Does carbon bleach your corals ? (Kent carbon recall)

[Casey8]

I was using Kent reef carbon corals for years without any problem until 2 days ago. I did water change on Monday evening, everything was fine and normal as usual. Tuesday afternoon, I changed the carbon. I used 1 cup for 100 gallons as instruction and as I normally do, so I am sure I didn't overdose it. But Wednesday morning, woke up and looked at the tank, all my sps corals were bleached. I did 25% water change right away. Today, I did another 25% water change because the corals look even more bleached. Even the hardest coral I have for more than 3 years and has been growing to almost 10 inch is also bleached more than half way :sad: I used to buy the smallest size of Kent reef carbon, but this time I bought a 1 gallon container, and that was the first time I was using it on Tuesday. I don't think buying smaller size or bigger size is different from the quality of it. But I had turned off the carbon today, because I thought it must be from using this carbon, there is no reason for me to think anything else. Checked the water quality, everything was fine.
I had spent too much time and money on corals. If I loose all the corals this time, I think I will go with fish only tank. I have been unlucky with them :cry:
Hope anybody here can give me some clues what is happening to my corals.

[daniella3d]

Same here...kent carbon...most coral are pale and some bleached. All my photosynthetic sponges are dead! My pink digitata is nearly white and show no polyp extension. Polyp extension is very low even on my shaggy acropora which is not shaggy anylonger. I put Kent carbon, go to sleep and wake up to that mess.

Never again will I use that crap. What's in it that could cause this? I used all sort of brand of carbon before without any visible effect...ever.

I removed the carbon and did 2 30% water change but it might take many water change to stop the bleaching. Now things have seem to stabilize but it will take months for some of the coral to recover, if they ever do. My blue haliclona photosynthetic sponges are gone. had them for 2 years :(



I was using Kent reef carbon corals for years without any problem until 2 days ago. I did water change on Monday evening, everything was fine and normal as usual. Tuesday afternoon, I changed the carbon. I used 1 cup for 100 gallons as instruction and as I normally do, so I am sure I didn't overdose it. But Wednesday morning, woke up and looked at the tank, all my sps corals were bleached. I did 25% water change right away. Today, I did another 25% water change because the corals look even more bleached. Even the hardest coral I have for more than 3 years and has been growing to almost 10 inch is also bleached more than half way :sad: I used to buy the smallest size of Kent reef carbon, but this time I bought a 1 gallon container, and that was the first time I was using it on Tuesday. I don't think buying smaller size or bigger size is different from the quality of it. But I had turned off the carbon today, because I thought it must be from using this carbon, there is no reason for me to think anything else. Checked the water quality, everything was fine.
I had spent too much time and money on corals. If I loose all the corals this time, I think I will go with fish only tank. I have been unlucky with them :cry:
Hope anybody here can give me some clues what is happening to my corals.

[Lampshade]

A lot of the time the coral bleaching is from your water getting much more clear, allowing a big change in light intensity on your coral. It is very odd that it's kent though, would explain some issue's I've had recently with the same stuff. Bleaching tips on some coral like milli's, but lots of others are fine.

[daniella3d]

Not in my case. a few months ago I did 2 side by side water change 25% and no coral bleached, everything was beautiful and healthy. I had to get the nitrates lower due to a large foxface (sold) polluting my tank.

Beside, if you put the carbon in the evening and in the morning you wake up to this mess...can't be the light because it is closed at night.

It is obvious it was the carbon in my case...nothing else was added or hapened. Beside...my blue sponges died! what can kill a blue sponge??? surely not the clarity of the water. I have put chemiclean often during the past 2 years and the water become crystal clear, and that never affected my sponges nor any of my corals. Something nasty in that kent stuff...

BTW, I too bought the large container. Can there be something not right in there?


A lot of the time the coral bleaching is from your water getting much more clear, allowing a big change in light intensity on your coral. It is very odd that it's kent though, would explain some issue's I've had recently with the same stuff. Bleaching tips on some coral like milli's, but lots of others are fine.

[Casey8]

Same here...kent carbon...most coral are pale and some bleached. All my photosynthetic sponges are dead! My pink digitata is nearly white and show no polyp extension. Polyp extension is very low even on my shaggy acropora which is not shaggy anylonger. I put Kent carbon, go to sleep and wake up to that mess.

Never again will I use that crap. What's in it that could cause this? I used all sort of brand of carbon before without any visible effect...ever.

I removed the carbon and did 2 30% water change but it might take many water change to stop the bleaching. Now things have seem to stabilize but it will take months for some of the coral to recover, if they ever do. My blue haliclona photosynthetic sponges are gone. had them for 2 years :(

Thanks for your input, Daniel. I just got a new brand Marineland carbon. I had used this brand since I first started in this hobby. Now all I am hoping is I can save some of the corals left. All my favorite corals are bleached out so badly, they completely turned white today. The ones that I don't care very much are still having some faded color on them :twised: Life is like that, always lost something that you cared about and loved the most, same thing happened with fish too.

[daniella3d]

Good luck with your system. It has been about a week for mine and it is still acting wierd. I now have some brown stuff covering some corals so I am guessing some of my digitata died as well.

It would be important to find out what is causing this and if any others have had similar reaction. I did not even talk about it at first because I was a bit skeptical about carbon causing this but now that you talk about your own experience with it, then it makes me beleive that my thoughts that it was the carbon were right.

Thanks for your input, Daniel. I just got a new brand Marineland carbon. I had used this brand since I first started in this hobby. Now all I am hoping is I can save some of the corals left. All my favorite corals are bleached out so badly, they completely turned white today. The ones that I don't care very much are still having some faded color on them :twised: Life is like that, always lost something that you cared about and loved the most, same thing happened with fish too.

[Casey8]

I am glad you had chimed in that you had the same problem with this Kent carbon too. If not, I may have thought I am the only one complaining about bleaching corals for using bad carbon. Nothing I can do about coral's bleaching now, I just hope whatever I have left are recovering soon.

[daniella3d]

I once had a shaggy acropora bleach completely and no polyp extension after I took it from one tank to the other without any acclimatation. I did not care about it because under T5 it was all brown and really ugly. It remained for about a month like that and after a month the polyps started to come out and that coral is gorgious today. It has grown about 10 times the size. It took about 2 months to color up to a very nice bleu/green with purple tips under metal halide.

So there is hope :)

I will return that carbon to the store for a refound and tell them what hapened and that I am not the only one and will take the Seachem carbon instead.


I am glad you had chimed in that you had the same problem with this Kent carbon too. If not, I may have thought I am the only one complaining about bleaching corals for using bad carbon. Nothing I can do about coral's bleaching now, I just hope whatever I have left are recovering soon.

[Palmer]

A lot of the time the coral bleaching is from your water getting much more clear, allowing a big change in light intensity on your coral. It is very odd that it's kent though, would explain some issue's I've had recently with the same stuff. Bleaching tips on some coral like milli's, but lots of others are fine.

