Does carbon bleach your corals ? (Kent carbon recall)

[paddyob]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

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.

Originally Posted by paddyob

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.

Originally Posted by 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!

[paddyob]

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

Originally Posted by 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.

[Casey8]

Originally Posted by 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!

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 !!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
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]

Originally Posted by Casey8

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 !!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
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]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

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.