Carbon Question

[JxMetal]

So in my 2.5 gallon pico I have a bag of chemi-pure in the hob filter. It was a little too big so a corner of it hung over the return. Anyways, this giant emerald crab that I have climbs all over the tank. Nightly, he climbs up the filter intake and picks algae or detritus off of the filter return area. Last night he climbed up the filter and decided to grab the bag of chemi-pure and ripped a hole in it. This morning there was carbon all over one side of the tank. I believe that I can mix it into the sand and it'll still look pretty good.

Now, is this a good idea or a bad idea? Do I need to take it all out or can I just mush it into the sand?

 

[levon15]

I think stirring the sand would be the only problem in question as the carbon should not hurt the tank at all.
Stirring sand in a pico could be ill advised.


Someone correct me if i am wrong.

 

[JxMetal]

It's only been up for a month. It's got a crab, a stalk of xenia and 5 lbs of rock. It just finished cycling about a week ago.

 

[eahkmh]

The point of the carbon is to absorb a bunch of nastys out of the water, which concentrates them all in one place (the carbon). But when the carbon reaches saturation it will start releasing those bad things it absorbed back into the water column and then you have the new stuff your tank creates plus what the carbon was holding building up in your water and your "bad" concentrations might get higher than you want. That means your new carbon bag you add to the hob filter will be used up quicker and will need to be changed more often. I would try to get it out but it might depend on how much is actually there.

 

[JxMetal]

uhh.......yeah i'm confused. It sounded like the stuff that spilt out will soak up bad stuff until it gets old. Once it's old, the stuff will be released back into the water.

If I have new carbon in there the new carbon should soak it back up. Thus rendering the old carbon useless.


Am I correct?