Cranked up a couple corner filters today..

[Mugwump]

   I didn't think that I'd have enough charcoal to get em going...so they've been sitting, but I found a cache and loaded em up....I've always liked these little filters, very efficient. I had a couple 'bottle' filters butr must have tossed them or gave them away. ....I'll make a few more...
   I'm using these in pair tanks to offset the sponges and to keep the water a bit cleaner...carbon/charcoal can't be beat for tidying up....I'm not a big fan of using it all the time tho....floss, by itself, rules....LOL
  Anyone else use these on occasion??

[ilroost]

I use them on my fry tanks. ran out of sponge filters and had a few of these sitting around

[Mugwump]

I wonder where I got mine from.....??.....LOL...

[ilroost]

if i knew you needed charcoal,i have lots of that to. never really thought of bringing that to. I bought out a fish room a few years back, and there must of been 20# of charcoal lol

[Mugwump]

oddly enough, I found a jar of it amongst things we got with a couple tanks, a few years back...all sealed and ready....it's not much, but it'll do...

[b125killer]

I love the corner filters. Thanks so much ilroost for giving them to us. I have mine in the breeding tanks for the angels and one in the rams tank. I have Peat Granules in them to help soften the water.

[ilroost]

you're welcome.I never thought about useing peat. that is a good idea

[Mugwump]

me either...Hmmmmm....thanks, Scott..

[BillT]

I use corner filters, mostly loaded with porous lava rack and/or sponge filters. The rack is easy to clean and bleaches well.

I don't use charcoal much because I have water changes automated and should not be building up things that the bio filters can not process. Also since i can't tell when the charcoal is loaded up I can't tell when to change it. Either I change too soon or wait too long and chance it dumping nasty stuff back into the tank.

The exception is using charcoal for dechlorinating which can be checked with a chlorine test kit.

[Mugwump]

I've used them a lot years ago, rule of thumb for me is, change/remove the charcoal/carbon every 2 weeks. regardless..I normally run plain floss,etc...
.....but...
Con/Myth #4: Old carbon will leach organics back into the water (de-absorption)
This is true in industry, but not in our aquarium. Carbon is widely used in industrial settings to recycle precious metals. Industrial use of carbon involves the capturing of a specific substance at one pH extreme (below 4 or above 10) and then reclaiming the substance by converting to the other pH extreme. If a pH shift of this magnitude occurs in an aquarium, carbon leaching organics back into the water is the least of our worries.
............
here's the source...
http://www.oscarfish.com/article-home/water/84-carbon-filtration-in-freshwater-aquariums.html

[BillT]

I would argue with some points this guy

http://www.oscarfish.com/article-home/water/84-carbon-filtration-in-freshwater-aquariums.html

made:

Activated carbon can release bound materials by mechanisms other than just a pH shift. Chemicals bind to sites in the carbon based upon the shape, charge, and chemical composition of the surfaces exposed in the pores of the carbon. When the sites of a particular configuration fill up the binding ability for that particular chemical is maxed out (saturated) and no more can be bound. If the saturated filter is exposed to another chemical with a stronger affinity for the binding site, the first chemical will be displaced and come out of the carbon. This does not require a pH shift. A pH shift is probably used in industry because it will drastically change binding properties of charged chemicals and result in highly reproducible un-binding (eluting) from the charcoal.

The period of time that the charcoal will be effective for will depend upon it total binding capacity of the target chemical, the amount of water filtered and the concentration of the chemical in the water. In the normal aquarium unfortunately the is usually an undefined mix of chemicals that you might want to remove, often at low concentrations that would be difficult to detect even if there were a test for them. This is one of the things makes me uncomfortable about using charcoal.

When I ran a fish facility, we used charcoal for two reasons: to remove chlorine (is chlorine it bound to the charcoal or does it actually oxidize the carbon? Unknown to me. Chlorine acts by oxidizing organics.), and as a prophylactic in case some chemical got spilled into the water system or for any undesirable chemicals that might leach out of plastic and rubber materials in contact with the water.

The people who are really into making activated charcoal (or carbon) can engineer its binding characteristics in many ways by manipulating the pore size, the charges on the surfaces of the pores and by other chemicals that they add to or that are found in the starting material. No single chart of what charcoal binds will suffice to describe this situation. Neither would I expect that only bituminous coal would be useable for aquarium use. Many quality companies make aquarium charcoal from other substances.

[Jdmcfast]

I use them also just to clean up a tank with a lot of debris or to run carbon after meds on tanks with only sponge filters

[Mugwump]

Bill,
   I believe the author stated pretty much that fact, however, he added that in an aquarium surrounding, those types of issues are mute. There isn't the available damaging metals,toxins,etc in sufficient amounts to be a problem, even if some leach back....that's if they would even over load the carbon. He noted ,also, "If a pH shift of this magnitude occurs in an aquarium, carbon leaching organics back into the water is the least of our worries."..and that's pretty much spot on..
   It's obvious that you wouldn't want to leave carbon for long periods, as it would lose it's effectiveness.
   I run it upon occasion to tidy up, if I've cleaned and disturbed the substrate,etc...and in the case of removing 'med's'....in most cases, except for the 'meds' , I run my Diatom filters.