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| I wonder if anybody has any thoughts on carbon. I have a 5000 litre above ground pond. A big bio filter and UV light and a statue spitting water in the middle of the pond.
Just to give the biofilter a helping hand I made another filter, a plastic barrel with carbon in it sitting underneath the statue .I have a line from the pump running into the bottom of the barrel through mesh bags of carbon and out the top into the statue . Then it comes out of the top of the statue. I thought it would help the biofiler with its load , plus maybe keep the water clearer.But i was researching today and one site I was on disproved of carbon longterm in aquarium as the reasoning was that it stripped all the trace elements out of the water as well and disrupted the balance of the aquarium. I know it was about aquariums but the same thinking probably applies to ponds as well. So what does everyone here think? carbon good or bad?? cheers mazela |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| uh no, carbon is not going to strip all the 'trace' elements, whatever that is, out of the water. If it did, that's all you would need to make RO or DI water. What's going to happen is that as it gets old and used up, which will be pretty quick, it will just be a bacterial filter that's hard to clean. I wouldn't use it myself. |
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| One other thing Maze, it can put a lot of phosphate into your water and make it even greener too. ;-) |
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| thanks for all the helpful info. Guess what i will doing this weekend. Taking it all out. I will just make another one using scrubbies and birdnetting. as I have seen others use on this site. thanks again mazela |
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- Posted by sleeplessinftwayne z4-5 IND (My Page) on Wed, Mar 24, 10 at 1:13
| Mazela, please do a search in the space provided at the top of the forum for Activated Charcoal. It would be very difficult if not impossible to hurt your pond water with the amounts you might be using. My pond is about 1000 gallons and there is a large Red Oak over it. The leaves stain the water a deep tea brown. A half gallon box of AC in a cotton sock or bag in the Skippy works very well. It removes the color in the water from tannins, free phosphates, bad odors, ammonia and chlorine and the peat moss that often gets in the pond in the potting soil. When it does it's work, the water shines. It doesn't do anything for muddy water. I found nylon stockings are a poor choice as a container. Sometimes the water cannot penetrate and the AC stays dry. I sometimes break up the charcoal so more surface area is exposed. |
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- Posted by pondbucket 5 (My Page) on Wed, Mar 24, 10 at 20:45
| Mazela, Do you have a source for the carbon? I've used it much like Sleepless has but it is fairly expensive around here. Visit Crystal Clear's website and they have information about it. I actually find their product for less elsewhere (at other online retailers and locally). |
Here is a link that might be useful: Crystal Clear's webpage with AC (last on list)
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| thanks for all the help. As iam in Australia and its expensive here too. I actually googled bulk carbon and managed to get from a supplier who was willing to sell me a 25 kg bag of the stuff for heaps cheaper than buying it off anybody else. But now what concerns me (the more you look into it the more info you find)is that it states that its only good for about 6-8 weeks then you need to replace it.Because then it starts to release all the stuff it has accumulated . Does that info have any merit ? What do you think anybody? |
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