How to get pristine blue water in your aquarium with carbon
http://brs.li/BRSCarbon Have you ever wondered which carbon performs the best, or whether a media reactor really out-performs a media bag? We're going to cover it all in this episode of BRStv.
Carbon is integral in maintaining a healthy tank, as it removes a large range of contaminants and organic compounds from our aquariums. Most result from the continual adding of foods, fish waste and algae break down over time. Carbon is also capable of removing many medications, water treatments and accidental contaminants that may have been introduced to the tank by accident.
One of the biggest reasons reefers use carbon is to remove the yellowing pigments in the water which impact perceived coral coloration and light penetration.
At a glance, you may not think your water is yellow but there's a pretty good chance it is. A quick way to find out is to drain some water from the tank into a white bucket that's about the same depth as your tank. You'll quickly see how yellow the water is, especially when compared to a bucket of freshly mixed saltwater.
The good news is that the proper use of carbon can return your tanks water to the pristine blue you're looking for.
So what type of carbon should you use? There are three basic types commonly offered to the aquarium industry; bituminous, lignite and specialty carbon. They may look similar to the plain eye, but at a microscopic level they all have rather different pore structures, and work differently in the aquarium.
Each of the pore networks has unique properties ideal for different contaminants. You'll want to select a carbon known for having a pore structure similar in size to the molecules you're trying to remove.
Any of them are likely to work to some extent, but what you probably want to know is which one is the
BEST available, or simply which is the best value when considering performance and price available.
Bituminous, while not the best performing due to its smaller pore structure, is the most commonly used carbon in our industry. This is likely due to it being a hard carbon which produces less dust, making it easier to rinse. Bituminous carbon is what you will find most readily available on the retail market.
Lignite carbon has a larger pore structure which makes it more efficient at removing larger dissolved organic compounds and yellowing pigments. It does cost a few dollars more, but it's still quite affordable. At
BRS, we sell about 3x as much lignite as bituminous due to its higher performance.
The third type of carbon that we sell is
ROX 0.8. There is a price premium on this carbon, however it makes up about 70% of our total carbon sales due to its unique advantages.
ROX is a proprietary blend of different carbon sources which have been powdered and extruded into tiny pellets, which are super hard making it almost dust-free and rinses in seconds.
ROX is designed for ultra-pure water applications like pharmaceutical intermediaries where the contaminant removal standards are not only extreme but it is also critical the carbon itself adds as little to the water as possible.
We performed
a few standard tests using 200g of carbon in a BRS reactor and heater RO/DI water to help identify their performance. The tests included:
- The
Iodine number which measures performance and ability to absorb small molecules.
- The
Methylene blue which tests for the ability to remove medium sized molecules.
- The molasses efficiency test which tests for the ability to remove larger molecules.
ROX 0.8 carbon removed a wide range of pore sizes which resulted in nearly the complete removal of both the molasses as well as the methlyene blue.
Our BRS bituminous carbon is a bit different than most on the market in that its grade splits the different between typical bituminous and lignite. It removed most of the contaminants, but left behind a green tint which means it did not remove all of the yellow and blue tints.
The standard bituminous commonly available in the industry performed pretty poorly.
Implementing carbon in your aquarium is super easy! The ideal solution would be a media reactor where you can ensure the entire volume of water passes through the carbon several times a day.
Another method would be to throw some carbon in a media bag, rinse under cold tap water (or better yet, RO/DI water) and place it in a high-flow area of the sump. I don't typically use lignite in media bags due to the dust, but you can if you want.
Which method is better? We tested this, too. The media reactor was able to remove most of the contaminants in the water in about 75 minutes, while a media bag with 400g of carbon took about 8 hours.
While it did take about 7x longer than the reactor, the bags, there's no denying that a well-placed filter bag of carbon is more effective than many think.
It's definitely a legit option for those who don't have room in the budget for a reactor.