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Originally Posted by robbyville
I use carbon only for short periods of time. The reason I do this is because some say that if you leave it in full time that it will not only clean the water but will continuously remove even desirable trace elements that your corals will need.
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I'm a believer in this school of thought, too. Have read it so many times in different places, even for freshwater tanks, that I don't use carbon regularly either.
I did an experiment a few years back using several easily available carbons for phosphate leaching. Have the results on one of my old websites that hasn't been added to my main current site. Anyway, all leached some phosphate into the test tanks. Phosphate is a likely cause of cyano growth, ime.
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Originally Posted by robbyville
I try to use very few supplements in my tank so running carbon for a couple of days every two weeks or so does a great job for me.
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When we set up our first reef several years ago, we bought all the additives. They just collected dust in the cabinet under the tank. I simply rely on weekly 10-15% water changes to replenish trace elements that corals and coralline use up.