Carbon in the water

[ambushman2j]

Well, woke up this morning and the power was out, .. luckily it is now back on, and after re-priming all my aquaclears I have run into a problem, my AC200 carbon bag exploded and as I re-primed it maybe 10% of the carbon flew into the tank..will this hurt the fish? I don't have time to get it out of there as I have a dr. appt and then work..but I need to know if this is going to adversly effect the tank

[Marc]

Hi Drew,

The carbon wont affect your tank in any way.  When it was in the filter it was already in the water anyways.  The only difference is now it's making the bottom of your tank ugly and it's gonna be a pain to take it out.

Marc

[artw]

you dont need to use carbon anyway.

[saltydog]

I agree with Marc, the carbon is unsightly, but not harmful.

I wish to use this opportunity to comment on filters which do not re-prime after a power interruption. In my opinion this is a very serious defect in the design of some filters! Power interruptions are reasonably common occurances & many aquarists rely solely on a single filter for water purification (bacterial filtration & gas exchange). In a heavily populated tank a long power outage can be catastrophic as some of us learned this summer. (I was out of town for a week when it happened!) In the case of a filter which does not re-prime itself, all power interruptions become power outages as far as the inhabitants of an aquarium are concerned. It doesn't take long before most fish are gasping at the surface and your "cycling" bacteria population starts to decline. In such cases, the results of a power interruption which occurs when an aquarist is not present may not be corrected until he or she returns home, and only then, when the problem is noticed.

Try unplugging your filter for 5-10 minutes. If your filter does not resume operation after being replugged then your fish are at risk. I recommend either acquiring another type of filter or, at least, adding a powerhead or an air-stone (or both) to your tank to safeguard your wards in your absence. How would you feel if you approached your tank at feeding time and all your friends (except the pleco) were floating belly-up? Something to consider. Incidentally, some air-pumps may not react favorably to a power outage either. If your pump is located below your tank (as most are) and if you have not installed one of those inexpensive one-way air-flow valves in the air-line, then your pump may fill with water (which slowly siphons out of the tank) and may not be able to expel it to reactivate the air-stone.

[Marc]

I agree with Art, carbon really isn't necessary.  I don't use it at all.

Also, I've read a number a number of posts about AquaClear filters not re-priming or not re-starting after a power interruption.  I love AquaClear filters so I feel I should defend them.

I've always found that if the AquaClear's impeller and impeller housing are cleaned regularly every couple of weeks and if the tank's water level is not low (not more than 3 inches from the top), then the AquaClear will always restart after a power interruption.  

If you don't meet those 2 criteria, then the AquaClear filters will not always restart.

Marc

[artw]

Also if the water level in your tank is too low,   or not high enough,  because of evaporation the filter wont restart. well it restarts, but it is unable to reprime itself.
I learned this the hard way 2 days ago when my clocks were flashing...  and an ac150 was buzzing away
but my 15+ of other filters of various brands were working perfectly

[ambushman2j]

you can clean the impeller? LOL

I perfer the filters which you don't have to touch..I am wondering myself if I really need carbon considering for the bag to actually dissintigrate in my tank it must have been there an awfully long time and my fish are all doing well.

[PDP]

Drew I had this happen b4 and it didn't doa  thing to my tank and i meant the whole bag let go right into it