Do You Run Carbon 24/7 or Never?

[ScubaFish802]

Unless you are incredibly particular about your tank and what gets in it you would be absolutely crazy not to run carbon.

I apologize but isn't this a place where we should be helping people (new hobbyists in particular) to prevent major disturbances in a tank that can happen unknowingly to them?

Carbon is proven since before many of us were in the hobby, I have used it for 20+ years, my fish, corals, and inverts have lived for a very long time, often far beyond what their "life span" is in captivity.

Let's leave the small nuisances aside and be realistic, carbon is one heck of a product that we should be very thankful for.

Good evening, my hope with this thread was to accumulate people’s opinions and usage of carbon, as well as potential dangers (HLLE etc). I was not trying to scare new hobbyists. I apologize

 

[Auquanut]

That Carbon is one of the super premium ones, I didn’t test it myself, but I’ve heard that it has NOT caused issues for other people, so I wouldn’t worry....
Jay

Thanks. I think I'll stay the course for now. I've got a lot of large colonies in my tank, and coral warfare is definitely an issue.

 

[Dolphins18]

Good evening, my hope with this thread was to accumulate people’s opinions and usage of carbon. as well as potential dangers (HLLE etc). I was not trying to scare new hobbyists. I apologize

No worries at all, I just think its super beneficial, I hope I did not offend you at all, It has just worked for a very long. I will add I have used only chemi pure products this whole time, slowly upgrading overtime.

For years I used chemi pure elite with purigen, recently dropping the purigen for chemi pure blue, I think I will go back to the elite route with purigen if that helps at all.

To add, I have not had HLLE since the first year in this tank, which was over 26 years ago, and I have run that carbon since.

I think I should also add that chemi pure was designed before reactors were very popular, I would not personally run carbon in a reactor, other things are far more beneficial and beneath your floss is really a good spot in my experience.

 

[SaltISlife]

Carbon from what ive read also removes macro nutrients iodine. Potassium. Strontium and stuff. I dont run it 24/7 because of this

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I am fairly new and found this a helpful topic. I didn't know what HLLE was and have not used a reactor. I think it's great that this was an opportunity to become more educated.

I currently use Poly Filter and was wondering if folks use it in a sump (which I will be upgrading to soon). Turns out some veterans do not use it in a sump (and had never heard of using it) and others do.

The more we share the better off we are!

 

[ScubaFish802]

No worries at all, I just think its super beneficial, I hope I did not offend you at all, It has just worked for a very long. I will add I have used only chemi pure products this whole time, slowly upgrading overtime.

For years I used chemi pure elite with purigen, recently dropping the purigen for chemi pure, I think I will go back to the elite route with purigen if that helps at all.

To add, I have not had HLLE since the first year in this tank, which was over 26 years ago, and I have run that carbon since.

That is reassuring to hear. I religiously use the Chemipure regular (I found the elite took out more than I wanted).
and no offense taken at all. Just wanted to make sure I was not giving off the wrong ideas

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I’m curious, if you had to give a general recommendation on carbon use (frequency etc, or not at all possibly) what would it be?

Avoid lignite carbon, rinse all carbon well before use, avoid applications that grind it up, running a protein skimmer wet will help export the carbon dust that is the real culprit. I don’t use carbon at all any more on my main systems, just for pulling gelbstopf (yellow color) from some smaller tanks.
Jay

 

[Dolphins18]

That is reassuring to hear. I religiously use the Chemipure regular (I found the elite took out more than I wanted).
and no offense taken at all. Just wanted to make sure I was not giving off the wrong ideas

There have been many occasion's where I have wondered if my tank would have crashed due to certain things I did over the years, while I cant attribute it to carbon 100 percent, I can say with a lot of confidence that it would be well worth it to save a tank crash. Do I think its a cause of HLLE, maybe in susceptible fish or with different carbon but I find it very unlikely.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I only use ChemiPure Blue OR Elite

 

[Vette67]

I’ll add my 2 cents. I haven’t used carbon in I can’t even remember how many years. I run an SPS dominant mixed reef with leathers, LPS and a clam. I have been using ozone to get the “yellow” out of my water. That seems to work well. But otherwise, I haven’t seen a need to run carbon at all. I’m wondering what benefits people are seeing and why they use it 24/7? Or is it just to remove yellowing?

 

[ScubaFish802]

I’ll add my 2 cents. I haven’t used carbon in I can’t even remember how many years. I run an SPS dominant mixed reef with leathers, LPS and a clam. I have been using ozone to get the “yellow” out of my water. That seems to work well. But otherwise, I haven’t seen a need to run carbon at all. I’m wondering what benefits people are seeing and why they use it 24/7? Or is it just to remove yellowing?

