Good Carbon?

[Reef Pets]

Where is the best place to purchase good quality activated carbon? We have gotten it from Bulk Reef Supply and dont care much for it. The granulates are way too small..
Is there much or any difference in lets say Bulk Reef Supply carbon and Jebo Carbon? What makes a high quality carbon high quality?

We have to purchase in bulk, typically about 20 pounds or so therefore its very hard to purchase carbon such as black diamond in such a volume.
What do you guys think?

 

[skinz78]

I am not sure if it will be enough for your needs but all I do is just go to Wal Mart and get mine there. I usually get every container they have in stock.

 

[Reef Pets]

Thats what I am curious about. Is there such thing as a good carbon or is activated carbon just that, activated carbon. I dont think Walmart carries enough to come close to filling our reactor. The reactor holds about 5 gallons or more.

 

[ThaBeast]

hmmm...I'm interested as well. I've been using the rox carbon from brs, now I wonder if I couldn't use the walmart stuff instead

 

[phi delt reefer]

hmmm...I'm interested as well. I've been using the rox carbon from brs, now I wonder if I couldn't use the walmart stuff instead

Check out the BRS videos showing a carbon comparision so you can see it with your own eyes. ROX carbon is the best hands down and its not much more expensive than the cheap stuff. Send BRS an email, they can send you anything you need in BULK.

also - brs has a group buy on EVERY aquarium forum (nano reef, reef central, r2r, 3reef, reef club sites, etc.) every month! So you can always pick it up in smaller quantities if needed more regularly. The BRS site has a carbon calculator - basically they recommend to use less but swap it out every two weeks once the carbon reaches its capacity.

 

[gparr]

I get my carbon from BRS, but you have to get lignite or ROX. The bituminous carbon is soft and will not give quality performance. I change my carbon every two weeks, so feel that lignite is the best value. ROX will always give the best performance, but you pay for that extra quality. I get the large granules. The small are impossible to deal with, particularly in a reactor. Not sure what you're willing to pay, but buying in bulk from BRS seems to be the best deal available.
Gary

 

[Reef Pets]

Thanks guys! I really like the carbon from BRS but the granulates are tiny. I was not aware they offered larger granulates. In that case I am off to BRS to find the larger granulate carbon.

 

[Reef Pets]

We use a large reactor, large enough to handle the 4000 gallons that we have. I was not aware that Lignite was available in small and large granulates. We used ROX in the past and it worked great but the granulates are WAY too small for our application. Therefore I purchased 5 gallons of the Lignite large granulates to see how it works out for us.
Thanks everyone!

 

[Troylee]

good to know guys... i have always used rawacarbon and rawaphos.... i have'nt heard much on the carbon but i know rawaphos, gfo aka. black gold "price tag" is the best hands down..... don't hear much about carbon..... recently i have been using what ever they got at petco and have not seen a difference at all.... it comes in a blue milk carton but it's small and i don't like that, because it comes out of the reactor all the time...