Black Carbon Water

[fionah]

I have just bought a TetraTec EX700 external filter and am trying to wash each of the filter medias in preparation of fitting to my tank.

I'm not sure how much I am supposed to rinse the carbon bag, but I have been doing so for several minutes and the water will not run clear. It is quite dark and there are little bits of black carbon escaping from the bag. Is this normal? I don't want to fit the filter in this way if it ends up turning my fish tank water black!

 

[Truck]

dont use the carbon, its a waste of time unless removing meds, replace it with ceramic media instead.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree with truck - Carbon is an optional chemical media that should stay on your shelf, ready to use only in special cases.

Its good for med removal, as he says, or for yellow tannin removal from bogwood that hasn't been aged enough, or for removal occasionally of strange organic smells of unknown origin. Those are the 3 most commonly cited uses. When you use it its only good for about 3 days and then is ready to be trashed. When you -do- use it (which is not now, since you're just preparing for normal operation) you won't need to worry about it blackening the tank, a few rinses will be enough and when used it will settle.

A good media order for cannisters like that, in order of input water towards output is: ceramic rings, coarse sponge, ceramic pebbles, floss pad or fine sponge. But its pretty flexible as long as you are using good biomedias like ceramics or sponges and its really up to you. Flexibility is what a good external cannister is all about.

~~waterdrop~~