Longevity of activated carbon

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Chub_by

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Jan 30, 2012
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Hello,
I have some activated carbon lying around that I took out of my tanks filter a few months ago. I was wondering if I could reuse it now? It was in there for 2 years maybe, so there must be a point in time when it doesn't "work" anymore, right?
 
why use it at all? is my question.
 
predatorkeeper87 said:
unless you are pulling medication out of the water it offers little use otherwise.
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It also helps with clarity, this is also not a situation where I'm using the carbon instead of a filter medium
But if Harley says it's unusable I'll just throw it out.
 
Yep, like said, to remove odors, meds and improve water clarity are it's benefits for aquarium use. How long it lasts depends on how much stuff it gets bombarded with. I don't use it because I don't have a need to.
 
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HarleyK said:
That point was probably 23 months ago...
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LOL So true and made me laugh.
Anyway, even it has no more effect for it job but you can leave it in filter to act like an extra bio media. I never remove my AC110 carbon bag, I rinse it every WC and place it back in for bio media purpose.
 
The risk with prolonged use, though, is that the carbon might release again the compound it has trapped.
Carbon removes chemicals by adsorption, which is reversible once it degrades or higher affinity chemicals are replacing the previously bound compounds
 
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