Does carbon bleach your corals ? (Kent carbon recall)

[christyf5]

I've got the same thing happening to a few SPS in my tank too. Bulbs are over a year old so I would have thought if it were the bulbs it would go the other way (browning out). I've been using the same 5gal pail of Kent carbon for at least a year though so I can't really say its the carbon attributing to it (unless I got overzealous and used too much). Odd that this is a coincidence though.

[paddyob]

Originally Posted by christyf5

I've got the same thing happening to a few SPS in my tank too. Bulbs are over a year old so I would have thought if it were the bulbs it would go the other way (browning out). I've been using the same 5gal pail of Kent carbon for at least a year though so I can't really say its the carbon attributing to it (unless I got overzealous and used too much). Odd that this is a coincidence though.

I always over use carbon. Always.

Maybe I have not had the same issues as I always use carbon and always have, so my water is always duper super clear.

I can see the increased clarity being a POSSIBLE culprit if you have never used carbon before.

But even when I switched to ROX, I never had a single issue. And ROX definitely made my water much, MUCH clearer than Kent ever did.

Before settling on carbon as the issue explore your heater/thermometer. Maybe that's an issue. Carbon is not the cause of bleaching in nature, so maybe try narrow down other factors.

As again, I highly doubt it's the carbon.

It's always easier to blame our equipment before ourselves.

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by paddyob

I always over use carbon. Always.

Maybe I have not had the same issues as I always use carbon and always have, so my water is always duper super clear.

I can see the increased clarity being a POSSIBLE culprit if you have never used carbon before.

But even when I switched to ROX, I never had a single issue. And ROX definitely made my water much, MUCH clearer than Kent ever did.

Before settling on carbon as the issue explore your heater/thermometer. Maybe that's an issue. Carbon is not the cause of bleaching in nature, so maybe try narrow down other factors.

As again, I highly doubt it's the carbon.

It's always easier to blame our equipment before ourselves.

Oh I totally agree. However like I said, I'm well into that 5gal bucket of Kent (and I've used Kent for about 7ish years now) and its not like I hit a "bad spot" or something to be just causing problems now. There are always a myriad of weird things going on with my tank and problems never get nailed down to any single thing. I'm not even sure why I posted to fuel the fire. Bored I guess.

[kien]

Originally Posted by christyf5

There are always a myriad of weird things going on with my tank and problems never get nailed down to any single thing

isn't this the nature of the hobby in general? Detritus happens.

[daniella3d]

temperature? My temperature is stable day and night at 76.5 F.

The OP used this carbon for years without problem before this hapened. I have been using other brand of carbon without problem (seachem), in fact, I never had any problem with my corals or reef since the beginning 2 years ago.

Too much light? No I doubt it in my case since it hapened during the night and there was no change of ligth previously either. My 250 watt Phoenix 14 has been there for 4 months and corals were thriving, acropora growing 1" per month previous to the addition of carbon.

it's definitly something else.

Dead toll: xenia all gone, bleue haliclona sponges all gone, pink digitata nearly all gone. Orange and purple digitata just fine, birdnest never affected and SPS coming back with great polyp extension but still pale and have lost color. LPS and zoanthids doing great now.

This hapened about 5 days ago and I did 30% water change monday, and 30% water change tuesday...Now corals are coming back. Such drastic water change and the corals are feeling better?? now what nasty stuff was in my tank that could have caused this? Only thing I could do is to have this carbon analyzed. Or do another test in another tank with corals I don't really care for.

Previous to the addition of the carbon, the evening I replaced the Seachem carbon by the Kent, all my corals were doing fantastic. Xenia were pumping, I had awesome polyps extention as usual. The only thing that hapened is the kent carbon, no change in temperature, PH, etc...no change in the dosing. I tested for salinity, alkalinity and mag and all were as they are usually. Maybe a bad batch of carbon? If it is a coincidence, then it is a very strange one...if it is a coincidence then what could have caused this? No other factors were present. This hapened overnight, no light involved in the event. No PH or temperature swing either.