Ever since I was young and had my first freshwater tank something just ingrained in me that I should always run carbon. And I have ever since without ever giving it a second thought. Never seen any negative effects or had even heard of HLLE until a post here yesterday which started my curiosity

 

[Dolphins18]

I’ll add my 2 cents. I haven’t used carbon in I can’t even remember how many years. I run an SPS dominant mixed reef with leathers, LPS and a clam. I have been using ozone to get the “yellow” out of my water. That seems to work well. But otherwise, I haven’t seen a need to run carbon at all. I’m wondering what benefits people are seeing and why they use it 24/7? Or is it just to remove yellowing?

I will say I do not use it for water quality, thought with the chemi pure blue I guess I do.
I use it in the rare event that something gets in the water I do not know about, Will it save the day? I dont know, But it will certainly help, not only with that, but also with my peace of mind.
I read a post on here once of someones nephews peeing in their sump, while I dont know what is in pee scientifically, I would a little more comfortable knowing I am running carbon.

My point in some things happen out of our control, and it could be a savior.

I dont know much about ozone, that could be the new solution, old school guy.

 

[ScubaFish802]

I will say I do not use it for water quality, thought with the chemi pure blue I guess I do.
I use it in the rare event that something gets in the water I do not know about, Will it save the day? I dont know, But it will certainly help, not only with that, but also with my peace of mind.
I read a post on here once of someones nephews peeing in their sump, while I dont know what is in pee scientifically, I would a little more comfortable knowing I am running carbon.

My point in some things happen out of our control, and it could be a savior.

I remember that post haha
Crazy stuff

 

[Dolphins18]

I remember that post haha
Crazy stuff

What a story... I kind of wish my nephews peed in my sump...
Those kids will never live it down.

 

[DHill6]

Running KZ so it’s 24/7 changed out once a month, small amount in bag and rinsed well before placing in sump. I haven’t noticed any problems, using KZ brand.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I will say I do not use it for water quality, thought with the chemi pure blue I guess I do.
I use it in the rare event that something gets in the water I do not know about, Will it save the day? I dont know, But it will certainly help, not only with that, but also with my peace of mind.
I read a post on here once of someones nephews peeing in their sump, while I dont know what is in pee scientifically, I would a little more comfortable knowing I am running carbon.

My point in some things happen out of our control, and it could be a savior.

I dont know much about ozone, that could be the new solution, old school guy.

Between carbon and poly filter, they were both a savior for me a couple of months ago. I overdosed my fish big time using cupramine. They took it 99%+ out of my tank.

 

[afishbestservedcold]

Unless you are incredibly particular about your tank and what gets in it you would be absolutely crazy not to run carbon.

I apologize but isn't this a place where we should be helping people (new hobbyists in particular) to prevent major disturbances in a tank that can happen unknowingly to them?

Carbon is proven since before many of us were in the hobby, I have used it for 20+ years, my fish, corals, and inverts have lived for a very long time, often far beyond what their "life span" is in captivity.

Let's leave the small nuisances aside and be realistic, carbon is one heck of a product that we should be very thankful for.

With that being said, it is important to buy quality carbon, and not go the cheap route here.

What does carbon do to keep things out of a tank? kill them?

Also, and admittedly I believe in my own anecdotal successes, maybe your 20+ years of using it have had some added element that new hobbysits (like myself) won't be attuned to, like not overdoing it with the carbon, adequate rinsing, etc.

and what makes you think its the carbon that is extending their lifespan? maybe you do other good things to keep them happy in spite of the carbon

https://afspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08997659.2011.608608

More than one thing can be proven about carbon, it might help but it might hurt

 

[afishbestservedcold]

point is, use it sparingly unless you have one of these emergencies people are mentioning

 

[Dolphins18]

What does carbon do to keep things out of a tank? kill them?

Also, and admittedly I believe in my own anecdotal successes, maybe your 20+ years of using it have had some added element that new hobbysits (like myself) won't be attuned to, like not overdoing it with the carbon, adequate rinsing, etc.

and what makes you think its the carbon that is extending their lifespan? maybe you do other good things to keep them happy in spite of the carbon

https://afspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08997659.2011.608608

More than one thing can be proven about carbon, it might help but it might hurt

First off,
I do not think carbon is extending their lifespan by any means.
I think proper water quality through proven and tested methods over the years attributes to their long life.

Carbon does not "kill" things, it reduces the toxicity of if something gets in the water. This can happen in ways beyond your control (things in the tank itself).

To be honest, I could care less if you use carbon, this is my suggestion, most long term successful reefers I know use it, but maybe I live in an unknown area.

With that being said, If you've been going without carbon for a few years and have been perfectly fine, and are comfortable without it, by all means do what works, this hobby is about our own personal findings, nobody knows everything.

Maybe the .edu's help some people, at the end of the day, those scientists are just people (like us) doing a study for who knows how long.

And I agree, use the recommended amount, that should be just a clear point with just about anything in life.

 

[afishbestservedcold]

I definitely agree about the usefulness of ".edu's", i guess its really just another anecdotal data point in the grand scheme.

thanks for the candor, I don't really know squat about saltwater yet but I would lean towards its a marketing ploy for freshwater. Then again, maybe if you way overstock/overfeed a tank, even freshwater, the carbon might be needed.