That's very interesting I have never heard that before. I would wonder if there is anyway to show this via PAR readings or some other way to test light penetration into the water pre and post water treatment.

[paddyob]

I used Kent for years and years. Mo bleaching. Ever.

Temperature and too much light are usual suspects.

Highly doubt it's the carbon.


Bleaching is usually human error in tanks.

[christyf5]

I've got the same thing happening to a few SPS in my tank too. Bulbs are over a year old so I would have thought if it were the bulbs it would go the other way (browning out). I've been using the same 5gal pail of Kent carbon for at least a year though so I can't really say its the carbon attributing to it (unless I got overzealous and used too much). Odd that this is a coincidence though.

[paddyob]

I've got the same thing happening to a few SPS in my tank too. Bulbs are over a year old so I would have thought if it were the bulbs it would go the other way (browning out). I've been using the same 5gal pail of Kent carbon for at least a year though so I can't really say its the carbon attributing to it (unless I got overzealous and used too much). Odd that this is a coincidence though.

I always over use carbon. Always.

Maybe I have not had the same issues as I always use carbon and always have, so my water is always duper super clear.

I can see the increased clarity being a POSSIBLE culprit if you have never used carbon before.

But even when I switched to ROX, I never had a single issue. And ROX definitely made my water much, MUCH clearer than Kent ever did.

Before settling on carbon as the issue explore your heater/thermometer. Maybe that's an issue. Carbon is not the cause of bleaching in nature, so maybe try narrow down other factors.

As again, I highly doubt it's the carbon.

It's always easier to blame our equipment before ourselves.

[daniella3d]

temperature? My temperature is stable day and night at 76.5 F.

The OP used this carbon for years without problem before this hapened. I have been using other brand of carbon without problem (seachem), in fact, I never had any problem with my corals or reef since the beginning 2 years ago.

Too much light? No I doubt it in my case since it hapened during the night and there was no change of ligth previously either. My 250 watt Phoenix 14 has been there for 4 months and corals were thriving, acropora growing 1" per month previous to the addition of carbon.

it's definitly something else.

Dead toll: xenia all gone, bleue haliclona sponges all gone, pink digitata nearly all gone. Orange and purple digitata just fine, birdnest never affected and SPS coming back with great polyp extension but still pale and have lost color. LPS and zoanthids doing great now.

This hapened about 5 days ago and I did 30% water change monday, and 30% water change tuesday...Now corals are coming back. Such drastic water change and the corals are feeling better?? now what nasty stuff was in my tank that could have caused this? Only thing I could do is to have this carbon analyzed. Or do another test in another tank with corals I don't really care for.

Previous to the addition of the carbon, the evening I replaced the Seachem carbon by the Kent, all my corals were doing fantastic. Xenia were pumping, I had awesome polyps extention as usual. The only thing that hapened is the kent carbon, no change in temperature, PH, etc...no change in the dosing. I tested for salinity, alkalinity and mag and all were as they are usually. Maybe a bad batch of carbon? If it is a coincidence, then it is a very strange one...if it is a coincidence then what could have caused this? No other factors were present. This hapened overnight, no light involved in the event. No PH or temperature swing either.

I have been using Seachem carbon for 2 years.







I used Kent for years and years. Mo bleaching. Ever.

Temperature and too much light are usual suspects.

Highly doubt it's the carbon.


Bleaching is usually human error in tanks.

[christyf5]

I always over use carbon. Always.

Maybe I have not had the same issues as I always use carbon and always have, so my water is always duper super clear.

I can see the increased clarity being a POSSIBLE culprit if you have never used carbon before.

But even when I switched to ROX, I never had a single issue. And ROX definitely made my water much, MUCH clearer than Kent ever did.

Before settling on carbon as the issue explore your heater/thermometer. Maybe that's an issue. Carbon is not the cause of bleaching in nature, so maybe try narrow down other factors.

As again, I highly doubt it's the carbon.

It's always easier to blame our equipment before ourselves.

Oh I totally agree. However like I said, I'm well into that 5gal bucket of Kent (and I've used Kent for about 7ish years now) and its not like I hit a "bad spot" or something to be just causing problems now. There are always a myriad of weird things going on with my tank and problems never get nailed down to any single thing. I'm not even sure why I posted to fuel the fire. Bored I guess. :razz:

[paddyob]

temperature? My temperature is stable day and night at 76.5 F.

The OP used this carbon for years without problem before this hapened. I have been using other brand of carbon without problem (seachem), in fact, I never had any problem with my corals or reef since the beginning 2 years ago.

Too much light? No I doubt it in my case since it hapened during the night and there was no change of ligth previously either. My 250 watt Phoenix 14 has been there for 4 months and corals were thriving, acropora growing 1" per month previous to the addition of carbon.

it's definitly something else.


I agree. But I just don't see carbon being the issue.

During the night... Maybe corals fighting. Killing parts off. Dead corals lose color too.

Also, too much light is a suggestion. I would still lean to heat spikes.

I had to remove an unfaithful finnex.


Has anyone done extensive research on natures bleaching? Perhaps there are some similar factors we duplicate in tanks. Like pollution.

Can anyone educate us better?

I'm no expert on this issue, just trying to help.

[kien]

There are always a myriad of weird things going on with my tank and problems never get nailed down to any single thing

isn't this the nature of the hobby in general? Detritus happens.

[daniella3d]

But assuming you are right about coral war...there was a lot of fresh carbon in there so it would have absorbed what ever chimical from a coral war.

For exemple, my shaggy acropora had a deep dark blue/green base color, now it is all washed out, no more trace of blue in the flesh and the purple tips are bearely visible. That coral is going to have to regain its color back for sure. Now the base color is sort of a grayish flesh but the polyps are still green.

It's not like parts of the corals died either. It's an overall loss of color but the coral is still alive and now making a come back.

I had a multicolor acropora millepora that was striking in colors. It has flashy pink, purple, blue and green hue...now it's livid light green with livid light brown on top. It's like all the nice colors have vanished.

In the morning, most of my SPS has their polyps in and filaments out. I could see something was very wrong.

And what can make xenia melt like that?? It shriveled and died in one night. this is highly unusualy for me as my xenia were growing like weeks and my bleues sponges been thriving for 2 years. What can kill a blue sponge?? I even used a few time Chemiclean in that tank to clear up cyano and that did not affect the sponges. I had an episode of dino and raised the PH a lot to kill that and it did not affect my sponges, nor my xenias.

Now what?

And it's definitly not the temperature, because especially at night my temperature is stable and not affected by the MH light. But even in summer my temperautre is very stable at no more than 77F.


I agree. But I just don't see carbon being the issue.

During the night... Maybe corals fighting. Killing parts off. Dead corals lose color too.

Also, too much light is a suggestion. I would still lean to heat spikes.

