Does carbon release what it obsorbs?

[SeaMonster]

If left in the sump too long?

also, can I bake it in the oven to re-activate? (hey, look at the economy )

thank you

 

[gary shandling]

carbons life span depends on your tanks water quality. A few days or a few weeks. After that it collects unwanted elements. Replace often.

 

[Scooterman]

I moved this thread to Boomer's forum, he just loves Carbon questions!

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Great question. While waiting for Boomer to give the exact chemistry, here are a couple quickies. The temperature and environment required to reactivate the carbon is beyond a household oven and the costs prohibitive. Used carbon in the tank is more like live sand than anything else. Releases nothing bad unless it has trapped food particles between the grains.

Another thing to keep in mind, there are MANY grades of GAC available. Some are junk and some are awesome. Boomer keeps track of all these tests too. When it comes to carbon, it he doesn't know it, it ain't worth knowing:shock::lol:

 

[DonW]

If left in the sump too long?

also, can I bake it in the oven to re-activate? (hey, look at the economy )

thank you

Its something like 1500F so as Mike stated it not going to happen. It will simply turn biological if left in to long, not a good thing.
I'm a firm believer in carbon and lots of fresh carbon on a regular basis. If you watch the effect that fresh carbon has on your skimmer you will see that it sucks up alot of stuff real quick.

Don

 

[Boomer]

bake it in the oven to re-activate?

Nope your stove will not go that high And if it did you would burn down your house :lol:

Microwave reactivation is very common in the industrial field, where they have big trucks with large microwave for reactivaton. For us and a home microwave it is a more of a waste of time and not worth the effort. However, you can do it if you have allot of time to waste and get back about 75 % back. I say time as you have to do about a tablespoon at a time and it must be very wet

I might add there is also chemical activation using things like Phosphoric acid or NaOH, Sodium hydroxie, also called caustic soda, what you find in "crystal drano". The best results are with NaOH. However, this still has to be followed by high heat, only not as high as steam activation but in a lower range of 400-800 °C but you *may get away with 250 °C. Still not worth it. And Na(OH) is a nasty dangerous chemical in the worng hands when you do not know what you are doing The more normal Steam Activation is more like 800 - 1200C. Yes, that is correct, that is C and not F for temp So, 1400F - 2,200 F

Don is like me

I'm a firm believer in carbon and lots of fresh carbon on a regular basis. and very high grade carbon.