Carbon in SPS system

[JG1]

Hows it working for you?

 

[brob22]

its early, but my my few frags are darkening up. i think my problem was i had zero nitrates which was inhibiting me to get rid of the little bit of phosphate i had.

interesting though i had alittle bit of cyano which disappeared in a few days onch my nitrate went up alittle. i think onche i hit 5-10 pmm nitrate my corals will look hot again.

i think theres a ratio explaining this called reidfords ratio or somthing like that incase u wanted to do a search

 

[lolgranny]

what exactly did you dose?

I can't get my nitrate up no matter what I do. I feed heavy twice a day, add amino's nightly, have a lot of fish...still undetectable NO3

haha sounds like me! What are u feeding them? How many fish do ya have in your tank? Are you having issues with your colors?

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

Thanks for your response.

How long after you took the carbon offline did it take to see improvements?

What kind of carbon were you using prior?

I was using the medium grade (lignite carbon) from BRS and it seems to work fine for me in the past. I should also note that I have been keeping a regular water change schedule since turning off the carbon. It took about a week before I really started noticing the polyp extension improvement.

 

[JG1]

haha sounds like me! What are u feeding them? How many fish do ya have in your tank? Are you having issues with your colors?

I just added a small trigger and a copperband butterfly the other day in hopes they well help produce more NO3, but other then that I have a small hippo, 2 firefish, 5 chromis, small clown, 3 wrasses.

Having trouble with light SPS.....some corals have improved really well over the last 2 months, but other frags haven't improved at all.

Feeding a nice chunk of Roggers reef food mixed with cyclopeeze twice daily.

 

[lolgranny]

Did u acclimate them all to the light?
How long are you keeping your lights on for?

I just don't see carbon doing that, I have a ulns and I have great colors. Granted I don't hhaveT5 bulbs I just run a 250halide. They should all color up more when they get bigger / your tank matures more(assuming the tank isn't 2yrs+) have any pics so we can check it out?

Cheers bud

 

[msp307]

I love carbon and so do my acros and montis yay

 

[JG1]

Did u acclimate them all to the light?
How long are you keeping your lights on for?

I just don't see carbon doing that, I have a ulns and I have great colors. Granted I don't hhaveT5 bulbs I just run a 250halide. They should all color up more when they get bigger / your tank matures more(assuming the tank isn't 2yrs+) have any pics so we can check it out?

Cheers bud

As best I could. I started the frags on the sandbed and left them there for about 5 days, then put them in there spots. I run the 2 bulbs for 10 hours and all 6 for 5 hours.

Tested my PO4 and it's 0.00 and my NO3 with a sailfert looking looking straight down in clear.....Which indicates it's under 1ppm. Looking through the side, it's very very light pink. I'd estimate the N03 to be around 0.2ppm .

Some of the frags now look great, but others...forget it. My two red planet frags are white with a little red mixed in. Would love for them to develop a nice green base.

I just stuck a foam block in my sump between the baffles. I'm hoping in a couple weeks it will become somewhat of a "NO3 factory". When I feed the tank, it looks like a blizzard of food everywhere. I feed a decent amount and just can't get my nutrients up.

I don't use any GFO, but I do run some chaeto in the sump lit 24/7.

 

[reefyourself]

What i realized its acro's do need some nutrients in the tank...everyone has it in their head thay acro's need pristine water with no nutrients...With that in mind we tend to keep our tanks to sterile... Most of the time it isn't an alk/cal/mag problem its a low nutrient issue!

 

[JG1]

exactly

 

[ryshark]

As best I could. I started the frags on the sandbed and left them there for about 5 days, then put them in there spots. I run the 2 bulbs for 10 hours and all 6 for 5 hours.

Tested my PO4 and it's 0.00 and my NO3 with a sailfert looking looking straight down in clear.....Which indicates it's under 1ppm. Looking through the side, it's very very light pink. I'd estimate the N03 to be around 0.2ppm .

Some of the frags now look great, but others...forget it. My two red planet frags are white with a little red mixed in. Would love for them to develop a nice green base.

I just stuck a foam block in my sump between the baffles. I'm hoping in a couple weeks it will become somewhat of a "NO3 factory". When I feed the tank, it looks like a blizzard of food everywhere. I feed a decent amount and just can't get my nutrients up.

I don't use any GFO, but I do run some chaeto in the sump lit 24/7.

Sounds like the macro algae is doing a good job. Why do you feel you need cheato AND raise nutrients, that is counter productive. Have you tried taking the cheato offline?

 

[JG1]

Sounds like the macro algae is doing a good job. Why do you feel you need cheato AND raise nutrients, that is counter productive. Have you tried taking the cheato offline?

I like having the chaeto for PO4 control. I know it sucks up NO3 as well. Perhaps I should consider taking the chaeto offline.

 

[reefyourself]

Im running an algae scrubber and just use chemi clean in my sps tank. Absolutely no skimmer and everything is perfectly fine! Colors are great!

 

[JG1]

Im running an algae scrubber and just use chemi clean in my sps tank. Absolutely no skimmer and everything is perfectly fine! Colors are great!

I read your other thread. Do you feel the carbon was making your sps pale? You've noticed positive results since stopping?

 

[reefyourself]

Yeah it does. Ive always had problems with activated carbon but never with chemipure. I know chemipure is activated carbon but never seen any ill results from it only positive results.