I had to remove an unfaithful finnex.


Has anyone done extensive research on natures bleaching? Perhaps there are some similar factors we duplicate in tanks. Like pollution.

Can anyone educate us better?

I'm no expert on this issue, just trying to help.

[daniella3d]

guys...read this:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2134021

seems we are not alone and I am really angry at this company. I lost all my beautiful blue sponges, lost my 3 rare pink digitata...can't replace them!

[paddyob]

Its like being a reef hemophilliac... someone suggests an issue and suddenly a chunk of people all have it.

Just be careful you are not spreading false accusations.

I never had a single issue, and I am sure more people have had positive results than negative.

If you have a concern, why not contact them and see if this is factual. Or contact the store you bought it at.

If there is a serious issue.... there would be a recall.

If there is no recall then 1000's upon 1000's of people who use a popular and easily available product would also have the same issue. Not just a handful of people.

Before being angry at Kent, maybe make sure you have proof or fact that it was your CARBON.

I recently switched from kent, as I mentioned, and it was a good product.

It does seem like very few people on here had the same issue. Even ten or fifty individuals with similar issues are nothing compared to the multitudes of people with zero problems with the product, such as myself.

Anyhow... removing myself from the carbon bag.

Good luck with your issues. Hope its not the carbon!

[daniella3d]

you never had issue but obviously a lot of people do, even those have have been using this carbon for 7 years like that store owner.

I did contact them today and waiting for their response.

In any case, this is super easy to prove...the proof is in the pudding. I do have the carbon with me. The store owner has sent some of the carbon to kent marine for analyse and we should soon find out what is causing havock with this carbon.

Kent Marine is aware of the situation and they will surely ..well hopefully do something about it. I will post their reply here once and if they do reply.

So far I have about 2000$ loss in coral :(

Probably not all of Kent carbon is bad, but probably some batches are contaminated with something. Since people from NY are experiencing the same thing, I am guessing it is far more spread than you want to say. I live in Canada, not in the USA so some bad batch could be in the USA and in Canada and possibly elswhere.

Even if this was a false alert and everybody having issue are just dreaming a bad nightmare, it is better to be safe than sorry and not use this carbon for now.




Its like being a reef hemophilliac... someone suggests an issue and suddenly a chunk of people all have it.

Just be careful you are not spreading false accusations.

I never had a single issue, and I am sure more people have had positive results than negative.

If you have a concern, why not contact them and see if this is factual. Or contact the store you bought it at.

If there is a serious issue.... there would be a recall.

If there is no recall then 1000's upon 1000's of people who use a popular and easily available product would also have the same issue. Not just a handful of people.

Before being angry at Kent, maybe make sure you have proof or fact that it was your CARBON.

I recently switched from kent, as I mentioned, and it was a good product.

It does seem like very few people on here had the same issue. Even ten or fifty individuals with similar issues are nothing compared to the multitudes of people with zero problems with the product, such as myself.

Anyhow... removing myself from the carbon bag.

Good luck with your issues. Hope its not the carbon!

[paddyob]

Fair enough. Please post if Kent gets back to you.


you never had issue but obviously a lot of people do, even those have have been using this carbon for 7 years like that store owner.

I did contact them today and waiting for their response.

In any case, this is super easy to prove...the proof is in the pudding. I do have the carbon with me. The store owner has sent some of the carbon to kent marine for analyse and we should soon find out what is causing havock with this carbon.

Kent Marine is aware of the situation and they will surely ..well hopefully do something about it. I will post their reply here once and if they do reply.

So far I have about 2000$ loss in coral :(

Probably not all of Kent carbon is bad, but probably some batches are contaminated with something. Since people from NY are experiencing the same thing, I am guessing it is far more spread than you want to say. I live in Canada, not in the USA so some bad batch could be in the USA and in Canada and possibly elswhere.

Even if this was a false alert and everybody having issue are just dreaming a bad nightmare, it is better to be safe than sorry and not use this carbon for now.

[Casey8]

guys...read this:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2134021

seems we are not alone and I am really angry at this company. I lost all my beautiful blue sponges, lost my 3 rare pink digitata...can't replace them!


Thanks for the link daniella, at least I know I am not the only one having trouble with Kent carbon. I still cannot believe what happened to my tank, because Kent carbon was my favorite for so many years. It is so sad :cry: !!I didn't loose $2,000 on corals like you, because I only pay $10, $15 for a frag, but to see them growing up and colored up with joy everyday, and now look at them dying from bleaching, it really breaks my heart :cry:
Please update if you get any more information from Kent. I should have kept a small sample from that bad carbon and send it to the Kent company to verify that I was not wrong.

[daniella3d]

Thanks for the link daniella, at least I know I am not the only one having trouble with Kent carbon. I still cannot believe what happened to my tank, because Kent carbon was my favorite for so many years. It is so sad :cry: !!I didn't loose $2,000 on corals like you, because I only pay $10, $15 for a frag, but to see them growing up and colored up with joy everyday, and now look at them dying from bleaching, it really breaks my heart :cry:
Please update if you get any more information from Kent. I should have kept a small sample from that bad carbon and send it to the Kent company to verify that I was not wrong.

I have plenty of this bad carbon left. Don't worry, they wrote in the other thread that the store owner have sent a sample to the company. I am keeping mine for sure, in case there is a need to analyse it.

I guess the important thing is to have proof of purchase if you don't have any carbon left.

I lost 2000$ worth in coral. That's the price I would need to pay to replace what I lost. I too started a few of these pieces with little frags but they were no little frags anylonger so they are not worth 30$ any longer. Even if you bought your corals are 10$ frag, they are worth a lot more when they grow large. It is that cost that you must calculate because replacing those pieces would cost that much.

[Casey8]

I have plenty of this bad carbon left. Don't worry, they wrote in the other thread that the store owner have sent a sample to the company. I am keeping mine for sure, in case there is a need to analyse it.

I guess the important thing is to have proof of purchase if you don't have any carbon left.

I lost 2000$ worth in coral. That's the price I would need to pay to replace what I lost. I too started a few of these pieces with little frags but they were no little frags anylonger so they are not worth 30$ any longer. Even if you bought your corals are 10$ frag, they are worth a lot more when they grow large. It is that cost that you must calculate because replacing those pieces would cost that much.


Yah, you are right about that. It's not a $10 frag anymore !
My skimmer had pulled lots of black nasty color from that carbon in the last 2 days. Thank God, it is back to a normal color now.

[Canuckgod420]

I also had the sme issue when I switched to Kent, 1 afternoon I switch out the carbon, next morning serious colour loss. I simply turned off my carbon reactor, reduced my light duration, and kept a watchful eye.
Non of my corals died, but some where looking pretty stressed, no polyp extension, complete colour loss, small amounts of tissue recession.
But in a couple weeks things started to turn around, colour returning, polyps coming out. Now 3 months later everything is growing so fast I cant keep up, my colour has never been better, it crazy.

