment we do not have in our homes.
Also air can exhaust carbon so drying it seems counterproductive to me.
This was linked in a thread about this concept not too long ago on R2R...
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-chemistry-forum/88970-can-you-use-carbon-twice-more.html
Also air can exhaust carbon so drying it seems counterproductive to me.
This was linked in a thread about this concept not too long ago on R2R...
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-chemistry-forum/88970-can-you-use-carbon-twice-more.html
ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
Well I got home and I'm out of the packets to test phosphate for my Hanna checker. BRS is my LFS so it will be a week or so til I get the results.
Anyone else care to take this on for the meantime? I'll place a BRS order tomorrow or Monday.
Anyone else care to take this on for the meantime? I'll place a BRS order tomorrow or Monday.
OP
OP
Young Frankenstein
I sniff ozone and relax.
From my EXCEL notes, I could be wrong .....
[TABLE="width: 473"]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl85, width: 566, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]Activated Charcoal[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]All charcoal is loaded with phosphates, algae blooms when using charcoal also have seen[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]cyano bacterial bloom with it.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]1. Use very small amount, 1/2 cup for 175 gallons[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]2. Rince it before use[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]3. Boil in RO[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]4. Let sit for 24 hrs[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]5. Reboil and re-use charcoal.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl79, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]6. Use only when needed or 1 week / month.[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[TABLE="width: 473"]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl85, width: 566, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]Activated Charcoal[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]All charcoal is loaded with phosphates, algae blooms when using charcoal also have seen[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]cyano bacterial bloom with it.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]1. Use very small amount, 1/2 cup for 175 gallons[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]2. Rince it before use[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]3. Boil in RO[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]4. Let sit for 24 hrs[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl82, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]5. Reboil and re-use charcoal.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl79, bgcolor: silver, colspan: 11"]6. Use only when needed or 1 week / month.[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
robert
Valuable Member
I've never considered GAC as high phosphate source in my reef. Being organic - it certainly has phosphate but I would expect it to be locked into the structure of the product and not freely available to be leeched into the water column.
Where I think issues may arise (and I'm speculating only) is in the activation process where some GAC is washed with sulfuric, hydrochloric and sometimes phosphoric acids, but seems counter intuitive that the process used to reduce teachable impurities is responsible for higher phosphate leeching. Use a high quality carbon - it shouldn't be an issue.
Where I think issues may arise (and I'm speculating only) is in the activation process where some GAC is washed with sulfuric, hydrochloric and sometimes phosphoric acids, but seems counter intuitive that the process used to reduce teachable impurities is responsible for higher phosphate leeching. Use a high quality carbon - it shouldn't be an issue.
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robert
Valuable Member
I posted this in the other thread, but I didn't elaborate - GAC can be easily reused many, many times. Whether its worth it or not is another issue - that's up to you.
First - if your run carbon on systems being treated with medications, metals, flat-worm treatments etc. Its best to dispose of it and not attempt to re-use. But for general purposes of water clarity - removing humic acids - general coral and fish wastes - pure organics - simple washing works to a limited extent, washing in hydrogen peroxide works better and faster - and washing in hydrogen peroxide with a catalyst present is extremely effective.
I don't recommend you make Fenton's reagent - it not necessary in our usage - a simple soak in H2O2 will suffice.
(Fenton's reagent is H2O2 + Iron (catalyst))
Application of Fenton's reagent to regenerate activated
carbon saturated with organochloro compounds
In this work Fenton's reagent was used to treat activated carbon saturated with organochloro compounds for the
oxidation of the adsorbed contaminants and the regeneration of the carbon adsorbent. Activated carbon containing
adsorbed chlorinated model substrates such as chlorobenzene, tetrachloroethylene, chloroform or 1,2-dichloropropane
was treated with Fenton's reagent at room temperature resulting in a rapid consumption of the organochloro com-
pounds. Thermogravimetric, infrared, BET surface area and MIMS adsorption studies showed that Fenton's treatment
has no significant effect on the physico-chemical properties of the activated carbon. The used carbon adsorbents can be
efficiently regenerated and recycled with no loss of its adsorption capacity even after five consecutive treatments with
Fenton's reagent.
First - if your run carbon on systems being treated with medications, metals, flat-worm treatments etc. Its best to dispose of it and not attempt to re-use. But for general purposes of water clarity - removing humic acids - general coral and fish wastes - pure organics - simple washing works to a limited extent, washing in hydrogen peroxide works better and faster - and washing in hydrogen peroxide with a catalyst present is extremely effective.
I don't recommend you make Fenton's reagent - it not necessary in our usage - a simple soak in H2O2 will suffice.
(Fenton's reagent is H2O2 + Iron (catalyst))
Application of Fenton's reagent to regenerate activated
carbon saturated with organochloro compounds
In this work Fenton's reagent was used to treat activated carbon saturated with organochloro compounds for the
oxidation of the adsorbed contaminants and the regeneration of the carbon adsorbent. Activated carbon containing
adsorbed chlorinated model substrates such as chlorobenzene, tetrachloroethylene, chloroform or 1,2-dichloropropane
was treated with Fenton's reagent at room temperature resulting in a rapid consumption of the organochloro com-
pounds. Thermogravimetric, infrared, BET surface area and MIMS adsorption studies showed that Fenton's treatment
has no significant effect on the physico-chemical properties of the activated carbon. The used carbon adsorbents can be
efficiently regenerated and recycled with no loss of its adsorption capacity even after five consecutive treatments with
Fenton's reagent.
ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
I didn't forget about this.
About 1/8 cup unrinsed bulkreefsupply lignite carbon in a 16 oz cup. I didn't let it sit overnight but I gave it a few hours. Tested the plain RO/DI water and read 0.00 phosphates. After adding the carbon the test came back at .03 ppm. That's sps quality phosphate levels even though I added way more carbon percentage wise than would be used in an aquarium. The dust from the carbon could have interfered with the test but I didn't want to rinse anything out of the carbon and the dust most likely elevated the test results.
About 1/8 cup unrinsed bulkreefsupply lignite carbon in a 16 oz cup. I didn't let it sit overnight but I gave it a few hours. Tested the plain RO/DI water and read 0.00 phosphates. After adding the carbon the test came back at .03 ppm. That's sps quality phosphate levels even though I added way more carbon percentage wise than would be used in an aquarium. The dust from the carbon could have interfered with the test but I didn't want to rinse anything out of the carbon and the dust most likely elevated the test results.
OP
OP
Young Frankenstein
I sniff ozone and relax.
That is great information ritter, thanks for following up on this.