 

[dzhuo]

Chemi-Pure isn't carbon. It's resin. The same material in you DI unit. In salt water with TDS in the millions range, Chemi-Pure would last about 2 seconds. No way it will do anything to your tank.

 

[reefyourself]

So you are saying I shouldn't be using chemipure? I mean, before adding it a week ago there was a yellow coloration to my water. Not it is crisp blue... and has remained this way.... something must be working

 

[dzhuo]

So you are saying I shouldn't be using chemipure?

Yes. That's exactly what I am saying but I only had my phone last night so my answer was short and pretty uneducated. Now that I have a real keyboard, let me clarify...

something must be working

Chemi-Pure has been around for a while now and many people claim to have success just like yourself. Unfortunately, many are misleaded by Boyd (and almost all his products are nothing but snake-oils according to many professional chemists) of what his products do. Boomer (before you question his creditability, he's professional chemist and are frequently seek out by many carbon manufacturers for advices) has revealed Chemi-Pure is nothing but a mixture of ion exchange resin (those used in your RO/DI unit) and carbon (and happen to be one of the worse because it's base on bitum). The way how ion exchange resin works is by binding charged molecules and giving up its own. After it gives up all ions, the resin is said to be exhausted. The rate of exhaustion depends on the purity of the water: the more impurity, the faster the exhaustion rate. In a typical RO/DI unit, the DI resin is always the last stage because the unit needs to protect dirty water getting to the resin and thus quickly exhaust all the ions. Even with a good sediment block, carbon and membrane, most DI resin lasts only a few months. Imagine you use the DI directly in salt water with TDS in the billions range (try stick a hand held TDS into your tank to see what I mean): It will be very quickly exhausted to a point of useless.

The second problem with ion exchange resin is they don't target any particular type of molecules (which is why we use it in a RO/DI unit to purity anything but water) so when you use it in salt water, it simply takes out everything with a charged ions. Unlike GFO, for example, which we know it largely only affect phosphate which is exactly what we want. Resin is thus not a good filtration media.

Here is the quote from Boomer addressing this issue: Chemi Pure & Activated Carbon

what do you base your info on?

The resin is an ion exchange resin and then do nothing in seawater but are fine for Freshwater. If you ask them they will tell you it is an ion excahnge resin (see below)

magnavore and API also use resins and what then of Purigen,

They are not ion excahnge resins but organic adsorption resins a different beast.

you make some pretty biased claims yet thousands of aquarists use it for discus, african cichlids and of course Marine

I said seawater and thousands of aquarists means nothing to me, as many are mislead like you. I do not sell anything but like the truth to be known. That is what most of this forum is about.

who would strongly disagree with your biased and I believe wrong claims

Well, prove me wrong. I have seen nobody that does not disagree with me once they know the facts. Go ahead and explain to me how an ion exchange resin works in seawater. The resin will be shot and worthless in seconds. Chemi-Pure is an ion excahnge resin and activated carbon and there are by far better activated carbon to use than the one in this product which is bitum based. They also use different grades of carbon which you never do in water filtration as it is self-defeating.

You are just propagating The same old info that has been circulating for years!


That is you not me


alot of other companies have tried to copy it

Who ? And make sure first you know what is in the other products first. An idiot can copy that Chem-Pure stuff, it is not some kind of super secret.

The activated carbons used in Chemi-Pure are the finest most powerful, and longest lasting that money can buy

This is called marketing hype and a line of BS you buy into. Fell free to send some to Norit or Calgon for an assay and see what they tell you And many people have switched for Chemi-Pure to other products with better results. Most serious reefer consider Boyd's stuff "snake- oil".

What is a deionization resin ?
http://www.culliganmiami.com/pf5.html

Better yet ask the chem pure people how a DI resin works in seawater and what ions it is removing. Then ask them for a facts data sheet showing as such from lab. Run some adsorption test with Chemi-Pure vs other products to see what a colored dye remove rate is.

Chemi-Pure usually lasts for up to 6 months before it needs to be replaced.

This is also nonsense it will be 100 % biological way before that time and me useless way before that time. Fell free to call any activated carbon chemical engineering and ask then that or these other questions.


The activated carbons filter particulates and waste while the ion exchange resins help remove nitrogen (ammonia and nitrate) build up which is harmful to your fish.

Yes, in freshwater but NOT seawater. Will it remove * some in seawater, yes but so will activated carbon. Try to save some fish with this stuff in seawater with high ammonia, it won't happen but will work in FW . Do you know how you regenerate a DI resin that removes ammonium ? You use table salt and seawater is 85 % table salt. So, how is that going to work by magic ?

If you want to believe in marketing hype have at it but I will do all I can to keep others from it, that is my job here

As you can see, most users are pretty clueless (not saying you are one of them btw). The carbon in Chemi-Pure will likely work to some degree but it's among the worse since it's bitum based (you can look this up else where).

 

[JG1]

After searching the internet and reading how carbon, especially Rox, depletes trace elements, I'm pretty convinced that I've depleted mine over the last 3 months using Rox 24/7 in a Rx. A depletion of trace elements would explain, nicely, some of the things going on in my tank.

At this point, a large water change wouldn't replenish what was lost. What about a product like Kent's trace elements ....would something like this be strong enough to replace what has been stripped?

 

[reefyourself]

Im worried that my water is also completely stripped of trace elements. What are some of the side effects in ur tank JG1?