I got a reply from Kent Marine. They requested that I send a sample of the carbon (understandable) and the bar code on the product, plus they want to see pics of the corals that have died and what ever receipt I have.

Of course I don't have receipt for most of my corals because some where bought like 2 years ago or at least more than one year. Some were bought as group buy and I was not the one with the invoice, and finally some were bought from other reefers and I don't have receipts for those. But I think that from the pics they can make out what is the value of the coral anyway.

They seem nice and offered me good advices on how to bring my system back to normal, lower the light for a few weeks until the corals recover, use polyfilter to remove what ever contaminant is in the water, feed corals with vitamine and food and replenish trace element that the polyfilter will remove. Seem like a good plan.

I will be sending them the sample of the carbon and the documents this week.

They said that polyfilter will remove heavy metal and contaminants if that is the problem so I am going to buy this stuff tomorrow and do another water change.

As soon as I find out what is the problem, I will post here.

Question here..if it is copper or other heavy metal, will polyfilter remove it from my liverock as well or will I have to replace my liverock?

polyfilter will remove it from the water as it leaches from your rock, however if your rock keeps leaching without the polyfilter, you'll always have it in your water. I guess it also depends on what kind of levels were in the water in the first place and whether it was taken up by the rock. The polyfilter might let you know what is in the water also, as it changes color depending on what it is removing.

Damn it, I even didn't have a small amount of that bad carbon :twised:
Thanks Daniella, I will reduce the lights for a few weeks. What is a polyfilter ? I have never heard of it before. Anyway, I'll call LFS and find out about it. I have more than 1/3 of completely white bleached corals in my tank. I still don't know what to do with them yet. Throw them away or wait to see if they come back ? Hmmmm ... good luck ? :twised: The rest of the corals are totally faded, only me the owner can recognize what were the original colors before, even my husband totally got lost has no clue. I am really &^%$# off with the Kent product. I will never buy anything that is made from this company again.

http://oceanaquatics.com/store/produ...7/Poly-Filter/


Ah Casey, stay in this hobby enough and you'll find you will get screwed often enough and by all the major brands, enough that you circle right back around to where you started :wink:

Hahaha ... I believe what you say. I was swearing that I would never touch any Coralife brands in my life again, then after a few years I bought a UV with that brand name again.
Thanks for the link.

Yeah after a few years it doesn't sting as much. Funny, I just put a polyfilter on my tank the other day hoping it would help. Also switched to the ROX 0.8 carbon from BRS. My water is shiny clean and hopefully the filter is doing its work. I didn't lose any corals so I'm thinking its not the carbon, my problems likely come from another source (of which I will never figure out but will likely be fixed in the midst of all the other "fixes" I do at the same time).

Do you still have the box of carbon and the invoice from the store you bought it?

They asked me for the bar code on the label and a proof of purchase and the address of the store where I bought it. They also asked for a sample of the carbon, but that did not seem to be a requirement though. Since I have plenty left I will send it.

Polyfilter is a filter media that change color as it absorb different contaminant. I will buy it today and put it in my tank.

I did another water change and now things are starting to look a bit better. My shaggy acropora is starting to return to normal.

However so far I lost all my beautiful blue sponges :( and all my beautiful and rare true pink digitatas. I have no idea whey they died and the other digitatas, orange and purple, did not die at all. Murphey's law dictate that the rarest and most beautiful are going to be those dying huh?

All my xenia have melted away...wierd...that was growing like weeds in my aquarium for 2 years and I kept pruning it and giving it away to friend and even throwing it in the garbage because I had too much of it. now I have none left. The little bit that was remaining finaly melted as well. very wierd.

The company is very nice though. I have good hope that if it is the carbon responsible, they will compensate people for their loss...i surely hope so.

I think if you have any coral left that is bleached but still have polyps and tissue, you should not throw them away. I once had an acropora bleach completely and even part if it died and it make a 100%, even 120% recovery in a month or two, so unless your coral have no more flesh and polyp, keep them and wait to see if they come back.

