Carbon on sandbed (okay?)

[Colin Levy]

I setup my IM MiniMax media reactor for the first time this evening and even with 3 sponges on each end of the sandwiched carbon (BRS Premium ROX 0.8), it still managed to let a bunch of the small carbon particles through into my DT. Thankfully it didn't go everywhere but mainly is in one corner of the tank, spread over about 2 sq feet of sand.

I am leaving for a out-of-town trip early in the morning and don't have time to do a WC and suck up all the carbon. Will it be okay for a few days? My tank seems just a tinyyyy bit cloudy.

 

[Colin Levy]

 

[Rakie]

Did you rinse the carbon with RODI? Because the carbon dust that gets in your tank can cause a lot of problems from fish health to coral deaths in some cases.

 

[Colin Levy]

Did you rinse the carbon with RODI?

I did, yeah, quite a bit. Until the water was clear and no tiny particles were coming out.

 

[Rakie]

Well honestly I would scoop out as much as I could -- But having washed it was the most important part. So it SHOULD be okay. But I'd still try and remove some.

 

[._Z_.]

I had the same reactor with the same BRS carbon and the same problem. I still have some carbon granules on my sand bed weeks later. I don’t think the granules are that big of an issue. If it’s the carbon fines then maybe it’s a slight problem.

Also FWIW I returned the reactor because of that problem and I found the pump noisy

 

[rock_lobster]

Those granules are no problem. Carbon dust can be harmful but those are not that size they are actually quite large if you can see them.

 

[Colin Levy]

I totally agree the pump is a bit loud and even on low, half the time, the flow still pushes the top sponges to the top of the tube and the carbon tries to tumble. It is really annoying.

Regardless I will try to get some of the carbon off the sandbed now, and do a good cleanup of it all when I get home.