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From: richard@gryphon.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: Fishtank Moved
Message-ID: <2438@gryphon.CTS.COM>
Date: Sun, 29-Nov-87 18:04:07 EST
Article-I.D.: gryphon.2438
Posted: Sun Nov 29 18:04:07 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Dec-87 06:19:44 EST
References: <1753@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> <4370@sol.ARPA> <1755@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> <15631@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Reply-To: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton)
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 182
Keywords: Filtration, Carbon, Charcoal, Coal
Summary: Filters

In article <15631@watmath.waterloo.edu> rmpinchback@watmath.waterloo.edu (Reid M. Pinchback) writes:
>
>If you want to improve the performance of the filtration, don't put your
>hopes on carbon. 

Oh-oh.

> Carbon looses most of its effectiveness within a
>day or so.

No. Read on.

>The sheer volume of water those filters put out is enormous.  Good choice
>of equipment.  Many things can be skimped on, but good filters and heaters
>(for sensitive fish) are always a good investment. 

Well put.

>If you want to improve the filtration, try experimenting with the filtering
>media.  Filter floss is cheap and much more effective than carbon.  Carbon
>performance degrades with time, while floss performance follows sort of
>a bell curve.  Carbon is useless (more or less) once you have used it for a
>while.  Floss can be rinsed out with chlorine-free luke-warm water and
>re-used.  In fact, it should be re-used a few times.  Fine grain (non-
>sedimentary) aquarium gravel also makes for a good filtering medium.

FILTRATION SUBSTRATES
---------------------

These are divided into 

	A) Physical filtration agents
		1) Glass wool
		2) Polyester fibre
		3) Gravel
		4) Charcoal and carbon

	B) Chemical filtration agents
		1) Charcoal and carbon
		2) ion exchange resins


Glass wool
----- ----

Not recommended.

This is just glass fibres after all, and the little fibres break, and
irritate your hands, and get in the fishes gills. Nasty stuff.


Polyester fibre
--------- -----

Recommended. Cheap. Inert. Does an excellant job of physical filtration.
Used primarily as the first layer in a filter. The idea is to capture as
much goop as possible in the floss, so that it can be easily removed from
the system. Just turn off the filter, remove the floss and rinse well. If
there is a lot of crud on the layer (of whatever is...) below the filter floss
then there is a "leak" through the floss layer and crud is getting past it.
Note that there will always be some crud below the floss, but there shouldnt
be a whole lot, compared to what should be captured by the floss itself.

This floss is the same stuff that you can buy REAL CHEAP in store for
stuffing pillows, but it seems to mat real easy, and I don't use it.
I dont use the petshop brands for the same brand either. What I have found
to be very usefull is Marineland brand pads - they are 1/2 inch thick
pads that you cut to fit. They seem to hold up quite well and do a good
job.


Gravel
------

Not bad if you have the room for it. Try a layer of floss on top, gravel,
and then carbon. I have done this in some BIG filters, and it works well.

For smaller filters this is impractical. I just use floss and carbon.

Which leads us to:


Carbon and charcoal
-------------------

Right. Lets get some terminology down here first.

Anthracite coal: Sold as "aquarium carbon" or "aquarium charcoal".
Completely worthless. This stuff is coal. Period. Cheap. Ineffective.
Looks shiny, no visible pores, kinda heavy. Has no effect in filters,
will not remove methylene blue from water, even fresh out of the box.
Usually pea sized chunks. Burns well.


Bone-charcoal: Sold as "aquarium charcoal" or "bone charcoal". 
Semi-worthless. Proabably works for a few hours, but thats it. 
Cheap. Pea sized lumps, lots of large visible pores.


Carbon: Smaller pieces, lighter, more expensive. Not great.
Certainly not as good as:

Activated Carbon: Were talking MarineLand brand here, I'm not certain if
anybody else sells the stuff (I think Scattergood sold something along these
lines, MANY years ago). Small, about 1/8 inch pieces. Light. EXPENSIVE
(I think its about 4-7$ for a 1/2 gal milk container of the stuff)
But it works. The first thing you notice about the stuff is that when
you rinse it under the tap to release all the carbon dust, it fizzes
and sizzes. 

This particuar activated carbon is made from coconut shells ("bone charcoal"
is made from bones) that are somehow magically turned into activated
carbon. The activated part means each piece has miles of cracks and crevasses,
so small that they trap large molocules. In the aquarium this means gases,
dyes, and other impurities in solution that may discolor the water.

In a tank with activated carbon filtration, a dye, such as methylene blue,
when added to the water, will disappear with short order. If it doesnt,
either 1) You bought garbage, 2) The carbon has been working for a long
time and needs to be re-activated or 3) It's dead, Jim. Time to buy new
stuff.

To reactivate carbon, heat it up to 250 degrees. I've used both a microwave
and a regular oven, both with success.

I'm not sure how old the stuff I'm using is, but I know it's older than 4
years, and still works fine (a recent bout of ick prompted me to dose 
a tank with _Jungle_ brand "Life Guard" - the only ick cure that 1) works
and 2) Doesnt kill everything  - I put the stuff in the tank, and in a few
minutes the green color was gone) I have reactivated it once. If you do
use a microwave to do this, be carefull, the stuff will burn with a wierd
glow, like one of them underground coal mine fires. If, after it's cooled
down, it sizzles when you put water on it, it's reactivated.

Carbon serves as both an excellant physical filtering agent, but, because
it can filter such *small* things, it is also a chemical filtering
agent. In his book _The Salt Water Aquarium In The Home_, R.P.L. Straughn
introduces revolutionary concepts: all glass tanks and activated carbon.

Seems the carbon is so DAMN effective, that when he used it on an established
tank (that was a bit yellowinsh), the water bacame crystal clear in short
order, but the fish had problems. Seems the carbon was taking so mush
out of the water, the fish couldnt handle it. Straughn recommended
soaking any carbon you intend to use in salt water and only using
it for an hour a day, and gradually acclimitize the fish to it.

I think he was stating the case where you have an established tank
with all sorts of chemical build-up in the tank from a long
period of time. I've never had any problems with the stuff in salt
water - of course I'm an old fart, I still soak the stuff in salt
water, with the ghost of RPLStraughn wathcing over my shoulder.

>If the cases of your filters don't screen out too much light, try placing them
>near good light (sunlight or a grow-bulb).

You could paint them black. 1/4 :-)


Since this is replying to a Waterloo posting: 

On highway #6 (thats the one that goes north-south through Guelph, Galt to
Waterloo right ?) about 10 miles south of Waterloo, there is a straight
stretch of highway that has forest/swamp on either side. Find the
metal culvert/drain that connects the swamp one side of the road with the other.

In the spring, after the ice has gone, but not much later, you will
find the most AMAZING deposits of daphnia and fairy shrimp.

Daphnia are pretty common, as not to need an explanation. Fairy shrimp
look like adult brine shrimp, but are about 3/4 of an inch long.

I collected there in both 77 and 78, and must have taken home 10 lbs of
the stuff, which freezes pretty well (RICHARD !!! WHAT THE  H E L L 
is in these ice-cube trays ?!?)

Nothing like that here in California, that I can discern.
-- 
Richard J. Sexton
INTERNET:     richard@gryphon.CTS.COM
UUCP:         {hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, ihnp4, nosc}!crash!gryphon!richard

"It's too dark to put the keys in my ignition..."