Filtering Vodka for Carbon dosing?

[Old Glory]

Any harm or benefit to filtering cheap vodka through activated carbon to try and remove impurities?

My thought was to use a coffee filter with activated carbon and pour the vodka through that.

They don't sell Everclear in my state.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I can't see any likely advantage to doing so, and I'm not sure most things one would encounter (other small organic molecules similar to ethanol) will bind to GAC from such a good solvent (vodka dissolves organics better than water).

 

[Old Glory]

I know some vodka distillers use carbon to smooth out the product. I was thinking cheap vodka could be cleaned up with the filtering process.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I know some vodka distillers use carbon to smooth out the product. I was thinking cheap vodka could be cleaned up with the filtering process.

I really don't see a reason to think the additional small organic molecules that folks worry about for taste are a problem in a reef tank.

http://www.vodka-tf.com/carbon_processing/

"So, what is the water-alcohol mixture purified from? In actual fact, carbon processing is now used not for purification, but for shaping the taste of vodka by means of the chemical processes we were talking about earlier. As a rule, removal of impurities from alcohol is not a direct consequence of their adsorption, but a result of carbon-catalyzed redox reactions."

Two main components in vodka that come from oxidation of the alcohol are acetaldehyde and acetic acid. Those would give bad tastes, but are no worse for the tank, I expect, than the ethanol.

 

[Old Glory]

Interesting read thanks!

 

[Goslugsgo]

I filter it through my liver.
Tank has never looked so good.

 

[madweazl]

First bottle I used on the tank was Crystal Head that ran about $50 (I didn't care for the taste) and the second bottle was McCormick that set me back $6; I haven't noticed a difference in the tank (didn't taste the McCormick)... I kept the Crystal Head bottle because it looks cool