What is carbon removing?

[Walruis]

I know the basics of carbon like toxin, colour and odour removal but people are saying carbon removes important organics? I'm currently running it because I have lots of LPS in a really small volume of water and I want to limit the chemical warfare. I'm in the process of upgrading my tank and I want to keep majority SPS corals but people are saying SPS+carbon=stress and bleaching but no one gives a solid explanation of why?

Second concern I have is I'm getting a biopellet reactor for my tank (I've been doing tons of research on biopellets) and it seems that anyone who runs biopellets usually uses GFO but no one uses carbon? Would carbon+biopellets be removing too much from the system?

 

[Sk8r]

LPS aren't the spitters that soft corals are: they mostly intimidate by stings, not chemical warfare. If you're running mixed stony-softie, carbon is a good idea. But there's not much need in an LPS reef. If you have the lighting, you can add sps like montiporas (a good start on sps, pretty hardy, fast growing) to get a foothold and see how you like them.

 

[Walruis]

Right now I have about 40% LPS 35% softy and 25% SPS

 

[bertoni]

Carbon binds organics of various sorts. I suppose a large amount of carbon might be able to strip enough nutrients to cause problems, at least for a short period, but lots of people run carbon with a wide range of corals. I would run a bit to help keep the water clear, as well as dealing with allelopathic toxins. I'd probably run a small amount, and see how that goes. We'd need to know the tank size and the brand of carbon to say much, though.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

I don't know exactly what carbon removes, but I can say that early on when I started the hobby, there was a period that I didn't use it for a few months. Then when I did add it to my filter, within a day, the water went from a greenish tint to crystal clear. I never noticed it before, except when looking at old water compared to new water in buckets from water changes. Also, carbon is known to remove medicines from the water. Basicaly any particals small enough to get trapped in the pores of the carbon, but not so small as to pass through. What that is exactly I wish I could say. Not sure if that really helps.

 

[shah1]

I use carbon to clear the water and that is about it, I am not using this to take nutrients out of the tank..

 

[tmz]

It removes a variety of organics mostly hydrophobic organics which are repelled by water. Those include organic compounds which discolor the water and may include some allelopathic compounds/ chemical warfare exudates. I use moderate amounts of GAC 24/7 on my sps dominant mixed reef tanks and have for many years.

 

[dgh5]

The mixed blessings of Carbon is actually really straight forward. It removes many many different molecules and it's not too specific. In a way it's similar to a protein skimmer. It removes things that are hydrophobic enough to adsorb (think of this like "dissolving") into the carbon. Just like skimming, it removes many things other than what you're interested in. However, I think that you would have to try really hard to run too much carbon- just start with a small amount and work your way up. If you think you see any adverse affects switch to the next smallest amount.

The natural pristine reefs (the few that are left, if any) have extremely clear water with very low nutrients, so corals that grow there (think SPS) will be more appreciative of extremely clear and nutrient poor water that has been highly skimmed and carbon filtered. Corals that dwell in lagoons (many LPS, fungia) may even be in somewhat tinted water and may not require the same level of water clarity. I guess what I'm getting at is that one of the major things that leads to complaints about carbon is the way it can dramatically clear the water. If you change to it too quickly from really tinted water, you can even bleach your corals from the increased lighting. If you run a small amount and change it more frequently, you're unlikely to cause any rapid changes in the light or nutrient environment, but you can still hopefully get out alot of those organics before they decompose or do their job in chemical warfare like tmz was saying.