[daniella3d]

I reduced my ligth for one hour but I think I will reduce it a bit more.

How many hours did you reduce you light?

My pocillopora that I thought was not affected have started to lose tissue and I can see some patches of brown jelly now. wow...this is nasty.


I also had the sme issue when I switched to Kent, 1 afternoon I switch out the carbon, next morning serious colour loss. I simply turned off my carbon reactor, reduced my light duration, and kept a watchful eye.
Non of my corals died, but some where looking pretty stressed, no polyp extension, complete colour loss, small amounts of tissue recession.
But in a couple weeks things started to turn around, colour returning, polyps coming out. Now 3 months later everything is growing so fast I cant keep up, my colour has never been better, it crazy.

[whatcaneyedo]

A friend provided me his 40 lbs box of Kent Carbon when he shut down a few years ago (2006 maybe?). I didn't use all 40 lbs myself but I did use it exclusively for probably 3 years without issue. However I have heard cases where contaminates like metals have found their way into Carbon and caused coral death. For the last few years I've been using BRS Fine Lignite Carbon because it seemed like a better value.

[MarkoD]

I use the fluval carbon and I don't really know what it does (never been without) but I see no negative effects

[Myka]

Paddy, if you're so sure it isn't the carbon why don't you use some of Daniella's carbon in your reef? :p Anything is possible, and it sure seems suspect that there are so many people having troubles with their new container of Kent carbon in the last month or two. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

I jut ran out of Kent carbon a couple weeks ago, and decided to try out the Brightwell Aquatics carbon as I have really been liking their other products lately. It sounds like I was lucky for once! Whew.

[jjntm]

My buddy rob (canuckgod420) mentioned this same issue on here a couple of months back after switching to kent carbon, EXACTLY the same thing happened!!!! he was on here looking for advice and NOBODY offered any....lol... now everyone chimes in....

Good news for you guys/ladies is that it will all come back around. We believe it is just that the carbon stripped the water too clean and allowed excessive light penetration which bleached the corals (like switching from t5 to MH or swapping to led and keeping the intensity to high from the get go.) It took weeks of frustration and heartache before his tank showed signs of coming back around. I believe he completely cut out the carbon... and his tank colors are AMAZING!!! now... growth is better then ever and his tank is once again top 3 I ever EVER seen!!!!!

[jjntm]

lol.. I guess I should have read further and I would have seen that he chimed in already!

[Myka]

My buddy rob (canuckgod420) mentioned this same issue on here a couple of months back after switching to kent carbon, EXACTLY the same thing happened!!!! he was on here looking for advice and NOBODY offered any....lol... now everyone chimes in....

I thought someone had mentioned possible issues with Kent carbon awhile ago, but I was searching the forums and couldn't find it, so I figured I was imagining it. Now I'm going to go look again now I know who it was... :lol:

EDIT: Here is canuckgod420's experiences back in November... http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=80526

[Borderjumper]

I have plenty of this bad carbon left. Don't worry, they wrote in the other thread that the store owner have sent a sample to the company. I am keeping mine for sure, in case there is a need to analyse it.

I guess the important thing is to have proof of purchase if you don't have any carbon left.

I lost 2000$ worth in coral. That's the price I would need to pay to replace what I lost. I too started a few of these pieces with little frags but they were no little frags anylonger so they are not worth 30$ any longer. Even if you bought your corals are 10$ frag, they are worth a lot more when they grow large. It is that cost that you must calculate because replacing those pieces would cost that much.


Try dragging a magnet thru the carbon and see if you get any metals?

[jjntm]

wow... reef central thread store owner lost a ton of coral.... I really hope kent steps up to the plate and pays for or replaces everyones losses... everyone affected should write a mass email to them stating their displeasure! The more ppl that send to them what happened the better it is for them to investigate what went wrong...

[jjntm]

Try dragging a magnet thru the carbon and see if you get any metals?

Very smart Idea!!!

[Canuckgod420]

Thats funny Myka, you even posted a response to my thread.

Anyway, its all good now, everything looks great and growing fast.

I'm actually thinking of adding this carbon every few months to shock up the corals a bit and watch them explode in growth and colour again.

[jjntm]

Thats funny Myka, you even posted a response to my thread.

Anyway, its all good now, everything looks great and growing fast.

I'm actually thinking of adding this carbon every few months to shock up the corals a bit and watch them explode in growth and colour again.

LMFAO!!! someone is looking to stir the pot I see.... muahhahahahaha... Although I gotta admit ur colors were nice before... and growth was good... however now ur colors pop amazingly and your growth tips are INSANE!!!

[Myka]

Having a bunch of disgruntled reef keepers suing for compensation is a good way to put a company out of business. I'm not sure I agree with that...take a look at what happened to PFO. I'm sure there are more people that miss PFO then there are that are mad.

Store owners should know better than to put $20K of coral in one system - that's a really bad idea. That's called laziness...it is easier to maintain one or two big systems than several smaller ones. You can't purchase much in the way of insurance on live corals or fish, so they have to create their own types of insurance. Multiple systems is the best insurance they can get. I still feel darn awful for the store owner who lost this huge investment, as well as the animals that died though. That is awful. :(

Thats funny Myka, you even posted a response to my thread.

Yeah, I was really thinking I was losing it. I spent at least 20 minutes hunting for that thread before deciding I had lost my mind. Then jjntm mentioned your name and I found the thread in approximately 8 seconds! :o

[daniella3d]

Not possible in my case because i put the carbon in the evening where there was just the actinic T5 on, then when I woke up the light was not even on yet, but I could see something was wrong. EAch morning when I wake up the first thing I do is to check my aquariums.

It must be something else. I do not beleive that 8 hours of Kent carbon could have stripped so much from my water than corals were dying. I used carbon on regular basis since the beginning of that tank, but was using Seachem.

I beleive that something far more serious hapened here with some batch of Kent carbon. It could be some heavy metal, as I don't think that carbon can absorb copper or other toxic metal so it could have leached something like that. I just got my water analysed for heavy metal 3 weeks ago and it was perfect. I will have it check again just to be on the safe side.

When I saw this I immeditaly removed the carbon and did a 30% water change. That was the only thing I had done to the tank so it was the first thing I removed.




My buddy rob We believe it is just that the carbon stripped the water too clean and allowed excessive light penetration which bleached the corals

[daniella3d]

A lot of stores have common water in their system. I am not sure if you realize this but he lost 10k of coral worth...and it does not take that much in coral to reach that amount. I personaly have about 3k to 4k in corals worth. I lost about half so far.

I can think of plenty of coral stores here that would have the same exact issue because all their aquariums are connected with the same water. It is very common.

I don't think they do it out of laziness, probably more out of economical issue. It is less expensive to have a big central system I guess.

