I made a DIY carbon reactor out of a little gatorade bottle. I drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom and one big hole in the lid for a little 50gph pump and put it in the first chamber of my sump. I rinsed the carbon after putting it in the bottle. I probably should have added filter materiel at the outlet of the bottle because now I have carbon dust everywhere. Its on my algae, my chaeto, im sure its lining my plumbing and its in all my filters. I will be cleaning my pumps asap. My livestock seems unaffected. So do I worry about the dust? Has anyone ever made one of these and had success?
Did I make a mistake?
- Thread starter ianryd
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Mr Fishface
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Well the carbon reactor that I have, has a foam pad before the exit. I would recommend something like that for you too, even just a small bit of filter floss.
Having said that, the dust is already in the tank. Not really much you can do honestly, besides let it settle and vacuum it out. Make sure there isn't any extra space in the bottle though - I would put filter floss or some type of media to both ends. Really get the carbon tight because if there is any extra room the flow will tumble the carbon which then crushes it, releasing more of that powder everywhere.
Otherwise I like the design. I made something similar for biopellets once. Only in that case I left extra room for it to tumble on purpose.
Having said that, the dust is already in the tank. Not really much you can do honestly, besides let it settle and vacuum it out. Make sure there isn't any extra space in the bottle though - I would put filter floss or some type of media to both ends. Really get the carbon tight because if there is any extra room the flow will tumble the carbon which then crushes it, releasing more of that powder everywhere.
Otherwise I like the design. I made something similar for biopellets once. Only in that case I left extra room for it to tumble on purpose.