I have been using Seachem carbon for 2 years.

Originally Posted by paddyob

I used Kent for years and years. Mo bleaching. Ever.

Temperature and too much light are usual suspects.

Highly doubt it's the carbon.


Bleaching is usually human error in tanks.

[paddyob]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

temperature? My temperature is stable day and night at 76.5 F.

The OP used this carbon for years without problem before this hapened. I have been using other brand of carbon without problem (seachem), in fact, I never had any problem with my corals or reef since the beginning 2 years ago.

Too much light? No I doubt it in my case since it hapened during the night and there was no change of ligth previously either. My 250 watt Phoenix 14 has been there for 4 months and corals were thriving, acropora growing 1" per month previous to the addition of carbon.

it's definitly something else.

I agree. But I just don't see carbon being the issue.

During the night... Maybe corals fighting. Killing parts off. Dead corals lose color too.

Also, too much light is a suggestion. I would still lean to heat spikes.

I had to remove an unfaithful finnex.


Has anyone done extensive research on natures bleaching? Perhaps there are some similar factors we duplicate in tanks. Like pollution.

Can anyone educate us better?

I'm no expert on this issue, just trying to help.

[daniella3d]

But assuming you are right about coral war...there was a lot of fresh carbon in there so it would have absorbed what ever chimical from a coral war.

For exemple, my shaggy acropora had a deep dark blue/green base color, now it is all washed out, no more trace of blue in the flesh and the purple tips are bearely visible. That coral is going to have to regain its color back for sure. Now the base color is sort of a grayish flesh but the polyps are still green.

It's not like parts of the corals died either. It's an overall loss of color but the coral is still alive and now making a come back.

I had a multicolor acropora millepora that was striking in colors. It has flashy pink, purple, blue and green hue...now it's livid light green with livid light brown on top. It's like all the nice colors have vanished.

In the morning, most of my SPS has their polyps in and filaments out. I could see something was very wrong.

And what can make xenia melt like that?? It shriveled and died in one night. this is highly unusualy for me as my xenia were growing like weeks and my bleues sponges been thriving for 2 years. What can kill a blue sponge?? I even used a few time Chemiclean in that tank to clear up cyano and that did not affect the sponges. I had an episode of dino and raised the PH a lot to kill that and it did not affect my sponges, nor my xenias.

Now what?

And it's definitly not the temperature, because especially at night my temperature is stable and not affected by the MH light. But even in summer my temperautre is very stable at no more than 77F.

Originally Posted by paddyob

I agree. But I just don't see carbon being the issue.

During the night... Maybe corals fighting. Killing parts off. Dead corals lose color too.

Also, too much light is a suggestion. I would still lean to heat spikes.

I had to remove an unfaithful finnex.


Has anyone done extensive research on natures bleaching? Perhaps there are some similar factors we duplicate in tanks. Like pollution.

Can anyone educate us better?

I'm no expert on this issue, just trying to help.

[daniella3d]

guys...read this:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2134021

seems we are not alone and I am really angry at this company. I lost all my beautiful blue sponges, lost my 3 rare pink digitata...can't replace them!

[jjntm]

My buddy rob (canuckgod420) mentioned this same issue on here a couple of months back after switching to kent carbon, EXACTLY the same thing happened!!!! he was on here looking for advice and NOBODY offered any....lol... now everyone chimes in....

Good news for you guys/ladies is that it will all come back around. We believe it is just that the carbon stripped the water too clean and allowed excessive light penetration which bleached the corals (like switching from t5 to MH or swapping to led and keeping the intensity to high from the get go.) It took weeks of frustration and heartache before his tank showed signs of coming back around. I believe he completely cut out the carbon... and his tank colors are AMAZING!!! now... growth is better then ever and his tank is once again top 3 I ever EVER seen!!!!!

[jjntm]

lol.. I guess I should have read further and I would have seen that he chimed in already!