And your point may not be valid even if he had a few independant systems. Assuming he was doing the regular maintenance shedule of replacing carbon, what is to say that he would not have put new fresh carbon in all of his independant tanks killing everyting anyway?





Store owners should know better than to put $20K of coral in one system - that's a really bad idea. That's called laziness...it is easier to maintain one or two big systems than several smaller ones. You can't purchase much in the way of insurance on live corals or fish, so they have to create their own types of insurance. Multiple systems is the best insurance they can get. I still feel darn awful for the store owner who lost this huge investment, as well as the animals that died though. That is awful. :(

[daniella3d]

I got a reply from Kent Marine. They requested that I send a sample of the carbon (understandable) and the bar code on the product, plus they want to see pics of the corals that have died and what ever receipt I have.

Of course I don't have receipt for most of my corals because some where bought like 2 years ago or at least more than one year. Some were bought as group buy and I was not the one with the invoice, and finally some were bought from other reefers and I don't have receipts for those. But I think that from the pics they can make out what is the value of the coral anyway.

They seem nice and offered me good advices on how to bring my system back to normal, lower the light for a few weeks until the corals recover, use polyfilter to remove what ever contaminant is in the water, feed corals with vitamine and food and replenish trace element that the polyfilter will remove. Seem like a good plan.

I will be sending them the sample of the carbon and the documents this week.

They said that polyfilter will remove heavy metal and contaminants if that is the problem so I am going to buy this stuff tomorrow and do another water change.

As soon as I find out what is the problem, I will post here.

Question here..if it is copper or other heavy metal, will polyfilter remove it from my liverock as well or will I have to replace my liverock?

[christyf5]

polyfilter will remove it from the water as it leaches from your rock, however if your rock keeps leaching without the polyfilter, you'll always have it in your water. I guess it also depends on what kind of levels were in the water in the first place and whether it was taken up by the rock. The polyfilter might let you know what is in the water also, as it changes color depending on what it is removing.

[Casey8]

Damn it, I even didn't have a small amount of that bad carbon :twised:
Thanks Daniella, I will reduce the lights for a few weeks. What is a polyfilter ? I have never heard of it before. Anyway, I'll call LFS and find out about it. I have more than 1/3 of completely white bleached corals in my tank. I still don't know what to do with them yet. Throw them away or wait to see if they come back ? Hmmmm ... good luck ? :twised: The rest of the corals are totally faded, only me the owner can recognize what were the original colors before, even my husband totally got lost has no clue. I am really &^%$# off with the Kent product. I will never buy anything that is made from this company again.

[christyf5]

http://oceanaquatics.com/store/product/2127/Poly-Filter/


Ah Casey, stay in this hobby enough and you'll find you will get screwed often enough and by all the major brands, enough that you circle right back around to where you started :wink:

[Casey8]

http://oceanaquatics.com/store/product/2127/Poly-Filter/


Ah Casey, stay in this hobby enough and you'll find you will get screwed often enough and by all the major brands, enough that you circle right back around to where you started :wink:


Hahaha ... I believe what you say. I was swearing that I would never touch any Coralife brands in my life again, then after a few years I bought a UV with that brand name again.
Thanks for the link.

[christyf5]

Hahaha ... I believe what you say. I was swearing that I would never touch any Coralife brands in my life again, then after a few years I bought a UV with that brand name again.
Thanks for the link.

Yeah after a few years it doesn't sting as much. Funny, I just put a polyfilter on my tank the other day hoping it would help. Also switched to the ROX 0.8 carbon from BRS. My water is shiny clean and hopefully the filter is doing its work. I didn't lose any corals so I'm thinking its not the carbon, my problems likely come from another source (of which I will never figure out but will likely be fixed in the midst of all the other "fixes" I do at the same time).

[daniella3d]

Do you still have the box of carbon and the invoice from the store you bought it?

They asked me for the bar code on the label and a proof of purchase and the address of the store where I bought it. They also asked for a sample of the carbon, but that did not seem to be a requirement though. Since I have plenty left I will send it.

Polyfilter is a filter media that change color as it absorb different contaminant. I will buy it today and put it in my tank.

I did another water change and now things are starting to look a bit better. My shaggy acropora is starting to return to normal.

However so far I lost all my beautiful blue sponges :( and all my beautiful and rare true pink digitatas. I have no idea whey they died and the other digitatas, orange and purple, did not die at all. Murphey's law dictate that the rarest and most beautiful are going to be those dying huh?

All my xenia have melted away...wierd...that was growing like weeds in my aquarium for 2 years and I kept pruning it and giving it away to friend and even throwing it in the garbage because I had too much of it. now I have none left. The little bit that was remaining finaly melted as well. very wierd.

The company is very nice though. I have good hope that if it is the carbon responsible, they will compensate people for their loss...i surely hope so.

I think if you have any coral left that is bleached but still have polyps and tissue, you should not throw them away. I once had an acropora bleach completely and even part if it died and it make a 100%, even 120% recovery in a month or two, so unless your coral have no more flesh and polyp, keep them and wait to see if they come back.

I had to throw away my monti cap with blue rim because it had no flesh any longer and algae was starting to cover it, a good sign that it was dead. Same with my pink digitata, it became all covered with brown stuff (not brown jelly though) sign that it was dead.

Damn it, I even didn't have a small amount of that bad carbon :twised:
Thanks Daniella, I will reduce the lights for a few weeks. What is a polyfilter ? I have never heard of it before. Anyway, I'll call LFS and find out about it. I have more than 1/3 of completely white bleached corals in my tank. I still don't know what to do with them yet. Throw them away or wait to see if they come back ? Hmmmm ... good luck ? :twised: The rest of the corals are totally faded, only me the owner can recognize what were the original colors before, even my husband totally got lost has no clue. I am really &^%$# off with the Kent product. I will never buy anything that is made from this company again.

[Casey8]

No, I didn't keep the container because I returned it and exchanged another brand. I still have the receipt though, the bar code must be somewhere in there.

[daniella3d]

if you returned it at the store, they probably returned it to the company. I would call the store and ask them what they did with it and if they still have it, ask for a sample of it to send to Kent.

In any case, you should contact Kent Marine and tell them your story.

No, I didn't keep the container because I returned it and exchanged another brand. I still have the receipt though, the bar code must be somewhere in there.

[Casey8]

Thanks Daniella, I will let my husband deal with them.

[Casey8]

Hey Daniella, I was about to get the receipt, pictures of the bleached corals, and my husband is ready to go back to LFS (where we returned the carbon) to get a little sample and the bar code tomorrow ... we were ready to make a complain to the Kent company tomorrow ... and guess what, my halides were turned off for the day and now the T5s have been turned on for 2 hours ... then all of a sudden when I passed by, I see all my bleached corals have slight color on them. I stopped and looked closely, I see the polyps are starting to open here and there. All the faded corals are gettting more colors under the T5s tonight. I couldn't believe what I have seen. I am so excited ! They are coming back to life tonight, Daniella ! You were right, good thing I didn't throw them away. Will see what they will look like under the metal halides tomorrow.