I had to throw away my monti cap with blue rim because it had no flesh any longer and algae was starting to cover it, a good sign that it was dead. Same with my pink digitata, it became all covered with brown stuff (not brown jelly though) sign that it was dead.

No, I didn't keep the container because I returned it and exchanged another brand. I still have the receipt though, the bar code must be somewhere in there.

if you returned it at the store, they probably returned it to the company. I would call the store and ask them what they did with it and if they still have it, ask for a sample of it to send to Kent.

In any case, you should contact Kent Marine and tell them your story.

Thanks Daniella, I will let my husband deal with them.

Hey Daniella, I was about to get the receipt, pictures of the bleached corals, and my husband is ready to go back to LFS (where we returned the carbon) to get a little sample and the bar code tomorrow ... we were ready to make a complain to the Kent company tomorrow ... and guess what, my halides were turned off for the day and now the T5s have been turned on for 2 hours ... then all of a sudden when I passed by, I see all my bleached corals have slight color on them. I stopped and looked closely, I see the polyps are starting to open here and there. All the faded corals are gettting more colors under the T5s tonight. I couldn't believe what I have seen. I am so excited ! They are coming back to life tonight, Daniella ! You were right, good thing I didn't throw them away. Will see what they will look like under the metal halides tomorrow.

Casey, I would suggest you keep the halides turned off until the color comes back. The color in the corals protects them from the damaging effect of UV rays. Putting halide light over badly bleached corals could kill them.

That's great news. Some of mine are starting to do the same thing as well. I lost 2 frags of acropora, the rest seem that it's going to come back.

Though I lost all my xenias, all my blue photosynthetic sponges and all my pink digitatas plus a few frags of paly and zoanthids. Really wierd how selective this was.

Just make sure you don't put the ligth too long for a few weeks to les them recover and stop them from bleaching more. As long as they have polyps, they usually come back.

I am using the halide for 5 hours per day now. I don't have anything else that can provide for my coral because the other tubes are just PC actinic and can't sustain corals, but seem that just cutting the amount of time by a few hours is preventing further bleaching. I went from 9 hours of MH to 5, so cut it about half for now.

Mika, How long do I need to leave the halides off, or do I just need to cut hours back like daniella ?

The ideal would be to use the T5HO if you have anything else than actinic, and if your T5HO are just actinic, then put egg crate or something to screen the MH and start with just a few hours per day and rise that slowly as the coral get back their colors.

If you only have actinic, that's not enough to sustain the coral. Also feeding them amino acid and zooplankton will help them recover because since they are deprived of zooxanthellae, they need other food source for now.

I will follow your instructions, thank you daniella.

Please read Kent reef carbon recall on J&L web site.

Wow they've done it again. Does anyone else remember ~8 years ago when they produced the bad batch(s) of salt? I do...

Feb 22, 2012

RE: KENT Marine Reef Carbon Product Advisory

There is a quality concern with KENT Marine Reef Carbon manufactured between December 5th of 2011 and February 8th of 2012. The concern is that the batch of carbon contained unusually high levels of heavy metals which have an adverse effect on stony corals and clams in marine settings. KENT Marine Reef Carbon is a virgin coal based carbon that is mined giving it greater adsorption properties. Unfortunately during this mining process, small layers containing heavy metals like copper were introduced into the carbon. This contamination of heavy metals would likely go undetected in freshwater environments and would not affect livestock. However in marine (salt water) aquariums, the effects can be seen in as quickly as a couple of hours to stony corals and clams. Fish and higher invertebrates such as shrimp do not seem to be affected. After removal of the contaminated carbon and dilution by a water change or use of other filtration means, most corals have been able to recover in 2-3 weeks from the exposure.

This carbon is also mainly used for commercial potable and wastewater treatment such as municipal water supplies. These are single pass systems where the water will only pass through the carbon bed once and any residual leaching of metal into the water will be minimal. This is also why carbon is not typically tested for heavy metals; until now. When carbon is used in aquarium settings, the water passes through the carbon bed multiple times increasing the soluble metal in that enclosed environment.

