Page 36 - Water and the Aquarium

GARGAS: Water and the Aquarium Page 36
GARGAS: Water and the Aquarium Page 36

Carbon Pt. 3:
BAC – Biological Activated Carbon

BAC – Biological Activated Carbon will occur within an
enclosed system whether it is a single aquarium or a central system
that combines a number of aquariums. This occurs when carbon is
allowed to be in use beyond its life.
The best you are going to get from a carbon pad is around
3 days: 72 hours in a system that is low in organics and not heavily
loaded. One pound of activated carbon in the same system about
5 to 7 days. The issue is the carbon. Even if it is washed, it will still
contain the organics and other by products that it has adsorbed and
the only way to remove them is to re-activate the carbon by using
heat and steam. If the carbon is put back and continually used the
natural bacteria that are part of the natural flora in an aquarium(s)
will reproduce so fast and the numbers will be come so high that
there will be a reduction in oxygen and a population explosion of
the bacteria. Since carbon will remove both chemically and bio-
logical oxidizable organic the carbon becomes a smorgasbord for
all the bacteria and will be heavily coated with them.
Even though the bacteria that colonize the carbon may not
be the pathogenic type due to the epizootic (increase in numbers)
the waste products known as endotoxins will be

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