[Myka]

Casey, I would suggest you keep the halides turned off until the color comes back. The color in the corals protects them from the damaging effect of UV rays. Putting halide light over badly bleached corals could kill them.

[daniella3d]

That's great news. Some of mine are starting to do the same thing as well. I lost 2 frags of acropora, the rest seem that it's going to come back.

Though I lost all my xenias, all my blue photosynthetic sponges and all my pink digitatas plus a few frags of paly and zoanthids. Really wierd how selective this was.

Just make sure you don't put the ligth too long for a few weeks to les them recover and stop them from bleaching more. As long as they have polyps, they usually come back.

I am using the halide for 5 hours per day now. I don't have anything else that can provide for my coral because the other tubes are just PC actinic and can't sustain corals, but seem that just cutting the amount of time by a few hours is preventing further bleaching. I went from 9 hours of MH to 5, so cut it about half for now.

Daniella ! You were right, good thing I didn't throw them away. Will see what they will look like under the metal halides tomorrow.

[Casey8]

Casey, I would suggest you keep the halides turned off until the color comes back. The color in the corals protects them from the damaging effect of UV rays. Putting halide light over badly bleached corals could kill them.


Mika, How long do I need to leave the halides off, or do I just need to cut hours back like daniella ?

[daniella3d]

The ideal would be to use the T5HO if you have anything else than actinic, and if your T5HO are just actinic, then put egg crate or something to screen the MH and start with just a few hours per day and rise that slowly as the coral get back their colors.

If you only have actinic, that's not enough to sustain the coral. Also feeding them amino acid and zooplankton will help them recover because since they are deprived of zooxanthellae, they need other food source for now.

Mika, How long do I need to leave the halides off, or do I just need to cut hours back like daniella ?

[Casey8]

I will follow your instructions, thank you daniella.

[Casey8]

Please read Kent reef carbon recall on J&L web site.

[whatcaneyedo]

Wow they've done it again. Does anyone else remember ~8 years ago when they produced the bad batch(s) of salt? I do...

[Borderjumper]

Feb 22, 2012

RE: KENT Marine Reef Carbon Product Advisory

There is a quality concern with KENT Marine Reef Carbon manufactured between December 5th of 2011 and February 8th of 2012. The concern is that the batch of carbon contained unusually high levels of heavy metals which have an adverse effect on stony corals and clams in marine settings. KENT Marine Reef Carbon is a virgin coal based carbon that is mined giving it greater adsorption properties. Unfortunately during this mining process, small layers containing heavy metals like copper were introduced into the carbon. This contamination of heavy metals would likely go undetected in freshwater environments and would not affect livestock. However in marine (salt water) aquariums, the effects can be seen in as quickly as a couple of hours to stony corals and clams. Fish and higher invertebrates such as shrimp do not seem to be affected. After removal of the contaminated carbon and dilution by a water change or use of other filtration means, most corals have been able to recover in 2-3 weeks from the exposure.

This carbon is also mainly used for commercial potable and wastewater treatment such as municipal water supplies. These are single pass systems where the water will only pass through the carbon bed once and any residual leaching of metal into the water will be minimal. This is also why carbon is not typically tested for heavy metals; until now. When carbon is used in aquarium settings, the water passes through the carbon bed multiple times increasing the soluble metal in that enclosed environment.

If you have purchased KENT Marine Reef Carbon in the last three months, please refer to the below table to identify the product size you may have purchased and the expiration dates affected.

00027 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 1lb (1qt)
************ EX20DEC14* EX21DEC14* EX22DEC14* EX25JAN15 00031 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 15lbs (5gal)
******** *** EX05JAN15** EX17JAN15** EX18JAN15
00028 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 1.9lb (2qt)
************ EX05DEC14** EX08DEC14** EX13DEC14* 00032 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 25lbs
********** * EX21DEC14
00029 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 4.1lbs (1gal)
************ EX18JAN15** 00681 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 44lbs
************ EX02FEB15** EX08FEB15
00030 - KENT Marine Reef Carbon 7lbs (2gal)
************ EX13DEC14 * EX14DEC14** EX03FEB15 *
These expiration dates can be found imprinted on the product label or stamped on the product bottom.

If you have product with an above expiration date, please discontinue use and perform a standard water change. Take the remaining product back to the retailer where it was purchased for a refund or exchange or call a Central Aquatics customer service representative at 1-888-255-4527.

We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused as we want to assure you that we intend to deliver the highest quality products possible. With this development, the quality of KENT Reef Carbon will be produced under new testing protocols.

Again we sincerely apologize for having to bring this quality concern to your attention. If you have any questions about this advisory or any other KENT Marine product, please contact a Central Aquatics customer service representative at 1-888-255-4527.


Best regards,

Scott Rabe
Central Aquatics
Brand Manager Food & Water Care

[Zoaelite]

Thanks for posting that!

*Throws out Kent Carbon*

[kien]

We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused

Um.. ya.. everyone's stuff is dying.. very "inconvenient" indeed :neutral:

[globaldesigns]

HMMMMM.... I have Kent Reef carbon, but haven't been using it for some time (running carbonless), and my tank was making a comeback. Decided, why not put a little bit in after christmas vacation, and corals started to die. Never thought it was the carbon, but it was the only change, so took it out and I am running carbonless again. RTN has stopped and corals coming to life again.

Now in saying this, my carbon is much older and doesn't fall into the bad batch stated in this thread. Maybe Kent is just BAD!!!

Carbonless is the way to go for me.

[Casey8]

After my husband brought the bar code number home, it is a match to the bad carbon batch Kent has recalled 0029 1 gallon container :twised::twised::twised:
I don't think I would bother to make a compaint with Kent company anymore. I am done with their products from now on.

[kien]

HMMMMM.... I have Kent Reef carbon, but haven't been using it for some time (running carbonless), and my tank was making a comeback. Decided, why not put a little bit in after christmas vacation, and corals started to die. Never thought it was the carbon, but it was the only change, so took it out and I am running carbonless again. RTN has stopped and corals coming to life again.

Now in saying this, my carbon is much older and doesn't fall into the bad batch stated in this thread. Maybe Kent is just BAD!!!

Carbonless is the way to go for me.

You know, you just reminded me that I ran Kent Carbon once back in 2010. I had forgotten about that till now. It was only 1 container of Kent Carbon before I switched to ROX that I'm using now. However, while thinking back, the time I used the kent carbon may have been close to the time I had my major SPS die off in 2010 (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=548996&postcount=540) :surprise::surprise: :cry::cry:

[Borderjumper]

Thanks for posting that!

*Throws out Kent Carbon*


Yup.. I just threw mine out too!

