Carbon and powerfilter

[Henry]

Manny, How soon after you remove the carbon do you see the water get cloudy? Is it right after or days later.


Henry

I only run carbon on my fowlr tank.

[manny]

It happens right after I take it out.

[MikeP]

Manny - you can use those cartridges but you need to be religious about cleaning them/changing them so bacteria doesn't build up. Looking at the amount of live rock you have I am thinking the system is relying on the bacteria growing on these filter pads for nitrogen breakdown and when you remove it the tank is temporarily thrown out of whack and a bacteria bloom accompanies it?

Try getting another 10lbs of rock and seeing if that works. Also what I often do is just take the filter pads out and put small chunks of live rock rubble in the filter compartment - worked real well on my little eclipse filter and I have done the same with a fluval canister filter and an aquaclear.

Carbon is beneficial but I wouldn't run it all the time. If you want to 'recharge' it I know we used to bake ours in the oven to recharge it back in the dark ages (10+ years ago).

[manny]

Thanks Mike,
I'll be getting some more live rock from Richard on Tuesday or Thursday. I'll also be tryin the small chunks of LR in the filter compartment and see what that does and I'll give you an update on that.

[brewercm]

I've heard of people taking the bio wheels off because of that. I doubt seriously because of their location and the way they work that they could builb up much but hey I could be wrong. :oops:

I've had the same wheels on my 400 for over 3 years and have never had a nitrate problem in my tank.

[witecap4u]

Could it be the filter pads draining back into the filter/tank when you take them out, causing the water to become cloudy? Does it get cloudy within minutes or hours?

[Henry]

I'm thinking is just the dirt and stuff draining off the pads and back into the tank. and nothing to worry about.

[manny]

I cleaned out the cartridges and filter pad yesterday and the cloudiness is comin from the filter pads draining back into the tank just as witecap and henry have suggested. No big prob. Settles after awhile. Thanks for all the input guys.