If you have purchased KENT Marine Reef Carbon in the last three months, please refer to the below table to identify the product size you may have purchased and the expiration dates affected.

00027 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 1lb (1qt)
************ EX20DEC14* EX21DEC14* EX22DEC14* EX25JAN15 00031 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 15lbs (5gal)
******** *** EX05JAN15** EX17JAN15** EX18JAN15
00028 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 1.9lb (2qt)
************ EX05DEC14** EX08DEC14** EX13DEC14* 00032 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 25lbs
********** * EX21DEC14
00029 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 4.1lbs (1gal)
************ EX18JAN15** 00681 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 44lbs
************ EX02FEB15** EX08FEB15
00030 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 7lbs (2gal)
************ EX13DEC14 * EX14DEC14** EX03FEB15 *
These expiration dates can be found imprinted on the product label or stamped on the product bottom.

If you have product with an above expiration date, please discontinue use and perform a standard water change. Take the remaining product back to the retailer where it was purchased for a refund or exchange or call a Central Aquatics customer service representative at 1-888-255-4527.

We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused as we want to assure you that we intend to deliver the highest quality products possible. With this development, the quality of KENT Reef Carbon will be produced under new testing protocols.

Again we sincerely apologize for having to bring this quality concern to your attention. If you have any questions about this advisory or any other KENT Marine product, please contact a Central Aquatics customer service representative at 1-888-255-4527.


Best regards,

Scott Rabe
Central Aquatics
Brand Manager Food & Water Care

Thanks for posting that!

*Throws out Kent Carbon*

Um.. ya.. everyone's stuff is dying.. very "inconvenient" indeed :neutral:

HMMMMM.... I have Kent Reef carbon, but haven't been using it for some time (running carbonless), and my tank was making a comeback. Decided, why not put a little bit in after christmas vacation, and corals started to die. Never thought it was the carbon, but it was the only change, so took it out and I am running carbonless again. RTN has stopped and corals coming to life again.

Now in saying this, my carbon is much older and doesn't fall into the bad batch stated in this thread. Maybe Kent is just BAD!!!

Carbonless is the way to go for me.

After my husband brought the bar code number home, it is a match to the bad carbon batch Kent has recalled 0029 1 gallon container :twised::twised::twised:
I don't think I would bother to make a compaint with Kent company anymore. I am done with their products from now on.

You know, you just reminded me that I ran Kent Carbon once back in 2010. I had forgotten about that till now. It was only 1 container of Kent Carbon before I switched to ROX that I'm using now. However, while thinking back, the time I used the kent carbon may have been close to the time I had my major SPS die off in 2010 :surprise::surprise: :cry::cry:

Yup.. I just threw mine out too!

!!!!!!! Could be!!! And what really sucks is I see when things started declining, you put in MORE carbon!

Yeah, who woulda thought! The past couple years of coral issues, massive die off, and loss of $$$$... And maybe it was the Kent carbon all the time. I never thought carbon would be the problem, and have used Kent almost since the begininning.

I am not even going to bother with ROX, or a higher quality brand. Carbonless seems to be working for me, and I am really tired of losing coral, so I am going to leave it as is.

You are right, I used to put more carbon when something happens and I thought there is a poluttant in my tank. What a stupid thing I did in the past !
So no more carbon for me like globaldesigns say.

Ok...I was not dreaming. There was no possible other reason for my tank crash.

But I do want to be refounded for the loss of some of my corals. I surely hope they will refound that. I don't know what they will do for the store owner who lost 10k in corals??

Mine is also from that bad batch. It really upset me when I think that I was trying to do the best for my reef by putting fresh carbon, and that killed my most precious corals :(

Big lesson learned, never ever use carbon that is mined ever again. I will only use things like polyfilter or similar, never use carbon again.