[Borderjumper]

You know, you just reminded me that I ran Kent Carbon once back in 2010. I had forgotten about that till now. It was only 1 container of Kent Carbon before I switched to ROX that I'm using now. However, while thinking back, the time I used the kent carbon may have been close to the time I had my major SPS die off in 2010 (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=548996&postcount=540) :surprise::surprise: :cry::cry:

!!!!!!! Could be!!! And what really sucks is I see when things started declining, you put in MORE carbon!

[globaldesigns]

You know, you just reminded me that I ran Kent Carbon once back in 2010. I had forgotten about that till now. It was only 1 container of Kent Carbon before I switched to ROX that I'm using now. However, while thinking back, the time I used the kent carbon may have been close to the time I had my major SPS die off in 2010 (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=548996&postcount=540) :surprise::surprise: :cry::cry:

Yeah, who woulda thought! The past couple years of coral issues, massive die off, and loss of $$$$... And maybe it was the Kent carbon all the time. I never thought carbon would be the problem, and have used Kent almost since the begininning.

I am not even going to bother with ROX, or a higher quality brand. Carbonless seems to be working for me, and I am really tired of losing coral, so I am going to leave it as is.

[Casey8]

!!!!!!! Could be!!! And what really sucks is I see when things started declining, you put in MORE carbon!

You are right, I used to put more carbon when something happens and I thought there is a poluttant in my tank. What a stupid thing I did in the past !
So no more carbon for me like globaldesigns say.

[daniella3d]

Ok...I was not dreaming. There was no possible other reason for my tank crash.

But I do want to be refounded for the loss of some of my corals. I surely hope they will refound that. I don't know what they will do for the store owner who lost 10k in corals??

Mine is also from that bad batch. It really upset me when I think that I was trying to do the best for my reef by putting fresh carbon, and that killed my most precious corals :(

Big lesson learned, never ever use carbon that is mined ever again. I will only use things like polyfilter or similar, never use carbon again.

[kien]

!And what really sucks is I see when things started declining, you put in MORE carbon!

That's almost ironically funny.. in a sad and depressing sort of way..

[kien]

Yeah, who woulda thought! The past couple years of coral issues, massive die off, and loss of $$$$... And maybe it was the Kent carbon all the time. I never thought carbon would be the problem, and have used Kent almost since the begininning.

I am not even going to bother with ROX, or a higher quality brand. Carbonless seems to be working for me, and I am really tired of losing coral, so I am going to leave it as is.

And not necessarily Kent alone. If I recall correctly, Coral Master/Snappy had a major SPS die off event a couple of years ago as well and the only thing he recalled switching up was trying some new carbon that was on sale on Boxing Day that winter. If it can happen to Kent carbon it stands to reason that it could happen to any carbon produced in a similar fashion ?!? This would explain so much! That is, you could be using carbon happily for months or years and then just happen to dump in a bad batch out of the blue!

The one good thing that has come out of this in my mind is the fact that Kent owned up to it an explained clearly exactly how carbon could be eff'ed up! If they had not come forward to acknowledge fault we'd still be scratching our heads and would probably never think to blame carbon for our woes. Unfortunately I'm worried about all carbons now :-|

[daniella3d]

I wonder if Seachem carbon is manufactured the same way and if it run the same risk?

It is very scray and disapointing :(

The whole purpose of carbon is something we trust will remove contaminants from our tank, not to contaminate it more to the point everything die.


Unfortunately I'm worried about all carbons now :-|

[kien]

I wonder if Seachem carbon is manufactured the same way and if it run the same risk?

It is very scray and disapointing :(

The whole purpose of carbon is something we trust will remove contaminants from our tank, not to contaminate it more to the point everything die.

I don't think that it'll be easy to tell if a particular batch of carbon is good or bad :(

Another thing I'm worried about now is, once you put bad carbon into your tank, how easy would it be to get all that nasty stuff out??? It's almost like you have to flush the tank just to be sure. :cry:

[Casey8]

I don't think that i'll be easy to tell if a particular batch of carbon is good or bad :(

Another thing I'm worried about now is, once you put bad carbon into your tank, how easy would it be to get all that nasty stuff out??? It's almost like you have to flush the tank just to be sure. :cry:

No wonder my skimmer had pulled a lot of black colored in the first 2 days.

[daniella3d]

That's what I want to know. I will have my water analysed by a pro lab Thursday. I had done this analyse for heavy metal and all metal about a month ago, so I will be able to compare. We will also run carbon in a bucket and anayle that water, just to see how much of the metal could have leached.

My greatest concern is if the liverock have absorbed these heavy metal. I will now use polyfilter for a few months until my system return to total normality.

You don't have to flush the tank. I will post here my result on my tank as how far this contaminant went and how much of it still remain.

I don't think that it'll be easy to tell if a particular batch of carbon is good or bad :(

Another thing I'm worried about now is, once you put bad carbon into your tank, how easy would it be to get all that nasty stuff out??? It's almost like you have to flush the tank just to be sure. :cry:

[George]

Kent is recalling their carbon...
http://www.kentmarine.com/news/news-archive/kent-marine-reef.htm

[Lampshade]

Wow, i tried new lights..... i tried new biopellets... i tried new powerheads.... I did 100+ gallons of water changes this month... and the whole time it was my damn carbon. Well, at least this way i had an excuse to buy a whole bunch of stuff for the tank. And now i can hopefully recover most of my SPS other than the 4-5 lost colonies.

The concern is that the batch of carbon contained unusually high levels of heavy metals which have an adverse effect on stony corals and clams in marine settings.
And all this time i though carbon sucked trace minerals out of my water....

Kent carbon in the garbage, any chance of me buying Kent ANYTHING again? NEVER!

I'm running out of brands to buy stuff from... so many ways to crash a reef tank and frustrate a reefer.

[daniella3d]

Hey casey, how are your corals doing? are they coming back from the bleaching? Mine is a mixed bag. Some are improving and some seem to be going worse and bleaching still.

What is strange is that the corals are bleaching where the light does not reach, from underneat, so I am not sure if I should increase the light instead because what is exposed to light seem to be regaining a bit of color.

I really don't know what to do now. Seem the coral are missing a lot of zooxanthellae.


No wonder my skimmer had pulled a lot of black colored in the first 2 days.

[Casey8]

Hey casey, how are your corals doing? are they coming back from the bleaching? Mine is a mixed bag. Some are improving and some seem to be going worse and bleaching still.

What is strange is that the corals are bleaching where the light does not reach, from underneat, so I am not sure if I should increase the light instead because what is exposed to light seem to be regaining a bit of color.

I really don't know what to do now. Seem the coral are missing a lot of zooxanthellae.


