Carbon placement

[Paul101]

In an attempt to make my water clearer I placed a bag of carbon in the sump so that all the water has to go through it before the return. The water got clearer and the skimmer found nothing to skim. In this position, detritus will be picked up as well and I'll have to rinse it daily.
1. Would it be better just to have it in the sump with detritus is caught by a piece of foam?
2. Is it better to allow freerer water flow with more stuff in it as food for the corals, or to have really clear water?

 

[meschaefer]

Many people use carbon differently. Some people place it in a reactor, other's throw it in a high flow area of their sump. Many people use it intermittantly. I generally use carbon in a reactor. I will use it for a week, and then I wont use it for another week.

The way you are using it, it is catching a lot of the detrius so that it doesn't get to the skimmer. Is there a way that you can position the carbon, so that the water exiting the skimmer has to flow over it

 

[Paul101]

The position is after the skimmer, just before the water returns to the tank.

 

[reefman]

if your carbon is catching all the detritis, its not really doing much of polishing the water. put it in a indirect path of the water flow. if its not even needed,then might as well take it out.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

buy urself a phosban reactor and use the carbon in there, where it will be most effective...

 

[Paul101]

I started with carbon to try to make the water clearer. I think of it as the first step before going to ozonizing. Carbon is necessary for ozonizing anyway, I think. As I understand it carbon takes out stuff the skimmer doesn't.
When you say put it in an area of indirect flow, do you mean just drop the bag in a chamber of the sump?

 

[reefman]

yes. less direct flow so less detritis will get trap

 

[Harif87]

What i dont understand is why the detritus build up is bad. I mean to me it sounds even better. Reason being that the carbon is going to be washed, so its a means of mechanical filtration....

Detritus build ups are only bad if theyre allowed to stay "built up" and to eventually decay... no?

 

[reefman]

yes, if u r going to use it as a means of mech filt,then u should clean it as often as possible.

 

[Paul101]

In the last compartment of my sump there is a shelf with egg crate right above the return. It holds a piece of porous foam which I clean often, or I can substitute the bag of carbon. I'm trying to determine if the carbon bag should go on this shelf and receive 100% of the water flow, say 3 or 4 times the system water an hour, or leave the foam in place and drop the carbon bag beneath it. With the bag on the shelf, the skimmer, two compartments earlier, hardly skims anything.

 

[reefman]

if ur skimmer doesn't skim, i would get a better one. but thats a whole can of worms. i would not use the carbon bag as a means of mech filt. cause that contradicts the purpose of using carbon in the 1st place. if u really wanna use mech filt, i would go with a filt sock instead of foam as it can be easily empty out.

 

[Harif87]

why not kill 2 birds with one stone?

 

[reefman]

when the carbon bag is clog with detritis, it's not being flush thru with water which makes the carbon useless.

 

[Paul101]

The carbon bag never gets close to being clogged by detritus. The foam is easily cleaned, much easier than a sock. I've been using the foam for detritus with the carbon just in the water for the past few days and the water is definitely clearer. Now I worry that the foam removes coral food particals.