Bio Chem Zorb

[Capt. Nemo]

Does anyone use this product or something similar? I had gone to the LFS to buy some ordinary activated carbon when the LFS had persuaded me that this product was more effective than the ordinary carbon. The manufacturer is Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. It is a blend of resin and carbon filtration media. Its composed of two research-grade organic scavenger resins, two pharmaraceutical-grade ion exchange resins and high porosity activated carbon absorbents in a filter pouch. I have no idea what research-grade organic scavenger resins are or if this product is safe for my tank. Any advice/ recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Gary

 

[Capt. Nemo]

I just put a pouch of this in my sump and the whole tank is turning dark. Yikes!

 

[aquawolf]

Did you need to rinse it first? I am not sure as I have never used this product, but putting in carbon without rinsing first causes similar results.

 

[Capt. Nemo]

The instructions were to rinse any dust that may be present on the pouch which I did. I gave it a quick rinse and placed the pouch in my sump. The tank turned gray and I then took the pouch out and again ran it under the sink and gave it a thorough washing, but as long as I run it under tap water is continues to produce grayish water. What do I do now? Thanks!

 

[Capt. Nemo]

Is it normal for your tank to turn dark when first putting it carbon? What am I doing wrong and have I screwed up my tank. The tank doesnt appear to be getting any clearer.

 

[aquawolf]

That sucks!

I was hoping that a thorough rinsing until no more gray stuff came out of it would do the trick. Now I am wondering what in the world that stuff is if it won't stop turning gray.

With carbon, if you rinse it until no more black dust is coming out everything is fine. Otherwise that dust can go into the tank and make it darker for a little while.

Do you have any place that you can run some filter floss in your system? Using that may help to pull the gray crap out of your water as it passes through.

If anyone else has any suggestions please chime in at any time.

Good luck with this issue, hopefully since it is a filtering agent it won't cause any real harm to your tank in the long run.

 

[Capt. Nemo]

I just gave it another good rinsing and it appears that I have washed out all the dust. I apparently did not realize that the instructions called for such a thorough rinsing. I just hope that the dust that is already in my tank will clear up and not do any harm. Thanks for your help.

 

[ACBlinky]

AFAIK carbon dust won't hurt anything. Fine floss should help to remove it, and your skimmer may help as well.
I use Bio Chem Zorb on my 65g from time to time. It does a great job of clearing the water, but watch your phosphates - it may be coincidence, but I had a PO4 spike the first time I used it. Now I run it simultaneously with PO4 adsorbing resin just in case, and that seems to do the trick.

 

[Capt. Nemo]

Thanks AC. I can see clearly now. The dust is gone. Good to know the carbon dust is harmless. By the way what is a fine floss? I think the skimmer may have helped in removing some of the dust, but some of it may have settled on the substrate as well. I will take your advice and keep my eye on those phosphates.

Gary

 

[Capt. Nemo]

Just a quick follow up. Although my tank has cleared up and the dust storm has settled, would I need to remove any carbon dust that may have settled on my substrate? I see alot of the dust in the collection cup of my skimmer, but I'm not sure if this is all of it and if I need to remove any dust that may still be in my system. If you are saying its harmless then I would assume I need not worry about any dust that escaped being skimmed out. Thanks.