Longevity of Charcoal in Filters

[skibum9884]

I know that the life of Charcoal in saltwater systems is not very long. How long is it exactly? I'm treating my tank with medication that says to remove it, however I feel that it's probably not even effective anymore (as it has been nearly a month), so I could just leave it in. Good Idea/bad idea, what do you think?

 

[GinaD]

You need to remove the charcoal while medicating so the charcoal doesn't remove/absorb the medication. In my opinion, when you're done with the medication (a month to medicate seems like a long time), if the charcoal is still fairly new, you could probably reuse it, but I would just put new charcoal in. I change my charcoal filter out every 2-3 weeks.

 

[skibum9884]

Right, what I mean is that my charcoal filter is on the old side (the charcoal is about a month old), I'm just going to begin medicating now, and will prob only medicate till the middle of the week (weds, thurs). I was just thinking that the charcoal may not be effective any longer and may not need to be removed. Any opinions?

the only reason I ask is because its such a pain to remove the charcoal from my canister filter!

 

[willray]

There is a article in the last issue of TFH on carbon.

 

[rjdudek]

I would remove it. GAC has an huge capacity for adsorption. The medicines will probably be reduced in effectiveness even if the majority of the carbon pores are bound with organics. If you medicate and the carbon reduces effectiveness it will be far more difficult to redose the tank to the correct levels.

 

[Michael Mota]

I have heard that it is good from 1-6 months, so who really knows. I agree remove before using medications.