To carbon or not to carbon?

[Maddlesrain]

I have two leather corals, a green toadstool and a devil's finger; after the latter was added, the first started opening less and less and then the new coral too started retracting its polyps. I've read that carbon can help remedy chemical warfare and was thinking of giving it a shot for the sake of these two leathers. It has been months and I've moved both all over the tank. I also haven't seen anything actively picking on either.

I've read that carbon can be harmful in some cases, so that's why I've held back from adding it to my reef. Also, if I do give it a try, what's the best way to go about it? Is it just regular carbon that is sold for freshwater aquariums for well? If so I could easily rig up something in one of my sump baffles so that most of my water would pass through it.

My current filtration includes sponges washed out regularly in the overflow, a slightly underrated skimmer, and a 25-30 gallon refugium with a hefty amount of macros (mostly chaeto and lettuce), so you could say my water is more on the "dirty" side.

I have a mixed reef consisting of softies, lps, sps, gorgonians, large number of zoas, rbta anemones, inverts (shrimp, snails, crabs, ect) and of course, fish.

Are there any animals that will be negatively affected by the addition of carbon?

Thank you, and sorry for my long string of questions!

 

[twilliard]

I feel in a mixed tank it is essential to run GAC
I run it one week on one week off.
I have been using it in mixed reefs since 2008

 

[Tahoe61]

Is flow the issue with the Leathers? Higher moderate flow can sometimes help out, my Fiji Yellow is under higher flow and loves it.
Can you post an image of the corals.
I always use Charcoal, typically smaller amounts than recommended so as not to strip the water.

 

[Maddlesrain]

I feel in a mixed tank it is essential to run GAC
I run it one week on one week off.
I have been using it in mixed reefs since 2008

What Carbon do you use? What is the reasoning behind using one week and not the other? Thanks!

Is flow the issue with the Leathers? Higher moderate flow can sometimes help out, my Fiji Yellow is under higher flow and loves it.
Can you post an image of the corals.
I always use Charcoal, typically smaller amounts than recommended so as not to strip the water.

They've been in essentially every flow configuration there is, and I run vortechs so the flow is fairly intermittent. Right now, I've moved the toadstool to a place that's as near as it can get to one of these pumps and it's still all wilty looking. However, the other leather seems to like being as high up as possible. I also have a larger cabbage leather which opens full without issue, and was added after the other two corals.

They're both incredibly pathetic looking sorry about the sub-par phone pics and funky lighting, the day-lights havent come on yet.

Thank you!

 

[twilliard]

I use carbon on and off to aid in the balance of organic and element load.
If ran daily and changed frequently there is a possibility of significant element/organic removal.

 

[Tahoe61]

I see cyano, algae or bacterial growth will prevent leathers from opening.

Vortech should definitely be providing enough flow. I run a Vortech 10 on my 45 gallons, for soft corals and lps it does the job. What vortech are you using?

The Cabbage and other Leathers are hardy corals, so it's nutrients, or chemistry such as SG/N/P.

With all that said these coral types do not like to be manipulated/moved. Try higher flow based on the images of algae growth.

Tank size and gph turn over please?

 

[Maddlesrain]

I see cyano, algae or bacterial growth will prevent leathers from opening.

Vortech should definitely be providing enough flow. I run a Vortech 10 on my 45 gallons, for soft corals and lps it does the job. What vortech are you using?

The Cabbage and other Leathers are hardy corals, so it's nutrients, or chemistry such as SG/N/P.

With all that said these coral types do not like to be manipulated/moved. Try higher flow based on the images of algae growth.

Tank size and gph turn over please?

The algae has been an on off battle. It's actually mostly clearing up at this point. I was also gone all this month until late this morning, so its had a small chance to latch onto a couple things in my absence.

The tank is 180g with a 55g sump/refugium.

I have two mp10's and a dual barrel (1600gph) hydor.

The sump return pump is an Odyssea wp1000 1340gph. It's hooked to a ball valve, which is turned down pretty low.

 

[Maddlesrain]

I'd also just like to add that the initial leather was my very first coral and was doing great for almost 5 years. It has lived through its fair share of "noob accidents," equipment changes, tank moves, so I'm just so stumped as to what happened! I added some carbon today. We'll see if anything changes....

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Bump!

 

[Maddlesrain]

Just thought I'd update. Both leathers are showing polyp extension after running only a small amount of carbon for the past few days!
Thank you for your input!

 

[Sir Chris]

I add carbon in a media bag 1/2 way between filter changed on my 30g HOB. I add it where the water goes from pump area 2 filter section.

 

[Downbeach]

I have used one form of GAC or another for decades, in both FW and SW systems, continuously without a problem. I would suggest you use a premium grade, i.e. Rox 0.8, or similar, and use it in a downflow reactor if possible to minimize any movement. I used to run my reactor's in reverse flow to achieve this.

Here is some reading:

The Good:
http://www.hallman.org/filter/gac.html
http://www.fishlore.com/activated-carbon-aquarium.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_7/volume_7_1/carbon.html
https://joejaworski.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/does-a-reef-tank-need-carbon/

The Bad:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/activated-carbon-affirmed-as-causative-agent-for-hlle-disease
http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/content/activated-carbon-hlle-smoking-gun-found

The Ugly:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/kent-marine-issues-recall-for-reef-carbon

 

[RoyalGrammaJohn]

I think everyone should use activated carbon in any tank. It does get so much impurities out. Never had a problem using it.

 

[Salty1962]

I use Rox8 as well. I run about half of the recommended amount in a BRS 5" reactor fed off of my sump manifold. I keep it running 24/7 to keep the organics down because I feed heavily. If you do go with GAC, start off slowly until you see how much it removes. You don't want to completely strip your tank of all organics