keeping activated carbon safe ??

[pointpleco]

Hi i recently had to treat a tank with medimax and take out the activated carbon from the filter. I left it sitting in a container with tank water during this time. Is that a safe and good way to keep it and to try and save the beneficial bacteria as much as possible.
The LFS told me after the 5 day treatment to wait a further 7 days before putting it back in the tank.

Does this all sound good.
Thanks

[Bas Pels]

I don't think your bacteria will survive in the activated carbon - unless you put it into another filter.

Still, after a good rinse, I would not know why you could not put it back into the tank. but I would do the rinsing

[Lycosid]

I don't think your bacteria will survive in the activated carbon - unless you put it into another filter.

Are there any significant numbers of bacteria in activated carbon anyway? I've always thought activated carbon was a chemically active filtration method that binds to all sorts of compounds (including fish medicine, removing it from the tank) up to a point at which it starts leaching them back. If so, nothing special needs to be done to the carbon before returning it to the filter (although rinsing it wouldn't hurt). However, I'm not sure I'm right about all this.

[pointpleco]

I don't think your bacteria will survive in the activated carbon - unless you put it into another filter.

Still, after a good rinse, I would not know why you could not put it back into the tank. but I would do the rinsing

Ok thanks for that, i have given it a rinse and put it into a different tank anyway.

[pointpleco]

I don't think your bacteria will survive in the activated carbon - unless you put it into another filter.

Still, after a good rinse, I would not know why you could not put it back into the tank. but I would do the rinsing

Ok thanks for that, i have given it a rinse and put it into a different tank anyway.

I just saw your from nijmegen, i was there once about 10 years ago. Netherlands is a good country.

[pointpleco]

I don't think your bacteria will survive in the activated carbon - unless you put it into another filter.

Are there any significant numbers of bacteria in activated carbon anyway? I've always thought activated carbon was a chemically active filtration method that binds to all sorts of compounds (including fish medicine, removing it from the tank) up to a point at which it starts leaching them back. If so, nothing special needs to be done to the carbon before returning it to the filter (although rinsing it wouldn't hurt). However, I'm not sure I'm right about all this.

Probably not a lot in there as it hasn't been in the tank long. But yes i think your right with that. Thanks for your help.

[Bas Pels]

Activated carbon is, indeed, a chemically active suybstrate. However, it's surface is, apart from it's chemical function, also a good substrate to grow bacteria on.

So the stuff does both

@NL I'm very happy to have been born here, thanks

[pointpleco]

Activated carbon is, indeed, a chemically active suybstrate. However, it's surface is, apart from it's chemical function, also a good substrate to grow bacteria on.

So the stuff does both

@NL I'm very happy to have been born here, thanks

Thanks for the info, it sure works well. a

And yes im sure you are happy there.

[TwoTankAmin]

A few observations.

Carbon basically does not leach things back into a tank. I say basically because once full, it cannot adsorb anything more. A very small amount of adsorbed material may let go. If it does, this allows for something else to get adsorbed in its place fairly quickly. So the net result is it is unchanged.

Any hard surface inside a filter will host the bacterial bio-film and its inhabitants. However, most bacteria will be found where there is good circulation which brings all the things needed.

The nitrifying bacteria do not form spores, they reproduce by division. When hard times, a lack of oxygen, carbonates or ammonia become scares, the bacteria can sense this and they go into a state of dormancy. As a colony they will only slowly lose individuals. However, the colony will not lose "tank" viability form as much as a year. (That is, there is not enough bacteria left alive to help a tank cycle much faster than the bacteria that comes in via the water and/or air can.) How long and how much bacteria survives is a function of what condition they were in when forced to go dormant.

If one keeps their bacteria laden media or other items in a tank which host the bacteria moist, the bacteria can last a fairly long time.

[Bas Pels]

Carbon basically does not leach things back into a tank. I say basically because once full, it cannot adsorb anything more. A very small amount of adsorbed material may let go. If it does, this allows for something else to get adsorbed in its place fairly quickly. So the net result is it is unchanged.

While this is true, the problem might be a sensitivity towards salt. And higher pH

When salt is added to a system with old activated carbon, many organic sompounds will be released. formally they are replaced by salt molecules, but what we see is this release.

The vast majority of these compounds is harmfull - and therefore you better don't use salt in a tank with old activated carbon

When the pH is raised, any heavy metal will become more soluable, and less inclined to bind with another thing, being a substrate or another ion. These metals are also harmfull.

Still, this is only a problem when the pH is raised with a point or more. From 6 to 7 for instance.

[pointpleco]

Wow some very in depth info there. Because i am new to aquarium keeping (about a year) some of that goes over my head. But i do get the main idea of it. I was just worried to put the filter in another tank to save the good bacteria and activated carbon. Because i had a possible bad bacteria or parasite/worms in the original tank. In the end i just rinsed it with tap water which i know isn't good, but i think any bad stuff will be gone. I left the 2x sponge filters in the tank hoping there is good bacteria in them. Now i have returned the filter and since i did all this i have had no problems.

Thanks for the messages, Macrae

[TwoTankAmin]

Another note here. Residual chlorine from one's tap when used to rinse media with good bacteria in it will do minimal harm to the bacteria. Chloramines can be more dangerous but residual levels of these are not usually a major threat. Chlorine penetrates the bio-film in which the bacteria live way way more slowly than chloramine.

When you consider the low residual levels in the tap water, then the short amount of time it takes to rinse the media and finally the dilution factor when you return the media to the filter and it combines with tank water, the concentrations are quite low. And chlorine tends to evaporate while cloramine must break down before the chlorine part can evaporate and the ammonia part be handled by established bacteria.

Here is an interesting read from the abstract for a Ph.D. thesis from 2009 by Woo Hyoung Lee submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies at the University of Cincinnati:

Development and Use of Microelectrodes to Evaluate Nitrification within Chloraminated Drinking Water System Biofilms, and the Effects of Phosphate as a Corrosion Inhibitor on Nitrifying Biofilm

Monochloramine penetrated fully into nitrifying biofilms within 24 hours when fed at a 4:1 Cl2:N ratio, showing a cessation of aerobic activity via DO penetration following application of monochloramine. However, monochloramine penetration did not necessarily equate to a loss in viability, and the presence of excess ammonia in the water system prevented microbial inactivation. Biofilm recovery occurred when disinfection stopped. Monochloramine showed greater penetration compared to chlorine. Monochloramine penetrated into the biofilm surface layer 49 times faster than chlorine within the nitrifying biofilm and 39 times faster in the multi-species biofilm than did chlorine

from https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/docume ... 526/inline

[Bas Pels]

Good point

As our tap water is free of both, I keep forgetting chlorine or cloramine is used elsewhere

[pointpleco]

Ok, so cleaning filter in tap water isn't so bad. Especially if i use tap water conditioner that would make it even better i suppose.