Does carbon remove chlorine?

[geronimo69]

carbon does almost nothing just remove smell and polish the water its mainly for viewing purpose

Takes out the smell? Your tanks smell? Mine do not.

The only thing I ever use carbon for is after a tank is medicated. Removes the meds. I don't use it otherwise.

 

[ar0wan]

In a word. No.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you there.

Keep in mine "Chlorine" and "Chloramine" are two different chemicals. Chlorine is a gas that can aerate out over time(dissipate) and Chloramine is ammonia based which can not. Activated carbon will eventually remove them from the water but in time. It won't remove it right away unless it is design to like a water filter. But the filter can be old and not working properly. Water conditioner is the best bet. It is relatively cheap compared to the cost of killing your fishes. Good Luck.

Correct. The chlorine will probably gas off faster than carbon will absorb it
Unless you've got 10x turnover and fresh carbon
Seachem PRIME is super concentrated and very affordable

Takes out the smell? Your tanks smell? Mine do not.

The only thing I ever use carbon for is after a tank is medicated. Removes the meds. I don't use it otherwise.

reminds me of the head and shoulders commercial
I agree carbon is definately non-essential
and if used for anything other than med removal
is just masking inadequate mech and bio filtration
not that there's anything wrong with that

 

[Fraz]

I know this is an old thread but i was going to use carbon to purify the water for the drip system to my tank and this is what i found...quoted from watertreatmentguide

"Activated carbon can remove and destroy residual disinfectants (chlorine and chloramine) through a catalytic reduction reaction. This is a chemical reaction that involves a transfer of electrons from the activated carbon surface to the residual disinfectant. In other words,
activated carbon acts as a reducing agent.

Activated carbon's removal of chlorine reduces the chlorine to a non-oxidative chloride ion. The reaction is very fast and takes place in the first few inches of a new activated carbon bed. (Where removal of organics by activated carbon takes minutes, removal of chlorine literally takes seconds). The chlorine capacity of new activated carbon is 1 pound of chlorine per pound of carbon at a flow rate of 3 to 5 gpm/cu.ft. and a bed depth of 3 feet.

Chloramine removal by activated carbon is a much slower reaction. The predominant species of chloramine in city water supplies (pH about 7 to 8) is monochloramine. The reaction with activated carbon and monochloramine also renders a non-oxidative chloride ion. Since the rate of reaction is considerably slower, the flow rate should be 0.5 gpm/cu.ft. and the bed depth greater than 3 feet"

doing the math to remove chloramine from the water at 1gph you would need activated carbon of 4 inches in depth, less if you are just removing chlorine.

hope this helps others.

 

[Bianca due]

I know this is an old thread but i was going to use carbon to purify the water for the drip system to my tank and this is what i found...quoted from watertreatmentguide

"Activated carbon can remove and destroy residual disinfectants (chlorine and chloramine) through a catalytic reduction reaction. This is a chemical reaction that involves a transfer of electrons from the activated carbon surface to the residual disinfectant. In other words,
activated carbon acts as a reducing agent.

Activated carbon's removal of chlorine reduces the chlorine to a non-oxidative chloride ion. The reaction is very fast and takes place in the first few inches of a new activated carbon bed. (Where removal of organics by activated carbon takes minutes, removal of chlorine literally takes seconds). The chlorine capacity of new activated carbon is 1 pound of chlorine per pound of carbon at a flow rate of 3 to 5 gpm/cu.ft. and a bed depth of 3 feet.

Chloramine removal by activated carbon is a much slower reaction. The predominant species of chloramine in city water supplies (pH about 7 to 8) is monochloramine. The reaction with activated carbon and monochloramine also renders a non-oxidative chloride ion. Since the rate of reaction is considerably slower, the flow rate should be 0.5 gpm/cu.ft. and the bed depth greater than 3 feet"

doing the math to remove chloramine from the water at 1gph you would need activated carbon of 4 inches in depth, less if you are just removing chlorine.

hope this helps others.

I know this is an old thread but i was going to use carbon to purify the water for the drip system to my tank and this is what i found...quoted from watertreatmentguide

"Activated carbon can remove and destroy residual disinfectants (chlorine and chloramine) through a catalytic reduction reaction. This is a chemical reaction that involves a transfer of electrons from the activated carbon surface to the residual disinfectant. In other words,
activated carbon acts as a reducing agent.

Activated carbon's removal of chlorine reduces the chlorine to a non-oxidative chloride ion. The reaction is very fast and takes place in the first few inches of a new activated carbon bed. (Where removal of organics by activated carbon takes minutes, removal of chlorine literally takes seconds). The chlorine capacity of new activated carbon is 1 pound of chlorine per pound of carbon at a flow rate of 3 to 5 gpm/cu.ft. and a bed depth of 3 feet.

Chloramine removal by activated carbon is a much slower reaction. The predominant species of chloramine in city water supplies (pH about 7 to 8) is monochloramine. The reaction with activated carbon and monochloramine also renders a non-oxidative chloride ion. Since the rate of reaction is considerably slower, the flow rate should be 0.5 gpm/cu.ft. and the bed depth greater than 3 feet"

doing the math to remove chloramine from the water at 1gph you would need activated carbon of 4 inches in depth, less if you are just removing chlorine.

hope this helps others.

I have been wondering the same thing but for a pond. I have a drip line that replenishes water every other day. Most days the clorine is negligible after the water drips in. I have it dripping through a small filter and over a rock to try to air it out before it goes into the pond. But today I found a sick goldfish gasping for air around the filter and bubbler. I checked the water right away. The chlorine was a bit out of normal range but the ammonia was fine. Other ph was that my water is very hard but this is normal. Would using a carbon filter remove chlorine if the drip emitter sends water through it?

I have been keeping the same fish in a much smaller tank and had never lost one. A couple of months ago I started moving the fish to this much larger tank hoping they would be happier and do better but now I have lost two in about ten days. What am I doing wrong? I check the water constantly, feed them peas, and barely any regular fish food. They have new filters, underwater grass, plants, etc. Does anyone suspect what may be going on here? What other things can I try, more air, charcoal filter, etc?

 

[pops]

for the basic guy just trying to keep fish, carbon is not needed and should be removed and replaced with either more bio media or mech filtration.

there is no silver bullet to water changes, and no silver bullet to adding prime/safe conditioner, there are things you can try, but they are more expensive and labor intensive when all that is needed is water change on schedule and regular tank/filter maintenance.

 

[Scubarod]

This is what i have for my tank only. 2 one micron filters one .5 micron and one carbon.

 

[twentyleagues]

for the basic guy just trying to keep fish, carbon is not needed and should be removed and replaced with either more bio media or mech filtration.

there is no silver bullet to water changes, and no silver bullet to adding prime/safe conditioner, there are things you can try, but they are more expensive and labor intensive when all that is needed is water change on schedule and regular tank/filter maintenance.

So very true! But I believe what they are talking about is the removal of chlorine and chloramines before the water gets to the tank. And yes carbon does remove it in a filter set up like in the above post, also depending on flow rates. I use a three stage filter 1 micron sediment filter to a activated carbon filter to a coconut fiber carbon block, water coming out has 0 trace of either. I don't remember the numbers going in but in straight tap you can smell the chlorine. Its a little more effort atm but once I get my drip set up it'll be a lot easier.