Do you wash off your carbon?

[Brenden]

When I run carbon I usually wash it off before adding it to the tank. Do others wash it off? I use seachem matrix carbon.

 

[wrightme43]

Yes always.

 

[coil1002]

I soak mine in ro/di water overnight then rinse the sh*t out of it . If I don't I get carbon dust in the water column and it gunks up my skimmer to quickly

 

[DaBrowns]

yep...rinser here

 

[btuck]

Lovin the rinse!!!

 

[Scooterman]

In RO/Di otherwise you will absorb lots of P in regular tap water, sorta defeats the purpose IMO.

 

[wrightme43]

I hear what your saying Scooty. Here is my take on it.
If my carbon block prefilter in my rodi lasts three months, and my carbon prefilter on my icemaker lasts for a year, a minute or so of rinsing in tap water is a pretty minor addition of phoshpate to the carbon. Just my opinion, not knocking your way.

 

[Meche]

Yes always.

me too. Depending on how much extra water I made, I sometimes use water-changed water to do the rinsing, otherwise its just RO/DI for me too.

 

[Scooterman]

Well one thing about that & your right but if you ever notice how dry it is when you add it, it is most absorbing the very first time you wet it, carbon or this granular type will only absorb so much, not like the carbon that is compressed into a block like in your RO or fridge.

 

[Krish]

I always rinse mine as well with ro/di or used tank water

 

[sc18702]

Can someone help me understand what it means to "run carbon" and what are the benefits. I have a reef tank, sump, MH and actinic lighting, coralife skimmer. Water parameters fine with slightly elevated nitrates.

Does teh carbon go in a nylon bag or do you add a powered filter intot he sump that contains carbon. Thanks

 

[Krish]

When someone says they "run carbon" all it means is they use carbon somewhere in their system. It could be in a media bag hung in the sump in a high flow area, it could be used in a cartridge inside of a power filter etc...Doesn't really matter. You just want the carbon placed in a good area of flow. HTH