Warning- bad carbon will kill
 

I just wanted to give a warning out to any of you that bought "HBH" brand "AQUA-PURE" carbon on a Boxing day sale to not use it. It is contaminated with metals and has been very detrimental to my reef. Unfortunately I ran it for a month with it leaching into my system before I figured it out. Any of you that were at the frag meet would have witnessed some of the damage it was causing to my corals. I thought it was a potassium over dose but I now believe this stuff is my real problem. Here is what I found when I checked my media bags. $30 for a case seems like a good deal until it kills a thousand bucks worth of corals. As usual - you get what you pay for-

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...2mediabags.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...on007rust1.jpg

Here's a few pieces I took out for inspection. RUST = METAL! YIKES!
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...on001rust2.jpg

OMG Greg!!! :eek: I've been watching your thread on RC with great anticipation, here I thought it was going to be water chemistry (I was guessing alkalinity) but for it to be in your carbon?! That just isn't right. I hope you send them a nasty email!!!

All my parameters are bang on:
ca- 435
alk -8
Mag -1380
Sg -1.026
PH - 8.1 - 8.45
etc.
That is why it was so hard to figure out.
It's been a real head ache and very costly and has set my reef back big time. At least I now know the problem. I should have known better than to by cheap carbon. I'm hoping things recover quickly.

Well I don't think that brand of carbon is usually all that cheap pricewise but I certainly don't think its one of the better carbons to begin with. I am a stickler about stuff in my tank after more than a few issues, but that is a pretty steep learning curve as you've already experienced. But I think you said it was $30 for a case? Thats enough to tempt anyone :wink:

WHHHATTT!!! Greg If I were you I would be having one nasty phone call with the customer service department. Thank you for the heads up though, I will never use product from that company again. (I really hope everything perks back up for you, do you have any plans to pull the metals out of your water?)
Levi

Greg, I don't know if you've ever tried polyfilters/polypads? I've had success with them before, you might want to look into getting some to remove the metals in your water.

Heres a link to them, maybe you can find them locally:

http://oceanaquatics.com/store/produ...7/Poly-Filter/

Before you throw it all out, run a magnet through it. If any sticks take a picture and email it to the company.

This stuff might work as well...

http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/sc...r+-+500ml.html

Chris

That's pretty nasty. Hopefully you found the source and not the cure, I know carbon isn't very effective at removing iron and other heavy metals but it does does remove small amounts. Is it possible you have an iron overdose somehow? Did you test for iron?

If you have some unused carbon remaining from the batch you could soak it in RO water and test for iron.

can you send me a pm letting me know where you got it just in case , i don't want you to say it openly unless your ok with it.

Thanks
Josh