Running Carbon - How much is too much?

[StirCrazy]

There is a comment misconception of Carbon and that it will leach all the stuff it took out back into the tank.

This came from the fact that low-grade carbons will release a tiny bit of what they have collected if you leave them in for an exceptionally long period of time.

In my freshwater tanks I have been using carbon for over 20 years now and I run it the same way as my salt water tank... 24/7 and change it once a month (sometimes every couple months if I forget it is in there )

If you have ever read about the renewing process for activated carbon you will see that yes you can get all the nastiness back out and use the carbon again, but doing this requires temperatures that I would hazard to guess most people can't simulate at home. Because of the requirements needed or remove the impurities from carbon it only makes since that it will not be able leach back into the tank.

Well never say never, so lest say that maybe it could leach back 10% of its uptake after 1 month, for the sake of argument. So if you change every month you are still removing 90% of the nastiness.

Now Personally I think 10% is high and I feel the actually number would be more like 0.5 - 1% but I used 10% for the example to show even if it is that high it is really not a problem.

so if you want to be safe use good carbons, this dose not mean expensive either, there are good carbons for cheep at other "non-fish" stores that are about 1/5th of the price.

Steve