carbon cartridges

[hockeydude1510]

I read that carbon cartridges which fit on the lift tubes in ug filters are unnecessary and can be dangerous is this TRUE????



thanks

 

[tkos]

They are unnecessary as carbon becomes useless after about a weeks use at most. I don't know about dangerous though. I wouldn't waste my money on them unless you need to get rid of medications from the water.

Also another reason not to bother with UGF.

 

[hockeydude1510]

should i get rid of the cartridges

 

[tkos]

I personally don't see the need for them, especially with a UGF. With a HOB the carbon will at least become a bacteria bed that is good, but with a UFG the gravel is the bacteria bed.

 

[Zic]

I don't know specifically about carbon in an UGF, but I know that if carbon gets old, it releases all the bad stuff it collects. So, if it goes bad, it's worse for your tank than if you just removed it altogether. Keep it fresh and there's no problem.

 

[tkos]

Once something has bonded to carbon there is no way to drive it off short of super heating the material. If carbon catridges aren't at least rinsed every so often then the gunk that builds up can lead to nitrate spikes in a tank.

 

[justDIY]

Once something has bonded to carbon there is no way to drive it off short of super heating the material.

well, actually, that's not 100% accurate.

activated carbon is chemically active, and will always be chemically active, however, in the normal process of it creating electrostatic bonds with debris from the water, it eventually looses it's effectiveness.

This does not mean however, that it is no longer active. If something comes along that is ionic in nature (like certain medication or chemicals), it will be attracted to the carbon, and the carbon will break it's electrostatic bonds with non-ionic debris in order to form a stronger bond with the new ionic substance.

for example, if you have carbon that has been in the water for many weeks, it has bonded with a lot of waste... then you add ionic medication and the carbon releases all that waste into the water, in order to form new stronger bonds with the medication.

It is true that if you superheat the activated carbon in a high pressure steam oven, you can "recharge" it, causing it to release all the bonds it has formed, and become super-active once again. Most of us don't have that kind of facility, and even if one could, it would be impractical given the inexpensive cost of new carbon.