Boiling carbon?
 

I once heard from someone to boil carbon in RO water to get the phosphates out. Mostly for the not so pure brands. I know the ZEO carbon is suppose to have little to no PO4.

Anyone confirm this for me?

yeah, or microwave it ?

Every time I do a carbon change I put it in a container of RO water and microwave for 2 minutes on high. All the dust and impurities float to the surface, the carbon can go directly into the tank.

Works great....

You would be surprised what oily looking residue you find floating on the surface of the water.....

wow good tip then. I'll have to try this.

thx Justin brot this up. i'm just about to replace it.

You can reactivate carbon a couple of times by placing in an old frying pan and cooking on the BBQ as hot as you can get it.

I don't have a microwave but I will try boiling it and see what happens.

Good to know!

I seem to remember that you would need to get the carbon up to temperatures only an industrial kiln can achieve to properly "recharge" the carbon. Not sure of the exact numbers, though.

Certainly the hotter the better but in my experience you can get quite a bit out of the carbon with a BBQ. My only measure is after being cooked the carbon will again "snap, crackle and pop" when wet albeit to a lesser extent than if new.

Does it really retain the ability to absorb and adsorb things as well? The crackling is just the carbon rehydrating - the same crackle as your rice crispies. I'm guessing you can "burn off" some of the crap, but does it all come out?

Did some searching around and this patent application for a carbon recharging kiln heats it up to 800-1000 degrees F.

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/51...scription.html

That's hotter than on top of a BBQ.

Then there's this exchange involving melev and Boomer suggesting a microwave method:
http://www.petkb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/...arbon-Recharge

Boomer knows his crap so perhaps its worth a try, although the missus probably wouldn't take kindly to such unauthorized use of "her" microwave ;)

I would never microwave anything that's going into the tank. I rarely use it for food for myself. Microwaves are horrible.

I do soak my carbon in RO overnight just room temperature.

Myka, what is your issue with the microwave? It leaves no residual energy other than heat that I am aware of. Fill me in please.
Good thread...any 4 saving means more new corals:biggrin:

Microwaves damage pretty much anything that goes into them on a molecular level. It's like trying to finish a puzzle with a few pieces missing or misshapen.

Plain old water when microwaved (and cooled) and used to water plants has been damaged to the point that the plants don't recognise it as water anymore, and the plants will wither away. If you don't believe that try it yourself on two "identical" plants. Feed one tap water, and the other microwaved tap water. You can find experiments like these documented on the internet. I didn't believe them, so I tried it myself. It's true.

Have you tried 3?

one with tap water
one with tap water Microwaved
one with tap water Boiled on the stove

perhaps boiling the the water in general will change the molecular level, regardless of the method used?

Microwaving water does nothing to the molecular structure or composition of water - it will add heat (energy) to the bonds within the molecule, but it won't make it into anything else besides H2O.

Saying it damages it on the molecular level is a load of crap. While it is true that microwaves can damage things like proteins and DNA (due to conformational changes, breakdown of COMPLEX molecular structures, etc), it will NOT cause a molecular change in H2O. Last time I microwaved water it didn't turn into anything else, if I recall correctly.

Documented on the internet? Lots of stuff is documented on the internet - unless it's peer reviewed by experts in the field, it's only as good as the next site about ninjas swallowing frisbees when they get really ****ed.


Maybe the water needs to be cooled first? :lol:

I think this thread is going much deeper into the whole idea of heating the carbon in water than it needs too! I urge anyone the next time they are changing carbon to try this before making assumptions. I am not sure about the whole idea that it supercharges the carbon; however, 2 minutes in boiling water makes rinsing it useless, all impurities float to the surface and it is ready for use in the tank immediately.

I understand that boiling or very hot water drives all of the air out of the Carbon making it more effective vs carbon that typically will have lots of air trapped in the microscopic channels when only rinsed with cold water.

I think if you pour hot water on a plant, heated in any way, its going to start to wither away.

I boiled my carbon yesterday before using it and a lot of crap came out of it. I didn't test to see if phosphates had leached out but I assume they may have. In any case, I will always boil carbon first. After boiling, I rinsed it in RO and I was impressed with how little the RO water washed out of the carbon, it was relatively clean.

BINGO! Exactly why I recommend it.....

Hmm, I just soak it overnight now, but may go to boiling. Did you boil it in the microwave?

No I don't have a microwave. So just boiled it on the stovetop for a few minutes. Right away, a lot of crap started coming to the top.

What I like is how "clean" it seemed when I put it in the tank.

Im sure microwaving would do the exact same thing as boiling. I would just use the microwave if I had one.

out of curiosity - how much carbon and how much water did you use?

I'll have to try this next week when I swap my carbon out.

It really is a simple observation and I am happy you like the results!

Cold rinsed carbon has a tendency to float = trapped air/dust

Very hot water soaked carbon sinks like a rock and all dust and impurities float to the surface = better prepared carbon!

I have a long day of work ahead of me and that just made me snort thank-you! I'm going to be boiling my carbon as well when I get around to getting a reactor.

I'm glad someone thought it was funny :)

My carbon doesn't float after a cold soak overnight (BRS ROX carbon), but I do find it's still silty.

Do you guys let it cool naturally or do you quench it in cold/RT RO/DI water?

Soaking it overnight gives the air time to escape I suppose. I quench the carbon with some cool R/O before it goes in my filter bag.

Carbon is activated at a temperature of 900 C in the presence of an oxidizing gas. It can also be activated with strong acid, often leaving phosphates behind.

Anything you do in your microwave or BBQ with used carbon will only release the absorbed carbon back into your tank at a greater rate then it was originally absorbed.

There was one study done in Russia in the 50's that claimed microwaves change the molecular structure of food, but it has been discredited.

Exactly what he said :wink:

What a doltish comment.

Right back at you.

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Regardless of this whole microwave debate I think boiling the carbon in water can please everyone.

It sure did bring me some pleasure.

I'm not pleased with microwaving carbon, unless it heats the carbon up to 900 degrees and you are adding an activation gas. A microwave or oven will open a few of the larger pores that are clogged, but 90% of the pores will remain spent. You could put the carbon back in the tank for a couple of days to remove some larger pigmented organics, but it will expel everything it has absorbed over the next couple of weeks.

Why does science always have to get in the way of a good argument? Life is way more fun when you believe in conspiracy theories, internet legends, etc.

Here, watch this. It's fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIaV8swc-fo

Yeah I'm not going to boil my carbon thinking it's recharged. I'm tossing mine. Like Oceanic stated it seems to clean it before it's used at all a little.

A good compromise would be to clean your carbon just before you throw it out. You'll have the nicest smelling garbage on the block :)

Yeah what he said...

+2. I'll boil just as a pre-rinse if in fact it does do a better job of cleaning the powdered carbon out than a simple pre-soak.