I could say I am very lucky. All of them are slowly coming back to life, their color are getting back about half way now. At least I can easily recognize what they were before. Only one, and that is my favorite one, it seems to be struggling to survive. Most part of the coral is covered with brown algae, only 1 small branch is showing a very slight color under T5 lights. I didn't use any carbon right now even I have already switched to a new brand. I got scared from using any brand and I may just follow what some people are doing, no need for carbon in my tank for a while.
My skimmer is also getting back to normal color, it doesn't skim nasty dark color with some black small particles on the skimmer neck like last week. I felt very lucky to get this beast in time to deal with this disater.
As lampshade has said, and me too, no more Kent product for me from now on.

[Casey8]

Daniella, I have been reducing my MH lights only 2 hours a day. I used to let them run 12 hours, but now 10 hours. I am going to go back slowly to normal lighting starting next week. If you think your corals are doing better with more lights, I think you can do just like me, just slowly get back to normal.
My tank is a BB tank, I think when something goes wrong it is easier to deal with. Maybe I am wrong but that's what I thought. I can siphon the bottom of the tank many times a day if I want to, without worrying disturbing the sand bed. Water change is also easy for me too.

[daniella3d]

I think I will increase my lighting since what ever is exposed to the light seem to be doing better and coloring up faster.

If your coral are coming back and your MH is on 10 hours, I guess it is safe for mine to be on longer then.

thanks a lot :)

Daniella, I have been reducing my MH lights only 2 hours a day. I used to let them run 12 hours, but now 10 hours. I am going to go back slowly to normal lighting starting next week. If you think your corals are doing better with more lights, I think you can do just like me, just slowly get back to normal.
My tank is a BB tank, I think when something goes wrong it is easier to deal with. Maybe I am wrong but that's what I thought. I can siphon the bottom of the tank many times a day if I want to, without worrying disturbing the sand bed. Water change is also easy for me too.

[Casey8]

I think I will increase my lighting since what ever is exposed to the light seem to be doing better and coloring up faster.

If your coral are coming back and your MH is on 10 hours, I guess it is safe for mine to be on longer then.

thanks a lot :)

You're very welcome. I hope all your corals will recover soon like mine. You never know, more than half of my corals were completely bleached have no life on them, but now they are all coming back to life. I call it a MIRACLE !

[daniella3d]

I have some that have melted so there is no coming back for them and of course my photosynthetic sponges are gone too but the rest of my acroporas seem to be coming back slowly. What a mess :( My first tank crash and it's not even my fault.

You're very welcome. I hope all your corals will recover soon like mine. You never know, more than half of my corals were completely bleached have no life on them, but now they are all coming back to life. I call it a MIRACLE !

[paddyob]

Recall posted on BAs site in regards to Kent carbon.

http://www.bigalscanada.com/recalls/Central_Aquatics_KENT_Reef_Carbon_2-17-12_Retailers.pdf

[Casey8]

I have some that have melted so there is no coming back for them and of course my photosynthetic sponges are gone too but the rest of my acroporas seem to be coming back slowly. What a mess :( My first tank crash and it's not even my fault.

One thing I have learned from this crash, I will never dose anything in the same day with my water change. Luckily enough I was doing water change and changed the carbon on different days, I had a chance to suspect about the carbon and pulled it out fast enough. Even so, it took me a day and a half before I decided to turn off the reactor. If I changed that carbon on the same day, I would have never suspected it right away and may have blamed for the water polluttant or something else. I would have killed all the corals if I continued to let that carbon sit in my tank even just for one more day. My tank was look like having a snow storm all over my corals in just 2 days, most of them were completely bleached. I was devastated didn't know what was going on my tank with no clue at that time. From now on, I will dose everything like calcium, magnesium, kalwasser, etc ... that is new in the bottle or container, one at the time and wait for a reaction before dosing another. If something goes wrong at least I know right away what is the cuprit.

[daniella3d]

It's a good thing you posted here because from the beginning because that might have avoided a tank crash to other people. Was too late for us and a few others.

It's hard sometimes to pin point a crash. I suspect that this is not the first time it happen to people but just like me they were in doubt that carbon could cause this and never really did the connection to their crash due to carbon.

At least now with this story, we know for sure that carbon can be nasty and kill everything so in the future people are going to be aware of this possibility and risk.

On every new batch of Seachem carbon I will use, I now will test for copper after letting run in a bucket 24 hours.


One thing I have learned from this crash, I will never dose anything in the same day with my water change. Luckily enough I was doing water change and changed the carbon on different days, I had a chance to suspect about the carbon and pulled it out fast enough. Even so, it took me a day and a half before I decided to turn off the reactor. If I changed that carbon on the same day, I would have never suspected it right away and may have blamed for the water polluttant or something else. I would have killed all the corals if I continued to let that carbon sit in my tank even just for one more day. My tank was look like having a snow storm all over my corals in just 2 days, most of them were completely bleached. I was devastated didn't know what was going on my tank with no clue at that time. From now on, I will dose everything like calcium, magnesium, kalwasser, etc ... that is new in the bottle or container, one at the time and wait for a reaction before dosing another. If something goes wrong at least I know right away what is the cuprit.

[daniella3d]

I got the result from my water analysis.

I got my water analyzed by a professional lab and the result show an abnormal concentration for copper especially.

The column named Daniella is my current aquarium water after 7 water changes and addition of polyfilter for a few days. The colum named "charbon" (carbon) is the result of analysing the water that come from a clean food grade container that had one gallon of water with 1/4 cup of well rinsed Kent Reef carbon running for 10 hours. I had put about one cup in my aquarium.

The result of 346 ug/l translate to .346 mg/l of copper, way too much and the reason why my corals died and bleached.

I guess this proof that more carbon than what they have in their recall list is affected since the expiration date on my container is EX21NO14, which is not in the list.

Magnaneese and kicket released is also a bit high with this carbon, but it is the copper that is to blame for the coral death. I am going to send a sample of the carbon and this lab result to Kent tomorrow.

http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy143/daniella3ds/carbon.jpg

[christyf5]

Wow, that is crazy! I'm gonna try this test for fun with my carbon and my copper test kit.

[Casey8]

It's a good thing you posted here because from the beginning because that might have avoided a tank crash to other people. Was too late for us and a few others.

It's hard sometimes to pin point a crash. I suspect that this is not the first time it happen to people but just like me they were in doubt that carbon could cause this and never really did the connection to their crash due to carbon.

At least now with this story, we know for sure that carbon can be nasty and kill everything so in the future people are going to be aware of this possibility and risk.

On every new batch of Seachem carbon I will use, I now will test for copper after letting run in a bucket 24 hours.

Good thing Kent has recalled their carbon in a week after our crash, if not people here may think I and Daniella are crazy !

[Casey8]

Daniella, I wish you all the best. Hope they will compensate you for your loss, not just saying "sorry for INCONVENIENCE".
My corals are recovering, but I could have claimed about my depression in the last couple weeks dealing with the corals too. But I have enough other problems to deal with my job right now, so I have to pass on it.