That's almost ironically funny.. in a sad and depressing sort of way..

And not necessarily Kent alone. If I recall correctly, Coral Master/Snappy had a major SPS die off event a couple of years ago as well and the only thing he recalled switching up was trying some new carbon that was on sale on Boxing Day that winter. If it can happen to Kent carbon it stands to reason that it could happen to any carbon produced in a similar fashion ?!? This would explain so much! That is, you could be using carbon happily for months or years and then just happen to dump in a bad batch out of the blue!

The one good thing that has come out of this in my mind is the fact that Kent owned up to it an explained clearly exactly how carbon could be eff'ed up! If they had not come forward to acknowledge fault we'd still be scratching our heads and would probably never think to blame carbon for our woes. Unfortunately I'm worried about all carbons now :-|

I wonder if Seachem carbon is manufactured the same way and if it run the same risk?

It is very scray and disapointing :(

The whole purpose of carbon is something we trust will remove contaminants from our tank, not to contaminate it more to the point everything die.

I don't think that it'll be easy to tell if a particular batch of carbon is good or bad :(

Another thing I'm worried about now is, once you put bad carbon into your tank, how easy would it be to get all that nasty stuff out??? It's almost like you have to flush the tank just to be sure. :cry:

No wonder my skimmer had pulled a lot of black colored in the first 2 days.

That's what I want to know. I will have my water analysed by a pro lab Thursday. I had done this analyse for heavy metal and all metal about a month ago, so I will be able to compare. We will also run carbon in a bucket and anayle that water, just to see how much of the metal could have leached.

My greatest concern is if the liverock have absorbed these heavy metal. I will now use polyfilter for a few months until my system return to total normality.

You don't have to flush the tank. I will post here my result on my tank as how far this contaminant went and how much of it still remain.

Kent is recalling their carbon...
http://www.kentmarine.com/news/news-...arine-reef.htm

Wow, i tried new lights..... i tried new biopellets... i tried new powerheads.... I did 100+ gallons of water changes this month... and the whole time it was my damn carbon. Well, at least this way i had an excuse to buy a whole bunch of stuff for the tank. And now i can hopefully recover most of my SPS other than the 4-5 lost colonies.

And all this time i though carbon sucked trace minerals out of my water....

Kent carbon in the garbage, any chance of me buying Kent ANYTHING again? NEVER!

I'm running out of brands to buy stuff from... so many ways to crash a reef tank and frustrate a reefer.

Hey casey, how are your corals doing? are they coming back from the bleaching? Mine is a mixed bag. Some are improving and some seem to be going worse and bleaching still.

What is strange is that the corals are bleaching where the light does not reach, from underneat, so I am not sure if I should increase the light instead because what is exposed to light seem to be regaining a bit of color.

I really don't know what to do now. Seem the coral are missing a lot of zooxanthellae.

I could say I am very lucky. All of them are slowly coming back to life, their color are getting back about half way now. At least I can easily recognize what they were before. Only one, and that is my favorite one, it seems to be struggling to survive. Most part of the coral is covered with brown algae, only 1 small branch is showing a very slight color under T5 lights. I didn't use any carbon right now even I have already switched to a new brand. I got scared from using any brand and I may just follow what some people are doing, no need for carbon in my tank for a while.
My skimmer is also getting back to normal color, it doesn't skim nasty dark color with some black small particles on the skimmer neck like last week. I felt very lucky to get this beast in time to deal with this disater.
As lampshade has said, and me too, no more Kent product for me from now on.

Daniella, I have been reducing my MH lights only 2 hours a day. I used to let them run 12 hours, but now 10 hours. I am going to go back slowly to normal lighting starting next week. If you think your corals are doing better with more lights, I think you can do just like me, just slowly get back to normal.
My tank is a BB tank, I think when something goes wrong it is easier to deal with. Maybe I am wrong but that's what I thought. I can siphon the bottom of the tank many times a day if I want to, without worrying disturbing the sand bed. Water change is also easy for me too.