CHAR SUPER FILTER:

[surfermike915]

last night at my fish club, a man presented on breeding clownfish. The man is Robert King who runs Robert King clownfish. The presentation was broke down into two parts. The second part was mostly about breeding clownfish but the part I want to talk about is his filter. A couple years ago, he said he was in Uganda, doing humanitarian work. The water there was so polluted he stated that children would have to boil it 5, 6 times and still fall ill to the likes of dysentery. Eventually what happened was someone built wells there. The main filtration source was Char. Char is burnt wood. The wood he stated was a certain type. Now one the wells started working, the water became drinkable after running it through the char. He said it sparked an idea to make one for his clownfish tank. He was losing many fry and baby clowns. But as soon as he added the char, everything changed. He claimed he went from 50% survival rates to near 100%. He said his ammonia was almost always stable due to the char being a habitat for beneficial bacteria. he claimed that he no longer changes water on fry tanks and that this near miracle product can do the same for everyone’s tanks. He said he had a friend who has an overstocked 150 with Mbunas. She added the 10 Gallon Char Filter to her tank and it completely decimated nitrate and ammonia. HOW?? Usually when it seems too good to be true it usually is. He said in Belize, a coral reef began to bleach, so they used unwashed char and the coral started to reform. I’m a skeptic about a lot of things presented in the hobby as a life changer, and usually I think I’m on the right side of that. There’s no way this is a legit thing. I just wanna hear everyone chime in. How come this is just now popping up? Where’s it been? A small filter you don’t have to replace that is air driven that reduces ammonia and nitrates, and strengthens your fish sounds like the best way to get some quick money. Maybe I’m wrong. But even the most respected breeders at the club I talked to said it was legit. Just wanna hear what everyone thinks. That’s all haha. I’m buying some to try, and I’ll see what happens with some cheaper fish. thebiggerthebetter duanes Fallen_Leaves16

 

[surfermike915]

Here’s his site with the filters:

Shop

zombieclownfish.com

 

[wednesday13]

Carbon is tired and true for water filtration… the only down side is its “life expectancy” as it fills up and needs to be discarded/replaced. The amount needed for a large system is immense and short lived. Serves its purpose on smaller scale tanks and pre water filtration tho. Once its full it releases back all the unwanted things you trapped.

 

[surfermike915]

Meant to tag you lol. Yes but he specified this is not carbon. It’s much different. Everyone has run carbon at least once and like you said it only is active for a little while. Even though on website it says Carbon based sustainably sourced, when he was talking he said it’s much much different. It’s literally burnt wood.

 

[jjohnwm]

Back in the day, before "activated carbon" became a thing, we all bought charcoal, which is just...wait for it...wait for it...burnt wood. It was often labelled as to the type of wood that had been used to create it; I seem to remember there was also "bone charcoal" and that was supposed to be miraculous as well.

Nothing new here, nothing special, and really nothing particularly great either. Like wednesday13 stated, you need a crapload of it, and it needs to be changed periodically to keep working to adsorb the nasties from your tank...and can release them once saturated.

Of course it will help with ammonia, because it functions as a biomedium and serves as a substrate for bacterial growth. But if you keep it long enough to grow bacteria on it...its adsorbent capability will be "used up". And if you change it often enough to utilize its adsorbent properties...it gets removed before it can grow the bacteria.

Now it's a big thing? Charcoal vs. activated carbon vs. "biochar"...apparently they're made at different temperatures. All function the same way, and have pretty much the same properties and disadvantages.

Just checked out his site. Does he also sell a special juicer-device for making snake oil at home?

 

[surfermike915]

like I said once before when it seems too good to be true it usually is. I don’t buy into it and didn’t when he presented it. Just was confused why he branded it as Char. I’m sure he does make snake oil haha. I just was confused why he acted like it was never before seen. I hate people like that. He rebranded Charcoal. Said it was super special and a bunch of people there bought his special little filters. I’m sure with time I could 1000% make better functioning filters without the char. I apologize for my naive comments haha. I don’t like people who try and take advantage. Seems to me he did. I just don’t understand why all the guys at my club (some really incredible breeders) were swearing it worked.

 

[jjohnwm]

like I said once before when it seems too good to be true it usually is. I don’t buy into it and didn’t when he presented it. Just was confused why he branded it as Char. I’m sure he does make snake oil haha. I just was confused why he acted like it was never before seen. I hate people like that. He rebranded Charcoal. Said it was super special and a bunch of people there bought his special little filters. I’m sure with time I could 1000% make better functioning filters without the char. I apologize for my naive comments haha. I don’t like people who try and take advantage. Seems to me he did. I just don’t understand why all the guys at my club (some really incredible breeders) were swearing it worked.

Well...it does work. It just isn't the miracle he claims it to be, it has disadvantages just like everything else, and many or most long-term aquarists eventually find that those disadvantages outweigh its good points. I've still got a sealed bottle of activated carbon that must be 25 years old. I keep it around because...well, because I'm too cheap to throw it away. But anything that it can do for me, I would much rather do by means of a simple water change, which will have other benefits that the AC can't claim.

No confusion about why he presented it the way he did. Do you think all those people would have bought those shiny little filters if he called them what they are, i.e. internal air-powered box filters utilizing charcoal? He probably saw the online success of guys like Father Fish...so he decided that he would be Cousin Charcoal.

Whenever something is advertised as "super"...it usually means it's been around forever and needs some new marketing to start selling again.

 

[surfermike915]

I agree. Thanks man. Cousin Charcoal has a nice ring to it

 

[jjohnwm]

I agree. Thanks man. Cousin Charcoal has a nice ring to it

Yeah...personally, I'm thinking of becoming Uncle Undergravel...

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Thank you, all. I am here to learn. I never use nor have ever used carbon filtration in my tanks, so whatever little I know, I know in theory or secondhand.

The properties and purposes of adsorbents vary a great deal and carbon is no exception. The chemical composition (it may mainly be carbon but there are a lot of other elements and chemical substances present there), the physical state, like an amorphous state, crystalline lattice type(s), mix of them, the physical characteristics, like the pore size and length, the number of pores per surface area, etc. are a function of the source material and the production of the carbon adsorbents and have a great effect on what carbon can adsorb, how well, and how much.

As you know household carbon filters vary - some adsorb heavy metals and chlorine / chloramine from drinking water, like Brita, etc., some adsorb volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) from the air and are the active part of a gas mask, some are used in well water treatment to adsorb specifically hydrogen sulfide and other sulfides, etc.

Then there are non-carbon adsorbents, e.g. zeolites (oxides of aluminum, silicone, etc.), some of which are made to adsorb ammonia specifically. Perhaps come types of carbon are made to do the same or do the same to a varying degree.

Then there are coatings of absorbents on different substrates, that have, say, the right porosity but wrong chemical composition. One can experiment and make an infinite number of adsorbents in a lab by varying their chemical and physical properties, because both matter. This is a huge and complex field.

Now what this guy is doing / using we don't know. Maybe he's found something more special, maybe not. But I'd agree with JJ and Rus above, that it would seem that this could work as well as the generic activated carbon sold to aquariumists, or work better, but the scope of its practical use would be limited to tiny bio loads, of a fraction of an ounce of living matter. This may make it or break it for the egg hatchers, fry tanks, IDK, I imagine, yes, it can. For a fish tank with 10-100+ pounds of fish in it, this is, I imagine, impractical / wasteful.