Carbon???

[SLAYCHILD]

This may be a stupid question!! But what is carbon used for and when should you use it? Thanks

[Ram_Puppy]

Traditionally carbon is used to absorb undesireable organic wastes out of the tank. The best (IMO) that you can buy is Tri-Base from CBPETS. When to use it depends on who you are. I use it constantly.

There are now other methods of using carbon creeping into the hobby, read Richards Sea Horse tank thread for more info there.

[Jeff]

when i firstgot into saltwater a little over a year ago iwas told by a lfs to never run carbon in a saltwater set up. theysaid it would lower the ph. i now run it in all three tanks.

[GaryP]

when i firstgot into saltwater a little over a year ago iwas told by a lfs to never run carbon in a saltwater set up. theysaid it would lower the ph. i now run it in all three tanks.
Allow me to clarify a little. Freshly manufactured activated carbon has a high pH. This is the result of the formation of potash during the manufacturing process. They wash it in acid to help neutralize this. Some of the carbons used in the hobby in the old days used phosphoric acid to do this. This had the effect of providing an additional source of phosphate to the water and boom you had an algae bloom. Most carbons sold into the hobby now are neutralized with hydrochloric acid, so there isn't a lot of leaching of phosphates. Any unreacted acid leached from the carbon is going to be pretty minor and the buffering capacity of saltwater should be able to handle it with no problems. I would think this would be a lot bigger problem in fresh water that has a lower alkalinity (buffering capacity). Since most people are adding buffer in the form of supplements and water changes, this is an even smaller problem.

I hope that helps. See, you never know what you will get out of spending two days in a classroom undergoing intensive activated carbon training will do for you down the road. At the time, it served as really good motivation to take a nap.