Activated carbon question

[Hella]

Where would the best place to put the carbon?

In my reef I have the DT overflows plumed into my skimmer with the extra going to the sump (mind you there's very little extra), the skimmer flows to the fuge then from the fuge to the sump where the return pump is located. Right now I have a carbon bag just resting in a little vally where the baffles from the fuge to sump are.

I was thinking of running it on the DT as sorta of a pre filter as there's lots of small debris that is always there.

 

[onetrickpony]

Greetings
Is there any tests that will indicate when it is time to replace carbon
Is there a general rule about how much carbon to use,and how often to change the carbon
Can you run to much carbon

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There are not any good and generally available tests on when to replace carbon. Most people just target a time, such as 4-6 weeks.

I expect it is possible to run too much carbon, but that amount probably depends very much on what organisms you are keeping and your other husbandry practices. In reality, people with fine reef tanks use a very wide range of carbon amounts.

 

[therealfatman]

In general if color removal is your chief concern use small amounts and just run it over night or one day every week. The majority of color reduction happens over a period of hours, not days. If you are using the carbon for other reasons the change times can vary greatly. Some people use carbon as a media for biofiltration. Changing that carbon often would be counter productive.

 

[BrassMonkey]

i use one of those small di containers plumbed into my return. cheap and works great. id say it would be good up till about 60g tanks tho.

 

[onetrickpony]

Thank You